Why you should crowdsource your logo

16 reasons why design crowdsourcing is the coolest thing evah!

I’ve generally spoken out against design contests as being exploitative, a poor way to obtain decent design, a cesspool of copyright infringement, bad for business and generally harmful for the design profession, especially when it comes to being accepted as, well, a profession. Now I’m proud to confess, I’ve finally seen the light. Yep, I’ve decided that the acceptance of design contests – sorry, crowdsourcing – is exactly what the design profession needs to shed the ’snooty’ label that Forbes, the grass roots champion of the undertrodden, so accurately gave it. In fact, I thought I’d spend some time detailing my new position, as well as the awesome benefits of spec work – sorry, crowdsourcing – when it comes to doing what designers do. Namely, designing stuff. So, without further ado, here’s 16 reasons why you should crowdsource your next logo design project:

#1 – You get to choose from unoriginal ideas too. Which is all sorts of awesome

Designers, all of whom don’t understand that originality in logo design is such a antiquated concept, are always going on about copied work in design contests. Sure, entrants sometimes borrow work from other designers, or other companies, but so what? It’s the final design that’s important. Who cares where it comes from? And if that logo is successful for another company, it’ll work for you too. Sometimes ‘creatives’ submitting logos to design contests use istock illustrations, photographs and other clip art. Many will tell you that istock artwork is never licensed for logos. Something about copyright or something. Which is kinda true, but have no fear – the people who own these design contest sites know every single piece of stock artwork that’s ever been made. Ever. And the minute an istock image shows up in any design contest, they’ll quickly withdraw it, so you don’t have to worry about trifling matters like copyright law. In fact, they’ll try to do it without you noticing, so that you’re not distracted from the task at hand. Selecting your logo. And when ‘creatives’ submit a logo to your contest that includes a stock image that you could download for a few dollars yourself, it has no bearing on the value you’re getting from holding your contest. Even though you have to pay extra for the clip art. If it was legal. Which it’s not. Never mind that almost half of the concepts that you’re choosing get quietly withdrawn because they might be against somebody’s snooty rules. It’s all about your experience. And working with such an ‘awesome community’.

In a completely unrelated subject – you shouldn’t worry too much about the wordy legal disclaimers on contest sites that tell you they’re not responsible should you buy a logo that’s been copied from somebody else. Or that the people submitting your logos don’t work for, represent or even have any legal relationship with the company that actually took your money. Just standard legal stuff that follows the “covering our ass” principle. And if you do have issues, it’ll be real easy to track down IdesignSTUFF4U in Karachi, Pakistan who’ll promptly fix things up peachy-keen and take responsibility for entering a ripped design. Two years ago. For three hundred bucks. On a contest site belonging to a company that he never worked for.

#2 – There’s nothing wrong with copied logos. You’ll be out of business in 3 years anyway

Here’s some fun facts. Some businesses won’t last six months. Almost half of all businesses fail in three years. Spec sites are counting on it. Like all things with design contests, this works in your favor. If there are problems with the logo you finally picked, your company will probably be belly-up anyway, so the last thing you’ll be worrying about is whether your logo is unique or not. In fact, being bankrupt is probably a cool position to be, should those troublesome IP lawyers show up. You won’t have anything else to take. Almost like the contest site owners are doing you a favor by creating a service where copied logos are a real possibility.

Besides, it’s unlikely that the person your logo was pinched from will ever find out – the internet is dreadful for finding out information about other companies. Here’s the best part – you’ll probably not know that your spiffy new logo’s been ripped off either, which works out to your benefit. When you get a cease and desist letter a few years from now, simply tell the nice lawyer that you didn’t know you were infringing on someone else’s trademark or copyright. I’m pretty sure than ignorance of the law is a pretty solid defense, and like most IP lawyers, they’ll be sure to understand. Besides, if you have to change your logo years from now, because the original owner or their lawyer are the unreasonable sort, it won’t cost much to replace all your stationery, brochures, website, mailers, staff-shirts, vehicle wraps, signage, etc. You can simply start again.

