Chris Brogan got a bunch of people’s panties in a twist last week.
He blogged about a logo design project he created on a site called 99Designs to crowd source a new logo design.
99Designs is a godsend to businesspeople on a budget, but it’s an evil abomination to designers trying to make a fair wage for their skill and years of experience. Let’s say I need a logo. I create a project on the site (it’s called a “contest”), set my budget (the “prize”), and designers will submit their design concepts. Anyone who wants to submit a concept can do so. The project owner will then select the winning concept, and award the prize to the winner.
I saw a $795 for a learning portal redesign, an $888 contest for an eBay template design, and the highest project of $2,225 for a web redesign. But most of the prizes rolled in around $295 – $350.
$350 for a professionally made logo design.
Tell a real graphic designer about this, and she’s going to work herself up into a good frothing rant about the cheapness of business people and how hack designers cheapen the entire industry by shortchanging themselves.
“Any twit with Photoshop Elements and a weekend seminar under their belt thinks suddenly they’re a graphic designer,” she’ll shout, followed by the obligatory “you get what you pay for,” and rolling her eyes so far back in her head, she can see her entire third grade year.
Brogan’s post unearthed lovers and haters of 99Designs. The designers all hated it, except for the ones who were still learning the keyboard shortcuts for their copy of Elements. The businesspeople all loved it, because, hey, $350 logo.
Their argument falls along the lines of “if someone’s willing to accept a low bid, then I’m stupid for not taking it. No one is forcing them to accept these projects.”
I think 99Designs is dangerous, and urge any decent graphic designer to avoid it. (The sucky ones should stay with it though.) But since the businesspeople seem to think it’s an acceptable model, I wonder if they’re willing to try it out for themselves.
Using the Crowdsourcing Model For Business
- My company needs a social media campaign. I would like you to write up a strategy, set up some social media accounts, build each of them out to about 5,000 people, and then let me see your work. If I like your strategy, and if I like the people you added to the accounts, I’ll pay you $500.You’ll be competing against other social media strategists, like Jason Falls, Tara Strong, and Scott Stratten. The winning bid will get $500, while the losing bids will go away empty handed, with nothing to show except some social networks they spent 7 – 10 hours to create and grow.
- I want to hire a landscaping company to mow my lawn every week. I need each interested company to cut my lawn once, and whoever does the best job will get the winning contract for the rest of the summer, at $15 per week. I’m offering that much, because that’s how much the kid down the street offered.
- I’d also like my house redecorated, but I need to do it on spec. Any interested designer should be willing to redecorate one room of my house. If I pick your design, you’ll get $1,000 to do the entire house. I figure, I’ve seen the home redecorating shows on HGTV, and it doesn’t seem that hard, I just don’t have the time to do it.
I get both sides of this argument. I really do. But my heart lies firmly in one camp: the creative side.
I’m a business owner, but I’m also a creative type. When I write something, I get paid for it. I don’t have the time to do anything on spec, because I’ve grown beyond the need for possibilities of payment and “exposure.” The time I spend writing on spec is the same time I could be using to write for pay.
I think asking designers to submit themselves to this kind of creative minimum wage is heinous, because we would never ask a businessperson to do it. You would never write a full-blown social media campaign and start executing it for the possibility of $500. You would never cut a lawn, decorate a room, or fix my car for free, just in the hopes that I might hire you. I would never ask a business owner to do this because they’re in business to make money.
Just like graphic designers.
If you don’t have a budget, that’s fine. Go hire a college student who’s still finishing his or her graphic design degree. Barter your product or services, or do it yourself for free. But don’t ask for spec work. It cheapens the industry, but it makes you look cheaper.
