Design crowd

Design from a crowd is a mess.

Infringe copyrights
Steal work
Unoriginal
Unprofessional
Incorrect formats
Incorrect options

If you think your company is worth a 100 squid then go for it.


Steve Jobs paid 100k for the Next logo for his computer company. He hired a top designer in Paul Rand. Jobs asked for a few options and if he liked one of them he'd pay. Rand told him, "no, I'll design you 1 logo for 100k, you'll pay that fee whether you use it or not"

And that's the way it should be.

It's a load of codswallop getting something crowdsourced. Most designs are copies of other designs and only offer 1 option, where a designer who is paid to produce a brand provides many options, 1 colour, reversed out, full colour, 2 colour, 3 colour, version for embroidery, etc.

No design crowd site offers anything comprhenisible as a real designer can offer, which is original ideas, with all the correct versions in all the correct formats, ai eps pdf psd jpg png gif and whatever else in required.

Heck there might need to be a need for a spine mark.


Design crowds are a load of nonsense. If you use them - you'll most likely face a lawsuit shortly afterwards.

NO!SPEC
 
It looks extremely sketchy. And I ain't going nowhere near it! Just intrigued as to what people think of these kind of sites. As when I came across it I saw it as an upscaled version of <removed> I also refuse to do work on spec or pitch for it.

If they don't want to pay me then find someone who will do it for nothing, I take pride in my work and my skills are worth the money!

Great link for the nospec site! Interesting read so far. Will check it out more when I'm at work tomorrow. (On my break obviously):icon_biggrin:
 
These sites make me feel angry inside. For the most part they don't affect my business as I probably wouldn't work with clients who have such low budgets or expectations anyway, but when I see people proclaiming them to be "a great place to hire a designer" it makes my blood boil. These people are often quite influential online, and can actively drive hundreds if not thousands of clients away from professionals.

Sites like this directly undermine our industry and the value we offer to business. These are simply places to get pretty things made, things that lack the thought, consideration and experience of a professional designer.

The British Government was actually promoting another similar site (99Designs) as a means of getting a logo for your business designed as part of their 'Start Up Britain' campaign. Ironically, the site was actually American run and using the site would keep money out of the UK economy. That pretty much tells you everything you need to know about British Government :icon_biggrin:
 
I can only assume people use them because they are so ridiculously cheap and they can't afford to pay to hire a professional designer, yet they seem to be able to pay for everything else regarding their business. It is simply due to a lack of knowledge on the matter. They know no better and sometimes the only way to learn is the hard way, which can result in having to pay out far more money than they would have done if they just hired a professional in the first place. And that's not just from the possibility of being sued. It goes beyond that, even to the way the public think about you and your business. It can get very costly correcting mistakes and rebuilding your business' image, identity and respect.

People who are starting up new business' are too overly keen and excited to get going that they can't see past the length of their arm. They are so short sighted to realise it would be better to put your business on hold for 12 months or so until you can afford everything required to set up a business successfully. A massive part of that is having a professional designer on board!
 
I know a firm, where I do their annual report, and I know they are not short of cash. Recently, as the company are building a new website, where they hired a web company to develop the site - they asked me to recommend a crowd sourcing site, or a student site to get a logo designed for the new website as logo design was not in their budget.

I nearly shat myself.
 
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