#3 – More is always better. And competition is good

Nobody would love spam e-mail if there wasn’t so much of it. If you weren’t inundated with hundreds of spams a day, you’d feel you weren’t getting the best spam. The one spam that’s right for you. You’d sit at your monitor, wishing that whoever sends spam, would send you just a few more to choose from. Same idea when it comes to crowdsourcing and design contests. More is better. Hundreds of designy goodness. More. More. More. Granted, most of the proposals aren’t very good, some aren’t original, and you usually have to wait until the better designers submit their stuff right before the contest closes. It’s not that they don’t like sharing design ideas and concepts with other ‘creatives’ to copy and use in their submissions. They’re just shy. There’s also the last minute posters, digging the ‘community’ vibe, who take the best ideas from the earlier entrants, and work them into their own unoriginal ideas. Right at the last minute. Designers on contest sites love to assist each other like this, and even have cute terms for it – ‘lurking’ and ’sniping’. It’s such a beloved activity that every ‘creative’ wants to be known as a ‘contest sniper’ or a ‘lurker’. It this kind of awesome co-operation that insures you get lots and lots of unique designs to choose from. In fact, competiting viscously against each other is one of the basic tenents of crowdsourcing.

It’s not about the quality of the concepts, but how many you get to discard before you make that final choice come contest close. Everyone knows that having 70 really bad, 10 okay and 3 good designs to choose from is really critical to the success of any logo. This is really important to the site owners too, cause if you don’t get twenty five designs to choose from, you can have your money back. Cool, huh? Just in case you’re a little shy in total entries, the helpful souls that own the site will always prompt their ‘community’ to hit you up with just enough submissions to get you over the 25 design hump. Yay! Then you’re obliged to buy one, even if you don’t like any of them, because you’re over the ‘25 designs or money back’ guarantee. But that’s okay, cause you got more. For less. And if getting twenty five designs that you positively hate, before having to settle on one that’s okay, isn’t what design is all about, I don’t know what is.

#4 – You get lots of stuff from designers who aren’t getting paid anything

Elitist designers keep going on about getting paid for their time. Why should anyone who does what they love get paid? Designers chose to attend college, university and night courses. They chose to spend thousands of hours getting good at design. Look at other fields – doctors, dentists, accountants, book-keepers, mechanics, bricklayers, lawyers, sales clerks, bartenders, waiters, chefs and the french fry cook at McDonald’s. They don’t get paid for doing what they love, so why should designers? Besides, design isn’t really a ‘job’ anyway – more of a glorified hobby. Most people complaining about design contests would design stuff anyway, so why they don’t just shut up and design stuff for free. For design contest companies. To sell to you. Design works something like this – the longer someone works at designing logos and stuff, the better they get. Experienced designers are more likely to submit stuff to design contests, cause they’ve being designing for a long time they must really, really love doing it. And as people on design contests aren’t getting paid, it would makes sense that only people that really love design are entering. And that would be experienced designers. This, by the way, is called mobius strip logic. Which is used a lot to explain why design contests are so cool.

Besides, if you find a logo you like, the winning designer gets paid a prize. Everyone loves prizes. And the rest of the designers who don’t win, and don’t get paid for presenting those dozens of logo concepts to you, are happy that they’re practicing their design skills. Cause they’re getting better and better, and someday, once they’ve entered a couple of hundred design contests, they’ll come close to winning a prize too. And then everyone will be happy. Cause everyone loves nearly winning a prize. Almost as much as winning one.

#5 – Having your logo designed in a public forum is awesome

Used to be that companies hid their new logos till the right moment. They didn’t want competitors knowing what they were up to or what direction their brand was taking. At least before copyright and trademark protections were in place. Designers had to sign non-disclosure agreements and what not. Old fashioned thinking that, because having your logo designed step-by-step on a public forum is awesome. Not only do you help the crowdsourcing website get lots of pages listed in Google, which helps them sell more design contests, but people can actually find your contest when they search for your company name. How awesome is that? Then your competitors can find out what you’re up to in the branding department, how your ideas developed and that rather than hiring a professional agency to design your logo, you were smart enough to use a design contest with all the positive vibe that goes along with that. Being the helpful sort, you probably won’t mind sharing the design ideas presented to you with half the world either. And if they read that verbal skirmish you had with the designer that posted absolute crap, and he called you a pinhead when you told him so, your competitors and customers are sure to understand you were only trying to help the young designer further their career. Must admit I’m a little confused about having to pay a huge premium in order to hold ‘private’ contests that “veil the submissions, so as not to tip off the competition”. Seems like charging extra to do the things the old-fashioned way, which snooty establishment designers are already doing for less, so I’ll have to get back to you on that.

