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Design Contests – Good Or Bad?

Posted on May 7th, 2010 by admin in Domain Development, Domain News | 1 Comment »

I have to admit that over the years, when developing domain names, on more then one occasion I have turned to running logo and template design contests via 99designs.com (previously Sitepoint), DigitalPoint.com and other design contest venues.

I don’t frequent many logo design blogs, and it is only recently that a designer friend of mine alerted me to the fact that some designers frown upon design contests or crowdsourcing design sites.

Commenter Acro went as far as calling them “slave labour junkyards” over on Tia Wood’s blog post – a post which was in fact written in response to a previous post of mine: How To Hire a Web Designer.

Respected designer David Airey writes that Logo design contests are bad for business. He argues that a company should focus on building a long-term designer-client relationship – one based upon mutual benefit and understanding – something that is hard to achieve through contests. He also argues that contest entrants do not spend enough time and effort on entries to achieve optimal results.

Robert Wurth of no-spec.com argues along similar lines:

It isn’t only important to find someone talented and who can get your projects done on time. The best relationships between companies and designers occur when they understand each other, when the designer “gets” what the company wants and needs to be successful.

On the other hand, designer Brian Yerkes of brianyerkes.com talked about design contests from the perspective of a contest winner in a post in 2008. While he agreed with the above arguments that the client-customer relationship is cheapened by contests, Brian also casts a light over the positive aspects of design contests:

…it is a fun way for the designer to build up his or her portfolio along with the opportunity to make a bit of cash along the way.

Brian’s views on contests being a good experience are backed up by Randa Clay of randaclay.com in the comments section of the post above:

…sometimes it can be difficult to find pro-bono work, and the design contests can be a good way to get one’s feet wet and practice developing concepts.

Having given a lot of thought to this, here are my two cents on the matter.

@Acro: Many roads lead to Rome – it is up to the traveler to pick the path they prefer. Although I respect your opinion that people who make use of design contests show “no understanding of the tasks, procedures and mindset of a web designer”, it is only an opinion. The fact that many people (and companies) turn to design contests as a means of getting their hands on a custom design does not necessarily label them as uneducated imbeciles. It simply means they find this means of obtaining custom designs suitable to their needs.

@David Airey: While large companies may benefit from building a long lasting relationship with their designers (as they will most likely require numerous variations of their designs in the future), from my experience a lot of people use contest sites to get a custom logo or design for their website and once that’s achieved, that’s that. On top of that, a lot of these contest holders simply do not have the cash to pay for expensive design work – or they prefer spending their cash on promoting their products/websites instead.

@David Airey & Robert Wurth: There is nothing stopping a contest holder from doing their due diligence and market research before they embark upon holding a design contest. By preparing well for a contest they can provide better requirements and help steer their design contests in a preferred direction.

@Slave-driving reference: Noone is putting a gun to anyone’s head when it comes to design contests. Every participant is fully aware that they will not be compensated for their work unless they are pronounced the winner and yet they still participate for the exact reasons as stated by Brian Yerkes and Randa Clay above. They gain experience, grow their portfolio and get a chance of earning some quick cash.

Final thoughts: As Duane recently pointed out over at LogoBird designs, Google Doesn’t Understand Professional Logo Design. If I wish to get a logo designed and I go search for “logo design” via Google, I am very likely going to run into a big-ass logo design company that has managed to cement its place at the top of Google’s results page – an experience which is not very likely going to leave me with a “long lasting client-designer relationship”. So, I might as well go with 99designs or some other design contest site as at least I will be saving quite a bit of cash in the process.

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