I have been working from home for the past several months due to having to quit my job before multiple deaths in my family. Anyway, I have been making a good bit designing on crowdsourcing sites like 99Designs, CrowdSpring and even DesignCrowd.
I thought it might be helpful to let aspiring designers out there know what this semi-new wave of designing is all about. It might also help Contest Holders understand a designers view towards the process.
I have been using 99Designs and CrowdSpring off and on for about 3 years now. First off, at first I didn't really get it. I figured, I'm designing for free unless I win (yeah right), so I would just throw something out there. Needless to say I didn't win many contests. The longer I used the sites though, the easier it got to interpret design briefs, read CH's minds and I got better at designing. One day I entered a web design contest on CrowdSpring. I worked on the design for at least 3 days. I loved trying to get the design just right. Boom, I won the $1000.00 contest.
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| TastyCatch website design |
This was a big revelation to me. I had to get just the perfect design before submitting and I had to love what I was designing. No more generic home builder, dentist, "green," or generic bubble people designs for me. I asked myself what kind of designs I loved, and I realized I love vintage. So I started entering only contest's that desired that type of look. Once again over time, I got better and better.
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| A winning website logo design |
Surprisingly, I also discovered that I did a pretty good job at masculine styled designs also. Woodworkers, electricians, fishing guides, etc. Over time, my style has evolved into something they now call modern vintage. At this time, I seem to really be doing well with liquor designs for some reason :-) I have also gotten really good at creating original fonts. Who knew? Anyway, there are some things I feel everyone reading this should know about Crowdsourcing.
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| Winning Beer Store Logo |
Forget about DesignCrowd or any of the wanna-be Crowdsourcing sites that charge the designer for winning. You are already designing for free, why should you pay to win? Be very careful what sites you sign up for. Read the fine print. If you still want to sign up with one of these sites, be sure to enter contests that will pay you for your time. No $65.00 - a 10% surcharge for winning a business card design, unless you only make $2.00/hr of course.
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| Winning clothing store design - note vintage style |
I have pretty much limited myself to 99Designs and CrowdSpring at this point. CrowdSpring is definitely my last choice, and I only go there when I don't see anything interesting on 99Designs. I don't like CrowdSpring's outdated, only sometimes working website. Their CH's seem to be less inclined to give feedback and face it, 2 weeks to 10 days is too long a time to run a contest. I get bored with it after 3 days, and usually a CH gets tired of rating and commenting after the first hour of a contest. The one good thing about CrowdSpring is that they hide the star ratings from the other designers, which is kind of easy to figure out after watching a contest closely and seeing how the star ratings are going after a few entries.
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| Winning masculine styled vintage design |
99Designs on the other hand has the failing (or in a new designers eyes, plus), that they show all the star ratings of designs on an open contest. As soon as a design gets a high star rating, out come the copycats in droves. I do like their 4 day entry time, moving to 4 days working with just selected finalists. For good CH's, that is plenty of time. I have noticed a new trend in some CH's on 99Designs which I really like. When a new Contest Holder starts a contest on 99Designs, they are not allowed to make their contest blind. So instead, some of them are choosing to not give ratings, but give feedback only instead. I really like this. It works really well, next to having the contest blind.
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| Winning vintage beverage company logo design |
A lot of new designers are asking, why would you want to enter a blind contest? Well, by entering a blind contest, you have nothing to lose. Either the CH likes your design or not. If they do, others can't see your design and steal it. If they don't like it, no one sees the entry but you and the CH. It's a win-win for everyone. Of course in the case of a CH in a blind contest who is not rating your design or giving you feedback, it is best to just withdraw and call it a day. Face it, who wants to work with someone who can't be bothered to at least comment on your effort. I don't. And for you CH's out there, a "." comment doesn't count. It might count for 99Designs and CrowdSpring as a comment, but for me it means F*@! Off. I will withdraw every time I get this crap.
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| Winning modern vintage styled design |
One thing I think everyone should know is they should not share the country they are from. I have noticed, particularly among the Aussies, they don't like "Yanks" much. Unless you are from a very poor third world country where you might get a "sympathy" pass, leave this information out of your profile. On second thought maybe I should update my profile to say I'm from Africa :-) Just kidding!
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| Winning modern vintage peanut logo |
CH's, pay attention to this part. First, a designer's time is just as precious as yours. Second, a designer on a crowdsourcing site is basically working for free unless they win. This means you owe them the respect of at least commenting or eliminating their design. I have yet to see a successful contest end after a CH made no comments and/or gave no ratings. That tells me they are basically wasting everyone's time. Why they would want to do this, I don't know, but face it there are sickos out there. Maybe they are closet psychopath's.
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| Another winning vintage styled liquor store logo design |
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| A winning wine bar logo design |
Also, I had one recent contest, that just burned me up. Literally. First I was invited to the contest, which I should have known not to enter, because the brief was too vague. I made the mistake of entering anyway after the CH asked me multiple times, gushing about my design abilities. They wanted a logo design for a wedding jewelry company that was totally original and would blow them away. What it should look like, they never said. I worked on that design for days, changing, moving redoing, with nothing more than a terse, too much like a tattoo, or too busy. When I asked for examples, I was told something similar to a design I had done in the past, but looked nothing like what they were rating highly. Needless to say, I did not win that contest, and they ended up with a design that looked like 100's of other wedding jewelry logo designs. What a waste of my time. I wanted to ask the nitwit, if a customer walked into her store asking them to design a wedding piece that they had no idea what it should look like, then just say, "No, start over, I still don't know what I want, but this isn't it, " after hours of work, how she would feel. Whatever. That was a good learning lesson for me. If the brief doesn't feel right, go with your instincts and sit it out.
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| Loser! |
Anyway, it is possible to win once in a while, and I have been winning here and there. It still is a huge learning process and I am definitely a better designer because of it. All I can say at this point is, "Good Luck!"
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