#6 – Work on your design with anonymous people who might not be designers

Used to be that you only had the choice or working with experienced designers who knew how to design. Now you can work with people who don’t know how to design stuff as well. That’s cool right? Democratization of design and all that. And look at that – it’s all anonymous too. Here’s how it used to go down – design firms interviewed people to make sure they’re qualified, talented and have the necessary skills to create original ideas for their clients. Freelancers spend years learning their craft, taking courses, some even working for aforementioned design firms, learning about professional aspects of design. Reputations and names where on the line, so designers and firms are always mindful of producing quality work, using skills they’d picked up over the years. Thankfully, design contest sites have eschewed these snooty formalities completely. Anyone with an e-mail account can sign up for the ‘community’ – professional designers, out of work designers, desperate designers, students, grannies, janitors, teenagers, people looking to make a quick buck, people who know nothing about design, mental patients and shut-ins. In a concept that’s brimming over with awesome, this is bonus awesomeness. And rather than having names and company reputations on the line, these ‘community of ‘creatives’ go by cute anonymous handles and usernames, so you don’t know who they really are, or where they’re from. Which is cool, cause nobody really needs to know who’s behind the creation of their logo. Which is probably why all these sites all have wordy legal disclaimers telling you that they’re not responsible for anything their ‘community’ does, produces or submits to your contest, even though they took your money. Which is how designing important stuff should always have been.

#7 – Anyone with design software can design. Anything

It used to be that people who wanted to be designers needed to know about design. Things like balance and imagery and kerning. They needed to know about aspect ratios and how to draw. How to set things up for print. Not any more. There’s design software that does it all. Anyone can use design software. It’s simply a matter of double clicking on the Adobe icon on their desktop. Sure there’s menus and toolbars and stuff, but those are only put there by the software companies to look smart. There’s probably a ‘make a cool logo’ button somewhere. Shift F8 or soemthing. I do know there’s really cool gradients, blends, drop shadows, bevel and lens flare filters that anyone can use – and we all know that these are the most important features of any logo. And while snooty designers will rant about things like vectors, EPS, AI, CMYK, resolution, overprint, color saturation and other ridiculous notions about file formats, we all know it’s not about the medium, man. It’s about the design. Which is just as well, cause design contest sites, being busy selling other design contests, don’t like to get involved in the file-prep end of your contest. That’s between you and the designer who doesn’t work for, represent, or is legally attached in any way to the company that you paid money to have your logo designed. And there’s no way that can go wrong.

#8 – Sophisticated design software only costs a little bit of money. If any

Snooty designers will tell you that design software costs lots of money and takes lots of time to master. As we’ve established, designers love to design. So why should you care if it takes them a couple of years, to learn how to use Illustrator or Photoshop correctly? While it used to be true that design firms and designers had to pay for licensed software, nowadays they don’t have to pay if they don’t want to. If they do, they’re just not getting with the program (heh – I made a pun). There’s always free 30-day trials of most popular design software. And if that 30 days isn’t long enough to learn how to use Adobe’s latest, and crank out your logo before the trial (and your design contest) expires, they can always download hacked versions from Warez sites for free. And while they’re downloading free copies of Illustrator, they can also download free hacked fonts and stuff, which they can then use in your nifty new logo. I don’t think Adobe and font developers are too cool with this free downloading stuff, but they’re more interested in creating a new version of their software to really care too much. And if designers get caught using pirated software (a judgemental phrase if I ever heard one) they can simply claim ignorance, cause most people don’t know that using hacked software is against the law.

