Need a Small Business Logo? Run a Contest!

Do you need a logo, a web design, a brochure or business cards designed?  Instead of spending hundreds of dollars with a designer, I have another suggestion: Run a contest – online, of course!  One of the best Internet ideas I’ve seen in a long time is the design contest.  Two that are shining stars are 99designs and CrowdSPRING.

What’s a Design Contest? Here is how they work:  You bring your request to the site and post your specifications and the amount you are willing to pay.  Then designers compete for the work and you choose one you love. You pay the designer and maybe you give that person more work, maybe not.  But you get to see lots of ideas and tweak them as you go through the contest.

CrowdSPRING Testimonial. Kate Good, owner of Apartment All Stars (kate@kategood.com) says:

Looking for a success story? That would have to be me! I found out about crowdSPRING from a fellow professional speaker and submitted a project to develop a logo and powerpoint master for my seminar tour group. I enjoyed the process because I could manage it from the road. I was also impressed with the number of submissions I received. I felt like I was directing a $10,000 marketing project but the reality is I only spent $300.

I passed the idea along to many of my audiences and crowdSPRING has been so well received. I think I am going to blog about it next! I am a big fan and very impressed with the work …[their] designers do. I am located in Phoenix, Arizona or whatever plane and hotel room I end up in a few times a week.

99DesignsTestimonial. I used 99Designs for a logo for my own business, and I had the same positive experience.  Here are some suggestions for working with one of these services:

1) Set your price high enough that you get enough people to bid to get a good selection.  If you go cheap, you won’t get many contestants and they won’t be motivated to do their best work for you.

2) Make the designers adhere to your ideas. If you want mauve or fuschia, they should give you that.  After I selected the winning design, I spent time looking at different color variations before I was happy with the result. The designer kept making changes until I was completely satisfied.

3) Look for someone you can work with into the future. Some of the designers are pretty confrontational and opinionated; I figured it was my dollar, so I get what I want.  Consider that the confrontational ones you probably don’t want to work with on a continuing basis.

4) Make your choice and stick to it. I confess that I made changes after the contest was done and the winner had been chosen and paid.   The designer didn’t have to continue to make changes, but he did so.  Do your changes during the process, not after.

Have fun!

Image source: Newscom

CrowdSPRING logo courtesy CrowdSPRING