2008 Competition Launched!

Use your creative skills to help save the lives of millions of animals killed every year for their fur.  If you are a student resident or studying in the UK or Ireland then please enter the Design Against Fur 2008 competition.

The Competition
Design Against Fur is the poster design competition with a conscience. Design a creative, effective poster and send an important, compassionate message that it is cruel and unnecessary to raise and kill beautiful innocent animals for their fur.

The contest is open to students of fashion, design, fine arts, advertising, marketing, graphic design and multi-media in colleges around the world.  There are cash prizes and all winners and commended students will receive certificates for their portfolios.

The competition will take place in two phases: winners of this, the UK and Republic of Ireland regional competition, will go forward to an international competition, where their work will be judged alongside the winners from four other regional rounds (Europe & International, Russia and the US).  The winners’ work will also be entered into the People’s Choice Award, where the public is invited to choose their favourite design.

The work from the top three winners plus ten specially commended and fifteen commended students from each of the regional rounds will be featured on the Design Against Fur website for at least twelve months and may also be featured in press and campaign materials.

Brief
Design an advertising campaign poster that conveys the message that the wearing of real fur is cruel and unnecessary.
Any wording or slogan and imagery used is your choice.
Your target audience is fashion conscious men and women aged 18-30.

Facts & figures
Around the world, one fur-bearing animal dies every second; over 50 million animals die every year for their fur, merely to satisfy the whims of fashion.

Often a large number of animals (e.g. 60 mink or 100 hamsters) are killed to make one garment. Fur trim is not the ‘leftovers’ from making full length fur coats: more animals are killed to make fur trim than for full-length fur coats. This is because there is a larger market for fur collars than fur coats.

Fur is not a by-product of the meat industry - fur-bearing animals are factory farmed or trapped in the wild.

Both methods of production are barbaric and the UK public has long recognised this. Opinion polls conducted over the last 10 years have consistently shown that more than 70% of people here reject fur and only 4% own anything made from real fur.

Yet world-wide the story is very different.  Many people allow this barbarity to continue by buying and wearing real fur.  Well-known fashion designers still use large amounts of fur in their designs, and a number of international celebrities continue to promote fur and wear the skins of these slaughtered animals. 

Fur is used for coats and as trim on boots, jackets, accessories, etc. and is available on high streets around the world.

Requirements
The poster visualises that the buying and wearing of real fur from fur-bearing animals is cruel and unnecessary. How that is done is up to the student.

The poster must include the Respect for Animals and Fur Free Alliance logos (see below)

Objectives
To raise awareness and public outrage as part of a campaign to dispel the myth that fur is in anyway glamorous or sexy. Fur used in fashion is the result of a sordid, short life and death of a beautiful animal.  The wearing of fur is cruel and unnecessary.

To provide compelling public materials that will help convince the public not to buy or wear fur

We want fur promoting designers, consumers, retailers and celebrities to take responsibility for allowing the production of, and trade in, fur products to continue

The Prizes
A panel of judges will select winning entries from the United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland.

First Prize: £500 Cash + certificate
Second Prize: £250 Cash + certificate
Third Prize: £100 Cash + certificate

10 entrants will also receive certificates of special commendation from the judges
15 entrants will receive certificates of commendation from the judges
In addition, one design will be chosen for the Persula Foundation Award

The finalists will be invited to receive their awards at a ceremony in London and will automatically be entered in the international competition to select a Grand Prize Winner and the new web based People’s Choice Award. 

The top three winners will also have their details and work submitted to the D&AD talentpool - http://www.dandad.org/education/talentpool.html

Submission information
To obtain a registration number please complete and return the attached registration form to Respect for Animals by 11 April 2008. Your registration number will be emailed to you.

Supply your artwork, clearly labeled with your name and registration number to Respect for Animals by 25 April 2008.  You should supply:

A cd containing:
a print-ready Acrobat PDF file of your poster
a jpg version of your poster

A hard copy (paper) colour print out of the poster, no larger than A3 plus an A4 colour copy

Note: all jpg files should be approx 12x16cm at 300dpi - with each file no larger than 5mb.  Remember to embed fonts and distil as press optimized, camera-ready (do not down sample graphics). The logos can be downloaded here RESPECT_FFA_logo.pdf or by contacting Respect for Animals on 0115 952 5440 or by email: designagainstfur@respectforanimals.org

If you have any queries regarding the technical specifications don’t be put off! - please contact us.