#9 – Entering your logo contest gives a designer exposure. Which is awesome

Only the most jaded designer is going to submit logos to your contest in order to win money. Most are quite happy paying off student loans, paying their rent and groceries from the paycheck they get from their other job at the drug store. What they’re really after in design contests is exposure. Lots and lots of exposure. Most designers are thrilled just to enter this or that contest. It’s a bonus if they actually win, which they probably won’t, and their logo gets printed half way around the world. That’s exposure man. Most designers, professional ones anyway, never have anything printed at all. Ever. It’s only through winning design contests do they ever get any of their work used anywhere.

While you’ll probably never tell anyone who designed your logo, or how they can be contacted for additional work, that’s cool too. Simply knowing that they designed your logo is generally enough exposure to keep any designer happy as a clam. And besides, in the highly unlikely event that someone asks who designed your logo, you can simply point them in the direction of the contest site where you got it. Your colleague can then find the thankful designer that designed your logo, and invite them to submit free stuff to their contest. And maybe, out of the other 13,000 designers who might be submitting free stuff, your colleague will pick the same designer as you did. And then yay! More exposure. All in all, a win-win.

Crowdsourcing sites often feature cool profiles of ‘creatives’ that submit stuff to their ‘buyers’. And oh, what exposure that is. You’ll read all sorts of wonderous stuff about members of the ‘community’. How they like puppies and kittens and stuff. Which is cool, cause you can then invite them to submit stuff to your design contest. For free. In fact, I’m sure that anyone featured in one of these high-exposure profiles will now get invited to all sorts of design contests. For free. Cause who wouldn’t want someone who loves furry animals having a shot at designing their logo? Yeah, I know they’ve entered 78 contests, and only won 4, but focus on the goal. It’s not about making a living. It’s all about the exposure. And the love of design. And practicing design. And getting invited to submit more stuff. To more contests. For free. I’m amazed that designers aren’t paying these sites more than the 15% they’re already getting. For the exposure and all. Designers sometimes think they can get their own exposure by setting up their own blogs and websites. What a stupid notion. If it wasn’t for design contest and crowdsourcing sites, no-one would hear of designers. Ever.

#10 – Designing your logo for free helps a designer practice designing stuff. And that’s awesomeness personified

Even if they’re not getting paid, designers are also submitting work into design contests so that their work can be critiqued by ‘buyers’, a generally accepted way of turning someone who’s not a designer, into someone that is. There’s a rating and comment system that you can use to help designers improve their skills. Used to be that designers went to college, where they studied under other snooty people who knew a lot about design, and learned hoity-toity design theory, design principles and how to act like a professional. Now, people who are learning about design, can get advice about design, from people who know little about design. Which is about ten levels of awesome. If you don’t like the work they submit, remember to tell them so in your contest comment section. Using your helpful advice, maybe they’ll have the honor of coming close to winning a contest in the future. Don’t hold back. I’ve found that leaving a comment like “I would rate it with negative stars if possible – I wonder if you drew that with your foot operating the mouse” works wonders to motivate young impressionable designers. It’s all public too, which is especially nice. If they’ve followed your contradictory instructions to the letter, and you can’t express why you don’t like your own idea, make something up. As long as the ‘creatives’ get some sort of comment, it makes spending hours on your project without pay seem worth while.

Sometimes leaving helpful comments might take too much of your valuable time. No problemo. Site owners have streamlined this process, so you can click on itty-bitty star ratings, and this will keep the ‘creatives’ feeling content and accomplished. Sometimes, telling a ‘creative’ why you didn’t like their work only confuses them. Better that they spend hours trying to figure out why you only gave them 1 out 5 stars for their submission – even though they did exactly what you asked – and once they do, they’ll try harder for their next contest. And the next. And then, sometime in the future, someone holding a contest will actually explain why they thought the designer’s work was dreck. They’ll be even closer to almost winning a contest. And becoming better designers.

Entering dozens of contests without winning anything also helps young designers build extensive portfolios. That way, other contest holders can look at their work and invite them to submit entries into their contests. Without pay. And all the benefits that entails. Contest holders don’t have to deal with crappy designers, and when they receive free stuff, it’s only the best free stuff. Look at that. Turns out that when you hold a design contest, you’re helping the people that will hold future design contests. How can anyone complain?

