Getting your logo or website design with a contest
June 23rd, 2008
Having a professional e-mail address and telephone number will help you make a good first impression when you hear from customers, but having a nice logo and website will make them more likely to contact you in the first place. As a businessperson, you don’t need to be a great designer if you can find someone who is.
Traditionally, hiring a designer involves first finding someone you can trust on quality, style, and budget. This is not easy. A new alternative is to host a design contest for your logo or website, let designers around the world submit entries, and award the prize to your favorite. This way, there’s no risk of getting tricked into hiring a lousy designer.
Two websites that make it easy to host these contests are:
- 99 designs
- Crowdspring
Ballpark costs are about $250 for a logo and $500 for a basic website design, including the contest prize money and administrative fees. The average turnaround time is about a week, with somewhere around 25 entries. Of course, you’ll get more entries with a larger prize or if your contest guidelines spark the designers’ creativity.
If you want to touch up your company’s look, holding a design contest may be a good way to do it.
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Tags: business, design, free, inventory, logo, toll-free, website
5 Responses to “Getting your logo or website design with a contest”
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July 15th, 2008 at 7:38 am
Not sure how you missed DesignBay here! DesignBay does logos, websites as well as illustration, brochure design etc.
July 16th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Ahh, yes. And DesignBay too.
August 10th, 2008 at 9:45 am
What about all the poor designers who end up not getting paid for the work they did on spec. These contests are designed to take advantage of young designers that our struggling to break into a difficult business.
I suspect you guys don’t participate in contests where you don’t get paid if your work doesn’t measure up to the clients expectations.
August 12th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
I agree there is risks for the designers to participate. If their work isn’t picked, then they basically worked for free. And also, design is a very subjective thing, so just because the work wasn’t picked doesn’t mean it is not good.
But from the client’s perspective, it is a good avenue to find designs that fit with their company’s branding/image.
August 15th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Great point, ImageCo. From the designer’s perspective, I suspect that established designers that are satisfied with their reputation and client-base won’t participate, for the reasons you mentioned.
But for newer designers looking to prove themselves or acquire new clients (I’m sure there’s a good chance of getting repeat business when you win a contest), these sites seem like a good way to start, as they get to be judged solely on their work instead of their networking skills. But you’re right, it is a difficult business, I suspect the less dedicated & talented designers that are unlikely to win contests will quickly be weeded out.
Back to the client’s perspective… my hunch is that this means you’ll be attracting entries mostly from younger designers, some quite talented, others less so.