About Erik Deckers
Personally, I am quite on the fence regarding the use of a crowdsourcing site for a logo design. It is still a touchy issue for most designers who said that crowdsourcing is a no-no for obtaining a logo design. I have tried crowdsourcing before and I know the risks involved but it comes within the territory. But there are other no-frills logo design websites online such as http://www.logobee.com, http://www.logodesignstation.com, logoyes.com, etc. which are actually great in getting a professional logo design at a fraction of the price and minus the risks of crowdsourcing (plagiarism is one of them). Seeing that there are no consultation services, the price is significantly lower than that of conventional design firms. For instance, I have tried http://www.logodesignstation.com and the experience was indeed a positive one. I managed to get my business logo design at an affordable price and the turnaround time was great as well. Highly recommended. Although crowdsourcing for logo designs could be a bane for some, many find it to be a viable alternative to get a fast logo on the cheap. It all depends on the individual actually.
Quite often I feel too much of my time has been given to perusing the Internet, mostly emails from the several locales, including this one and Smaller Indiana, to which I chose to opt-in. However, postings such as today’s from Erik allows me to deduce this reading allows my time to be an invetment as opposed to a waste and leaves me comfortable in seeing the ROI.
The same goes for Blake’s followup comment.regarding seeking out local talent and services. I hold an absolute passion for support of locally OWNED/OPERATED businesses and professional services. Admittedly much of my resoluteness in avoiding WalMart, K-Mart, Menard’s,Home Depot and Best Buy etc. is based in having run a Chamber of Commercre in a county seat city of 10,000 located a mere hour’s drive from the largest city in the state. It is my hope, my intention wholeheartedly, to provide education to the public as to how money spent on goods and services LOCALLY as opposed to a chain operation provides untold more benefits to the local community. PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR HOUSE IS!!!
I view chain stores the same as Wall Street unethicals who brought us to the brink of financial disaster. They are driven by personal gain while sounding like a worn politician in mouthing how much they are looking out for us etc. The bottom line to this is that the United States largest division of citizen’s is not lodged in racial differences and biases as much as it is rooted in the economical disadvantages. Much study has shown a WalMart’s promises of jobs to the community provides a net loss when the loss of jobs and other factors from smaller businesses being shuttered is measured. Most generally a locally owned business outperforms the chain store in wages and benefits.
My blog on this subject will soon be launched and, with attribution to you both, I assuredly will mold your thoughts into my blogs.
Politically speaking I strongly believe the entrenchment of the old guard the past 50 years has us feeling overall we are mired in an indebted quagmire that may never be reversed and an even smaller chance of being resolved. How would we be viewed as heads of family if we ran our own homes in the manner of Washington, D.C.? But show me a two-term Congressman who has not returned home wealthier than when first elected and with retirement benefits unimaginable to the Johnny Lunchbuckets of America. Yes I intend to vote against every incumbent in every position on the ballot this year, and two years from now and two years after that.
What that to do with supporting and sustaining local artists, craftsmen, business and professional services?
For starters consider the profits of chains sent out of state while accepting that LOCALLY OWNED entities reinvest profits here at home. Quick…how many Indiana-based financial institutions can you name? And only pennies of the Federal bank bailout monies have been made available as loans to small business.
Who really wins when the city and state provide those tax breaks and special financing to out of town businesses? The net employment figure is most often a LOSS of jobs for local citizens along with the loss of property taxes. Last point on this: what is the community left with when the sweet deal given the outsiders runs out and the chain follows the shift in upper-end popolation, boards up the cinder-block monster hailed 20 years previous as the Taj Mahal of shopping and erects yet another and even bigger structure on up the road. Quite often the new facility is not placed foremost for profitability in earned sales; it may likely be very close to another of their stores with the intent being to “squeeze” even more local businesses out of the grid of consumer choices.
Don’t get me started on this again with similar postings of your’s guys…I’ve got reams more to provide you in forthcoming installments.
Meantime we’ve got starving webdeveloper’s and graphic designers to think about. Richt here in our town Indy.
I heard about this site from a respected colleague. I tried it. I submitted a great poster design for a movie. I was told by the company, my design was in the top three. I was asked for revisions. I did them. With a day left on the contest, the company re-opened the contest to everyone. I withdrew my submission and closed my account.The local economy cannot compete with “free” services. Buying local, dining local and shopping local means turning to your business neighbors and recognizing their brilliance and investing in them. This begins the reciprical circle.