#11 – A slim chance of getting paid makes people try hard. Not getting paid makes them try even harder

Some design ‘elitests’ might suggest that after not winning a single design contest – after dozens and dozens of attempts – some designers will start to enter numerous contests at the same time with the same designs, or taking short-cuts like copying other people’s submissions, logos they’ve found on the internet and clip art that shouldn’t really be used as a logo. How could anyone think so little of people that love to design? The only ‘creatives’ that would do this, are people trying to maximize their chances of winning some cash. Out of 13,000 people, who signed up anonymously with a click of the ‘Have Fun, Earn Some Money‘ button on contest sites, what are the chances of finding anyone like that? With the economy doing so well, it’s hard to believe that someone would sign up to enter contests, in the off chance they’ll make a little money. Which is good, cause they won’t. Which is also good, because not getting paid motivates people.

Any businessman worth their salt will tell you that people are more likely to put more effort into something, and spend more time at it, when there’s very little chance of them getting paid. It’s usually found on page three of the ‘How to Effectively Manage People That Work For You‘ manual. Companies have found that cutting people’s pay makes them really loyal, efficient and consienscious. If you want a really effective employee, lay them off completely. Design contest and crowdsourcing sites have turned not paying designers, while using their talents to turn a profit, into a folksy David vs. Goliath business model, so you’re sure to only the best efforts. From the best people. With only the best intentions.

#12 – Not getting paid makes people who aren’t designers into better designers. And you know what that is – Awesome!

Yes it’s true that out of every 25 people that post designs to your contest, 24 don’t make a dime. You may even feel guilty about the designers who don’t get paid even though they submitted dozens of entries, and did exactly what you asked them to do, trying to make you like their work. It might even seem, to the uneducated observer, like this is a pretty crappy way to treat grannies, janitors and desperate out-of-work designers. Perish the thought. Keep in mind that not winning any money after dozens of contests only makes designers try harder. That means, they’ll eventually get better at designing. And they’ll enter more contests that they won’t win. Which will get them even more exposure, helpful stars and comments. So, by not paying designers, you’re actually helping them be better designers. Strange as it seems, paying designers is bad. Makes them lazy.

And if anyone accuses you of exploiting young designers, and getting services for free that used to put food on people’s tables, pay them no heed. When they squawk about spec work and other snooty concepts, tell them to piss off. Why should you pay for all this design work, especially after putting in so much effort with your helpful design comments and clicking on those itty-bitty stars. The designers should probably pay you for your time. And why should design contest sites pay the people that are creating product that they try to sell while claiming (takes deep breath) “non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display and perform the content in connection with the Site, in any media known now or in the future” (exhale). For everything that’s submitted by people they don’t pay, even if the submission doesn’t win. If they did, they’d be just like other companies that pay their employees, supply their hardware & software, give them health benefits and other ridiculous perks that designers just don’t need. Then, people that run contest sites wouldn’t be able to spend all day on Twitter, helpfully telling anyone who uses the phrases graphic, design, logo, website, or new company, all about their wonderful ‘community’ where you can pay hundreds of dollars to view artwork, that’s been submitted for free, by people learning how to design. Can’t have that.

#13 – Design contests are really, really popular with all designers. Except the snooty ones

Oh yes, Designers love design contests. And spec work. And not getting paid. There are hold-outs, sure. People like professional designers, design students, art teachers, just about every graphic design organization on the planet, freelancers and youngsters who have unreasonable expectations of getting a job in the design field after spending years and thousands of dollars in a design education. But you’d expect that opinion from gatekeepers who are fighting hard to keep the status quo. Everyone else – grannies and janitors and people who love kittens think these crowdsourcing sites are great because they stand very little chance of ever getting paid for their artwork, that they spent a lot of time creating. While signing over irrevocable licenses of that work. To get comments from people who really have no interest in leaving comments. And star ratings from people who don’t know about design. These are the underdogs of graphic design, and the people all other designers need to watch out for. And if, after not winning a single contest, some of these underdogs tell you that entering design contests was a waste of time, or that they’d have been better setting up their own company and trying to earn a living as a professional designer, be wary. These now misguided folks have designed so much stuff for free, they’re starting to think like the establishment, fighting to save the status quo. Their opinion should be summarily dismissed as part of the minority that hates spec work. Cause as we mentioned before, anyone who really cares about design, loves design contests.

