Thinking of holding a design contest on yer fave crowdsourcing site? Here’s the top ten under-handed tactics to use to screw over a whole bunch of designers, while still getting lots of free design goodies
10: Invite designers to participate
You would think that with the boasted “communities” of 80,000 plus, you wouldn’t have to invite designers to participate in your contest, but all design contest sites make this an option. Avail yourself of that option. Send ‘em an e-mail. Invite them trough Twitter. Invite them through the host site itself. Oddly, while claiming that portfolios and experience don’t matter, most crowdsourcing sites showcase both on their sites. That way, they can convince us how good they are, with their designers’ portfolios and experience. Pay no heed to that apparent contradiction. Use the portfolios available to invite really good designers to your contest. Make sure that they’ve entered a lot of contests before yours (many people sign up on crowdsourcing sites and never enter any contests – no point in inviting them now, is there?) A high prize should tempt even the most wary designer to throw their hat into the ring so we’re going to…
9: Crank up those awards
Crowdsourcing sites tell us that higher prizes attract more designers, and better designers, so set a really high prize. The higher the better. Lots of designers will be wooed by your huge contest prize, the crowdsourcing site will use your contest as an example of how really cool their services are and will feature your contest on their home pages, Twitter feeds and Facebook pages. That means more design goodies than you could ever imagine. “But this is supposed to be about ‘free’ design goodies!” you exclaim. Have patience grasshopper, we’ll get to that in a minute. But first, we’re going to…
8: Hold multiple contests for the same project
Whether you do this on the same crowdsourcing platform, or different ones, doesn’t really matter. Nobody monitors these contests (and any wise-acre designer who complains in the forums and contest threads is more likely have their knuckles rapped by the host site than taken seriously). Having two contests running simultaneously is the best way to get tons of goodies. Bonus tip – use different user names for each version of your contest. “But wait!” you exclaim, “isn’t that going to cost me double?” Ahm no, grasshopper it isn’t (as we’ll see in a few seconds). It will , however, positively guarantee you’ll get double the designers. Though, even with hundreds and hundreds of designers now toiling away on your dual contests, we still want to make sure that we get the right design so we’re going to…
7: Get designers to copy each other
Some designers come up with what they like to call “concepts”. These are ideas for your logo that are kinda clever. Sometimes, the concept may be cool, but the execution is a little lackluster. Not a problem. Simply ask one of the designers (whose style you do like) to knock-off the concept that’s caught your fancy. Word of caution here – designers aren’t too down with this notion and will kick up a fuss when somebody rips off their concept. That’s why we’re going to…
6: Hold a private contest
The idea behind private contests is simple. Only participants in your contests can view anything, and in most cases, only their own entries. Some crowdsourcing sites, through NDAs (Non Disclosure Agreements) even allow you to stop participants from using the work they’ve entered into your contest in their portfolios. Do that too. Private contests allow you to take concept A (from one poor sap) and have it recreated by designer B, just like we suggested. NIce thing with private contests is that nobody is the wiser. Word of caution here. One of the biggest problems with crowdsourcing is the submission of knocked-off work (see The Scumbag’s Guide to Entering Design Contests). As the sites tell us that ‘self-policing’, by other participants, is the stop gap against such nefarious activities, in private contests yer on yer own. While you’re having fun with your private contest, always remember to…
5: Ask for the moon
You’ll get it. Most design contests held by major brands are of the ‘fire and forget’ variety. You know, a designer does a design, enters it into the contest and Bob, as they say, is your Uncle. Not so in organized design contests held on crowdsourcing sites. There, you can ask for revision after revision (often referred laughingly as ‘feedback’) and the dopey designers will jump to fulfill your every whim. Color changes? No problem. Text changes? No sweat. Move that icon a micron to the left? Ask away. You’re only limited by the amount of time you’re willing to spend asking for revisions – err, providing feedback (according to one contest site, designers “thrive on feedback”). Any designer who questions your seemingly endless stream of revision requests – err, feedback – withdraw their entries. That will keep any other upstarts in line too. Keep in mind that all this takes time, so you’ll want to..
