Should you crowdsource your design work?

Recently there has been some discussion, and even some heated arguments about the pros and cons of crowdsourcing design work. I recently found myself involved in a couple of discussions about it and so I have clarified my thoughts here, and highlighted what I feel are the shortcomings of crowdsourcing design work.

What does crowdsourcing design mean?

Sites like 99Designs or CrowdSpring allow you to run design competitions for your work.

You post a brief, and the amount of money you will pay for the winning design. People can submit their answer to your brief and you can offer feedback and redirection within the timeframe of the content before picking the winner.

Usually there is a money back guarantee if you do not get a certain amount of entries – otherwise you must pick a winner.

Crowdsourcing may not be as beneficial as developing a relationship with a designer

Personally, I have a way of working which simply isn’t possible using the usual crowdsourcing systems – I like to get to know the client and their company in order to provide a final design which fits their overall brand. I like to chat over a coffee and get a feel for what the client or company is all about. This kind of interaction and follow up research simply isn’t possible with the crowdsourcing sites.

Most of the good designers I know have a similar approach, very few designers will simply take a brief such as “I need a logo for this site, we sell X” and get to work – the best designs stem from a much fuller understanding of the needs of a client.

Crowdsourcing means you are paying too little for your design

Because design is such a subjective practice, a designer cannot be guaranteed any given entry will win. Therefore someone entering crowdsourcing competitions will have to enter a number of competitions if he expects to make any money. The average award being quite low ($50 – $500 $100 to $600 according to 99designs for example) means that the amount of money they earn for each design they produce is a pittance when you include the competitions they don’t win.

Therefore you must accept that it is unlikely you will get entries from experienced designers who will spend time on the logo coming up with a unique and professional design – it simply isn’t economically viable for a professional.

The old adage if you ‘pay peanuts, you get monkeys’ springs to mind.

To be fair, you might get lucky. There are bound to be some hungry designers starting out on a promising career who will produce stunning work on crowdsourcing sites in order to develop a portfolio of work. However, I have personally seen little evidence of this to date.

Crowdsourcing design is like supporting design sweatshops

I have to smile at the thought of a design sweatshop, and I know it’s not really like a sweatshop – but it’s an interesting analogy and food for thought: One designer took the figure published by 99designs and made the following deduction:

At the time of this writing, $1,226,703 has been awarded across 346,171 entries. Second-grade math teaches us this averages out to $3.54 per entry. [...] you’re doing spec work for third-world prices with no option for copyright retention. [...] At the core, 99design’s business model is as evil as any oil company’s — it relies totally on the ignorance and desperation of its constituents.

Do you know enough about design to pick a winner?

The best way to get design work done is to find a designer who’s stuff you like. Find a designer who’s portfolio fits the kind of work you are looking for. Develop a relationship with the designer and work with them to develop your designs.

A good designer will work with you and explain when your suggestions may not be good for your brand, and why. An entrant in a competition, not having a relationship with you, is more likely to accept your stipulations at face value to get them closer to winning.

because you can’t predict who will enter your competition, or what level of design expertise they have, you are taking a gamble with your money. The website No-Spec makes a good point when it says

it’s a gamble on two levels: first that at least one of the designers comes up with the right solution, and two, that you happen to choose that design.

With a very limited feedback loop, there is little room for even a sound concept to grow to a fully realised design. And without a keen design sense you may not spot the better concepts at early stages.

I know someone who crowdsourced their design and they’re very happy

If you’re a poker player, you will know that you should fold if your holding a seven and a two unsuited. It’s the worst hand you could be dealt. I have played against beginners who didn’t know to fold it and I’ve lost against them. Does that mean I now play seven, two unsuited when I get dealt them? No, because I know that the odds are against me. The possibility is there that I will win, but the odds are against me.

So having said that – yes – I do know of at least two companies who who didn’t fold, er, I mean who crowdsourced their logo and are happy. I’m personallly not too keen on either logo, but hey, there’s a lot of professionally designed logos I don’t like either.

Wait. So I should or shouldn’t crowdsource my design work?

Hell I don’t know. If you’ve read the above and you still think you might be comfortable crowdsourcing it’s your call, but I hope that the above might have helped set your expectations to a more realistic level when it comes to crowdsourcing.

I might even try it myself sometime.

With thanks to Twitter conversations and links from @SabrinaDent, @antonmannering, @curiousmike, @destraynor, @TheLogoFactory, @robinb (if you’re on Twitter it’s worth following all these people) and the following articles as well as the ones linked to in the post above: $50 logo experiment, why you should crowdsource your logo and the creativity of crowds