Getting Lots of Designs for the Price of One

Posted by Al on August 23rd, 2007 .

Cool Halloween Ghost
A fair few of my sites are in need of a face lift and as the only design skills I have is knowing how to spell it this is a job I need to out-source.

The first job I need doing is a new logo/title for my gadget blog (I don’t rank for gadget blog, so here begins that link building campaign), finding a good graphics artist can be tricky and even when you have found one they still may not come up with a design that you like. This is where having multiple designers working for you can be a real boon and running it as a contest means you only need to pay for the winning entry :) .

I started a contest on some popular webmaster forum, what I was after was a new logo and 10 different season variations (as seen on sites like the big G). I am offering a relatively large prize to the winner ($400) but that $400 is buying me a load of time off varied artists.

Another nice things of having multiple artists work independently on the same project is that they can learn off each others designs and when I give feed back about any one design the other artists can also modify theirs to suit. The most difficult part of this is choosing a winner, so I would love to hear feed back off which design in this thread you think is your favourite, thank you.

I also need to thank Alek for giving me the idea to write about this, Alek is good friend and all round good guy who’s always raising money for charity with his web sites, so if you can spare a link like Halloween decorations or Christmas Lights I’m sure he’d appreciate it :) .

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 and is filed under Miscellaneous . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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15 Comments »

Comment by Matthew from GadgetVenue Subscribed to comments via email
2007-08-23 13:36:08

I like Barbie2274’s work on that thread. Also the one you picked in your post here is good too. I think I would go with Barbie2274’s work if I had to choose.

 
Comment by Garry from Photography Basics Subscribed to comments via email
2007-08-23 13:40:42

hard to pick a favourite from all the entries, there are some very good ones. If I had to choose, the first post by A-L_E-X and the second of the three in that post.

I think the little CG logo is a great little graphic that would be good for building a brand and good for little blog friendly button/graphics etc. I don’t like the slogan font on it though.

 
Comment by Al from Al Subscribed to comments via email
2007-08-23 14:02:16

Yeah I’m with you both there, at the moment it is between Alex and Barbie. I’m hoping this post will make it a bit easier to pick the winner.

 
Comment by Aaron from on spec?
2007-08-23 14:22:00

Please be careful not to undervalue the work of designers.
It takes time, talent and skill to create a great piece.
Often, companies or individuals will approach several designers asking them to create a piece and submit it for approval. With several styles to choose from, the company has the freedom of picking one then gives the work & payment to that designer. We refer to this as “spec work” and it devalues the work of designers overall.

Check out http://www.no-spec.com/ for information on this topic and details on what’s considered spec work (contests sometimes fall into this category).

Not trying to offend, merely to inform.

Comment by Al from Al Subscribed to comments via email
2007-08-23 14:41:59

Thanks for Aaron, I never saw at that way at all. I’m hoping with the way I worded the contest everybody knows upfront how it works and that they may get nothing for their entry. I think the $400 was more than fair for the winning designer, do you agree that it is a fair rate or am I undervaluing the work involved.

Thanks again for you feedback.

 
 
Comment by Mikael Rieck Subscribed to comments via email
2007-08-23 14:40:13

I would definitely go for Alex. He seems really pro! Just need to get the logo right.

 
Comment by Aaron from on spec?
2007-08-23 14:54:30

I had noticed you had an award prize. That does help benefit the designer and it’s labelled as a contest so the criteria are a bit different.

The NO!SPEC site has a better overview of what constitutes as spec than I can say here in a paragraph. I am not criticizing you in particular, only trying to put information out there to help others learn when they are asking for spec and how that affects everyone involved.

 
Comment by Neale from Barbados Info Subscribed to comments via email
2007-08-24 12:40:08

Nice! I’m just starting to invest a little in the less obvious “design” I recently got someone to create a design for some clothing I want to sell promoting one of my sites
Goldfish Care Bib

Whats great about getting through tha initial stage of earning nothing is when you do statrt to earn a few bucks & you Reinvest
things realy start to take Off ;)

 
Comment by James from hard choice Subscribed to comments via email
2007-08-25 02:09:08

I would have to pick one of Barbie2274’s, although it would be hard to pick just one.

 
Comment by Gevalia
2007-08-25 02:28:15

I like barbie2274’s stuff on page for myself.

 
Comment by Ryan from hmmmmm
2007-08-25 02:33:29

man I wouldn’t want to have to make that choice. but if you’re looking for mho, I’d have to say one of the ones that Barbie2274 did. Good luck.

 
Comment by Leslie from Contests
2007-08-25 19:56:29

There are a lot of great entries for the contest but I have to say that Barbie2274 is the best and most unique of them all.

 
Comment by Whitewolf from DC_Wolf
2007-08-26 01:02:53

I liked Barbie2274 more than the others - they showed what the logo would really look like in “real” life.

 
Comment by Kirsty from Nerdy Nomad
2007-08-27 00:06:16

I think a contest is the best way to get a logo done and a high prize amount will usually always be worth it. Seems like there are a lot of talented people over on DP.

I agree though that it might not be that fair to the designers that won’t ‘win’ because it looks like it takes a lot of work but they don’t have to enter I guess. I guess that’s why you’ve got to come up with a prize large enough to entice them.

I like the logo and lettering coolwanz has come up with. Zmaja, Alex and famousartguy are good too. Not too keen on Barbie’s though.

Hey Neale let me know if you manage to sell any shirts!

 
Comment by Ed Thira from Lifes Delight
2007-08-28 00:31:46

This is awesome! Thanks Al! I’m in the camp with lots of ideas, but don’t have the talent to actually create the work. You’ve shown me a venue that I can start utilizing. I used Logoworks previously, but they are expensive! At DP, I feel that I can alot more creative content at a fraction of the price. Now, if we can only find a similar solution for web developers . . .

 
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