4: Extend your contest often
Most design contest sites have deadlines. Some even claim that if you don’t pick a winning design in the time allotted, they’ll pick one for you. This, like most claims made by crowdsourcing sites is rubbish. They won’t pick a winner for you – instead, they’ll extend your contest. More designers. More submissions. Here’s a tip though – don’t extend your contest too many times as some smarter designers will start to catch and start to withdraw their entries. Before you’ve had a chance to…
3: Use the artwork
Ideas are free, right? So right-click-save is your friend. Don’t just look at the designers’ entries on the crowdsourcing site. Download them to your hard drive. Open a folder and fill it up with all that designery goodness. Some people are going to tell you that the artwork you’re downloading is in low-resolution bitmap, and you need high resolution vector versions. Chortle. Any idea how little it costs to have some kid in South East Asia convert a bitmap to vector image? Very little. Anyhoo, by using this time-tested internet technique you’ll avail yourself of the work of dozens of designers, which (in theory anyway) paying one. But we’re going to dodge that bullet as well, because you’re going to…
2: Have a buddy enter your contest
Or better still, enter it yourself. Asking for a refund after hundreds of designers have shown you hundreds of concepts is a tactic reserved for only the most accomplished scumbag, so if that’s not you, here’s an alternative. Award yourself the prize. As long as somebody is picked, spec work designers seem to be happy with their lot in life. They don’t have to know you’re awarding a buddy. Or yourself. Here’s some tips – use a different IP number and sign up as a creative or designer. Do this before you run any contest. From that account, enter a few contests using some random crap you’ve cobbled together in Microsoft Paint (this will establish some cred as a ‘creative’ and will pass cursory inspection by the host site) and half way through your own contest, enter it. Award your shadow account the prize, you’ll get your own money back and everyone will be happy. Which brings us to the most under-handed tactic available, reserved only for those with really big brass balls…
1: Ask for yer money back
As hard as it is to believe (but completely awesome nonetheless) most crowdsourcing sites offer a “100%, no questions asked, money back guarantee.” Regardless of how many designers have dog-and-ponied for your entertainment. Granted, it’s not exactly 100% – they keep their listing fee and whatever upsells they con you into purchasing – but what’s a couple of bucks for all the lovely design freebies you walk away with. So, ask for your money back. No questions asked, remember? And if they do have any questions, perhaps it’s time to charge back your fees. If this is too icky, even for the professional scumbag, keep this in mind – one lucky designer might be picked by the contest site and awarded anywhere from $50 to $100 for their hard work (regardless of how high the original award was). That is, unless the contest side is awarding themselves through a ringer account (see The Scumbag’s Guide for Running a Crowdsourcing Site).
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The images convey it all and are priceless.
Excellent post — keep up the fight! Just thought I’d draw your attention to a couple of “featured” projects on the “crowd spring” website:
Tony Robbins is looking for a logo design. He’s a multi-millionaire with a highly successful business, charging thousands of dollars for a seminar and products and his company is asking $1000 for a logo design. Astonishing!
Barilla — the global pasta brand is ‘offering’ $3K for a package design. Now, if you know anything about package design, it takes a high level of skill and knowledge about folding, die cuts, etc.
“all crowdsourcing sites offer a ’100%, no questions asked, money back guarantee.’”
Not true.
Fair enough. I changed it to ‘most’. Some sites don’t even make a pretense of ‘protecting’ their ‘community of designers and ONLY charge listing fees (which are almost always ‘non-refundable’).
Scumbags indeed. I’d useuch stronger words.
Websites like this turn the job that we designers do, and put food on the table with, from a career, into a hobby.
They devalue design, to the point where logo design, that was once a serious, complex and important part of the design proces is now just a 5 minute exercise. Branding isn’t even on the menu.
Most of the people using these websites services weren’t likely to use a professional designers services anyway, but the big worry for us all is that larger corporations are now starting to use them.
I’d DDOS the lot of them if I knew how to do it.