Entries are to be securely and appropriately packaged and sent to Respect for Animals, PO Box 6500, Nottingham NG4 3GB by Royal Mail.  If you wish to send by courier please contact us for more information.

Deadlines
Until 11 April 2008 - student registration: send in registration form to receive registration number

11 April 2008 - registration closes

25 April 2008 - deadline for receipt of competition entries

11 July 2008 - judging

14 July 2008 - announcement of winners

15 September 2008 - Prize presentation, Dreamspace Gallery, London.

Facts About Fur
It is the demand for fur products that allows over 50 million animals every year to be factory farmed or trapped in the wild for their fur. We want the public to be aware that the pain and suffering inflicted on these animals is wrong, that designing in fur, promoting and wearing fur is morally unacceptable to the majority of the public.  Compassionate people would not allow the blood of a beautiful animal on their hands, or their consciences.

Whether an animal is trapped in the wild, raised in factory farms or slaughtered on the ice, extreme suffering is inflicted on animals for a frivolous product and industry.

Around the world millions of animals are reared in intensive factory farming style units, housed in row after row of tiny barren cages. They spend their entire lives in small, filthy cages, madly pacing back and forth out of stress and boredom. Cannibalism is often the grim reality of this psychological distress. After their first moult, at around 7 months of age, they are slaughtered, most by anal electrocution or gassing.  Mink and Arctic fox are the main species bred in fur factory farms, others include red fox, sable, coypu, chinchilla and rabbit.  It is estimated that 2 million domestic cats and dogs are bred and killed annually for their fur, mostly in China.

Animals are also caught in the wild, in barbaric steel-jawed leg-hold traps - the main method still used to catch wild animals for their fur.  Beaver, coyote, lynx, otter, squirrel, muskrat, marten, raccoon are the main species caught in the wild, others include fox, mink, ermine, wolf and bobcat. They are caught in the wild with snares, leg-hold and conibear traps and endure excruciating pain. Death can take days. In a desperate attempt to escape, many try to chew their limbs off. When the trapper returns, the animal will be stamped, clubbed or shot to death if they are still alive. Others die of thirst or infection or become prey to other animals. The traps are indiscriminate and often non-targeted animals are caught, and deemed as “trash”, even though they may be members of endangered species or people’s pets.

China’s fur farms now produce 80% of the world’s fur pelts. As there are no animal welfare laws in China, foreign and national investigators have documented unimaginable acts of cruelty to animals. Two million dogs and cats meet an agonizing and painful death to have their pelts turned into full length coats, fur trim and cheap trinkets in just China alone.

Scientists, veterinarians and animal welfare experts regularly condemn the keeping of animals in intensive fur farming conditions; condemn the methods of slaughter; and condemn the use of steel-jawed leg-hold traps for trapping wild animals.

The UK government has outlawed fur farming and steel jawed leg-hold traps, other countries around the world are considering taking similar action. The European Union is currently reviewing its fur farming regulations. Fur farming continues to be legal in the Republic of Ireland.

High profile designers who have pledged not to use fur include Stella McCartney, Frost French and Katharine E Hamnett. Topshop, Marks & Spencer, Zara and H&M have anti-fur policies and will not sell fur products in their shops. Liberty, Selfridges and Harvey Nichols no longer stock fur.

Some websites that campaign against fur and the fur trade:

http://www.respectforanimals.org
http://www.inFURmation.com
http://www.furfreeaction.com
http://www.hsus.org
http://www.api.org
http://www.banCruelTraps.com
http://www.animal-protection.net
http://www.gan.ca
http://www.bontvoordieren.nl/english

Some websites about fur farming and fur products:

http://www.iftf.com
http://www.fur-style.com
http://www.britishfur.co.uk

To download the registration form please click here DAF2008_UKIRE_REG_FORM.pdf

The competiton brief as above can be downloaded here DAF2008_UKIRE_BRIEF.pdf

The logo which must appear on all entries can be downloaded here RESPECT_FFA_logo.pdf

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