#14 – Crowdsourcing sites level the playing field. So level, it’s almost like they used a level

To some people in exotic lands, the chance of winning $100 is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Why shouldn’t people think the same way in North America? See, we’ve just started and it’s already a level playing ground. And if the person from that exotic land pockets $300 in a design contest, after entering dozens that he didn’t win, he can feed his family for a month. The same economic principles hold true in the USA, Canada and Europe, so why are elitest designers all in a snit? Not terribly interested in a level playing field, are they? Used to be that only grannies, and janitors and people that love kittens could enter design contests and not get paid. Now, professional designers can enter them too. And not get paid either. Wow, a level playing field all around. And as everyone on these sites are anonymous, you’ll never know it you’re working with a professional designer down the street, or some cat from an exotic land to whom $20 a day is a king’s ransom. That’s certainly a level playing field. And just to make sure everything’s really level, the companies than run spec sites try to make sure you don’t know that most of their ‘community’ are from exotic faraway lands. Which I must admit is kinda strange, because getting work outsourced to exotic faraway lands has a really cool vibe, and has helped the overall economy tremendously. But it must have something to do with leveling the playing field.

Keep in mind that many designers couldn’t find a drop of work until they found design contests. That’s why one of these spec sites keep an eye out for people on Twitter who are trying to hire a designer, so that they can advise them not to hire a designer, but outsource their design stuff through contests instead. Which levels the job-searching designer’s playing field too. They can enter design contests while not getting paid. An opportunity that just didn’t exist when they had a chance at steady employment. Things couldn’t get more level.

#15 – Crowdsourcing sites are good for the design industry. And everything related to the design industry. And designers

Some snooty designers gripe that design contests are bad for the overall design industry. Some might even suggest that spec sites are only interested in obtaining free labor, which they can profit from by selling to ‘buyers’. Poppycock. Paying for design work and people’s time is so yesterday thinking. Non-paying work expands the market too. Before there were design contests, no-one had anything printed, designed or created. Ever. Cause only big agencies designed everything, nobody designed logos for reasonable prices, and businesses couldn’t afford anything. If that’s not enough evidence, any economist will tell you that it’s better for the health of ANY profession, for people who used to make a living at that profession, not to.

Besides, the graphic design industry is only worth a couple of billion dollars, so nobody would miss it if it designers stopped being selfish and started doing if for the love of design, rather than expecting a pay check like everyone else. When designers, who buy computers, design software, design books, cameras, and pay for night courses, go to college, and employ printers, other designers, teachers and stuff, can’t buy anything cause they’re too busy submitting free logos to design contests for the love of it, it’s obviously for the greater good. The people who used to earn a living from these support businesses can take lots of time off, and spend lots of quality time with their family and do something free. For the love of it. And when Adobe releases their next Photoshop and Illustrator Creative Suite for $1300, and it’s available for free from a Warez site, you know what ‘creatives’, who are not making any money, are going to do. The right thing. For the greater good. Cause that’s how we roll.

#16 – Design outsourcing, crowdsourcing and design contests are good for the economy

Oh yes. Crowdsourcing is good for the economy. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. It’s obviously good for any economy to turn people that are getting paid into people who are not getting paid. Cause as we all know, people who don’t get paid at all, are more likely to buy things from other people who sell stuff which makes the economy grow. No, that’s not right. Okay, maybe people who aren’t getting paid hold onto whatever money they already have and that helps the economy. No? How about this. They take lower paying second jobs and that helps the economy. Or this one. When companies figure out that they can lay-off their two person design department and get tons of more design stuff – that may, or may not, be legal – for free, that’s good for the economy too. Because a whole bunch of people working for free is better for the economy than kids who recently graduated from college making a paycheck, paying taxes and buying stuff in their community. Alright, have to admit I haven’t quite fleshed this one out, so we’ll take the people who profit from these contest sites at their word.