The “have a buddy enter” approach has become so common… it is almost tiring. And yes, I still play the crowdsourcing game. Then again, my main bread and butter is in marketing, I have received awesome follow-up jobs from the sites, and I do like to dabble in graphics at the end of day – you’d probably hate me. :=
Whatever effect crowdsourcing has on the design industry is to late to stop. The music industry shut down Napster, but the business has been changed anyway. The same has happened to across many industries and your best plan is to never bet more than your willing to lose or play a game without knowing the rules.
After the last tree has been cut down,
after the last river has been poisoned,
after the last fish has been caught,
then will you find that money cannot be eaten.
(Seattle or Cree?)
Good or bad,who’s to say? It all depends on which side you’re on.I am a designer on some of these sites too.Copycats? Come on,look around you,everything has been done over and over allready.Look at colour schemes for certain products that have been proven to work best over the years.Look at car designs,tv’s,washers and dryers.So why would a logo designer have to go through many a sleepless night because he or she has to come up with something 100% unique and original? I have been a professional tattoo artist for years,making decent money.Did my designs get stolen? Sure.Was I upset about it? Only for a short time.See,I am the only one responsible for protecting my designs and if I can’t do that,who am I to blame others? I quit tattooing because a legion of kitchen table artists decided to start bartering for Nintendo games and work done to their cars.Bad for business? Yeah,it made me unemployed.Still I can’t blame them for starting a trend.Same reason why you can’t blame companies for having products made in China.These are times of survival and everybody is trying to do that same damn thing.Now,dry your tears,get over it and get back to work……
[...] is always a topic of discussion. I have met some designers that I hold in high esteem and they adamantly oppose crowd sourcing design sites such as 99 Designs but then their other designers that are equally respected who say [...]
Crowdsourcing is doing terrible damage to our industry. If you think you’re getting your foot in the door somewhere, what you don’t realize is that you are prostituting your ability to make a living.
I talked to a guy this weekend who only goes to crowdsourcing sites for his designs now. He refuses to pay even a reasonable fee for his projects to a professional designer or firm. He pays pennies to the dollar for what something would normally cost – slave labor!
Do not participate. These sites are poison to our profession. You only end up hurting yourself!
[...] sustenance to maintain the relationship and things will fall apart. When you look at how some clients exploit these contests, it becomes crystal clear why the issue is cringe-inducing for designers.For [...]
[...] sustenance to maintain the relationship and things will fall apart. When you look at how some clients exploit these contests, it becomes crystal clear why the issue is cringe-inducing for [...]
You do make some valid points however the story is awfully cynical. My experiences in crowdsourcing have been far from this doomsday scenario. For several reasons, I have had to move out to a rural property which is two hours drive from the city. There are no design jobs anywhere near me so if I wish to keep involved in project crowdsourcing has offered me a way to do this.
I have bought my own laptop, own legitimate copies of all the software I use and purchase fonts for winning entries so that it is all above board. The experience I have had on crowdsourcing sites has been terrific. a good designer can have a great strike rate and I only pitch for projects that are worth a reasonable return. my overhead is low and I can work when I want.
The clients by and large are great to deal with and I haven’t had anyone try and shaft me in any of the ways that you suggest in this post. So far about 25% have had other work beyond the original project and I have been able to charge commercial rates since they have now found a designer they like. And it must be said that the agency I worked for did pitch for several tenders with only a small submission fee paid for unsuccessful pitches so this form of procurement has been going on for decades.
There are just so many new ventures being started that there simply would not be enough agencies and studios to complete all the work and besides many of these companies don’t actually see the light of day.
Several projects have been stopped at the beginning on the sites I use due to the buyer posting on several places at once – I think you will find this is well policed.
There are people ready to take advantage of others in all facets of life. When I had a design business in the city it was far more difficult getting payment at each design stage with several clients simply not even paying.
If you are a competent designer in a well run agency you will never be short of work. The general public are becoming more savvy regarding design and will seek the services of design organisations as their business builds – in the meantime lets at least whet their appetite on what is possible and provide them a chance to relate to the design ethos at an entry level – I’ll continue to help.