There’s always a designer online who promises to work fast and produce great quality. DesignCrowd operates on the idea, “What if there were hundreds of them?” The site makes the declaration that you will “Get the perfect custom design, every time” They deliver on that promise by leveraging a pool of designers world wide and using crowdsourcing to bring customers and designers together.
What Is DesignCrowd?
DesignCrowd is a graphic design creation site that offers almost any type of design service. They use the design crowdsourcing model to let their pool of designers compete in contests created by customers. The reward goes to the best submitted design, based on the customers descriptions and directions. DesignCrowd’s designers come from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, India, Canada and Indonesia. Customers also have the option of working one on one with a designer, instead of starting a contest.
With nearly a million designers, DesignCrowd has a rich supply of talent for the customer to use. Clients go through the artists’ online portfolios. DesignCrowd has them all ranked. Once the choice is made they accept the artist’s payment and hold it in escrow until the client is happy with the work. Once an artist is paid, the client owns all rights to the completed design. A money back guarantee is in effect for sixty days, but the client can waive that option to give the artist more confidence about getting their money.
DesignCrowd’s site says nearly four hundred thousands jobs have been completed to date. They claim to have done nearly sixty million dollars in business, with approximately twenty-five to one hundred designs per job.
What Services Does DesignCrowd Offer?
The company offers a huge range of design services. They do logo designs, t-shirt designs, book covers, cartoon characters, app designs, web designs and billboard designs. That quick list names only a few out of their literally dozens of entries. They have a large number of prepaid packages with features that run the gamut of clients’ needs and wants. DesignCrowd provides artists who specialize in almost every category. As mentioned earlier, they come from several countries and backgrounds.
When a job is posted, artists sign on, and clients have designs offered to them continuously throughout the life of their project. Clients give feedback, and artist refine their designs. The more time the client has, the more designs they get to see. When the project is presented as a contest, the client keeps the winning designs, along with those that merely ‘place’. In one to one projects the customer also keeps all the submitted work. Projects can be public or private. In the latter case, only the participants see any of the work. This gives DesignCrowd’s customers added security for their intellectual property if they need it.
Customers are able to request specific artists for one to one projects. As far as contests are concerned a client may invite particular designers to participate in them as well. There is no limit to how many artists may be involved with a contest. Even with the basic packages a customer can count on getting thirty to fifty designs in a matter of days. The customer can share images among designers, and refine the feedback until they have their perfect design.
What Are The Costs For Using DesignCrowd?
There are basic costs to posting a job with DesignCrowd. On top of that, several packages also come with fixed rates. A standard job starts at about one hundred eighty dollars ($180). The costs can go as high as eleven hundred dollars ($1100) for more features.
Customers must set a decent award amount for contest winners. Even for second place winners the minimum is one hundred dollars ($100). Pricing ultimately depends on what the client wants and is willing to pay. Any serious customer should be prepared to dole out at least a few hundred dollars for their project. Since their money is buying ownership, and DesignCrowd provides a money-back guarantee, clients appear to get good value for a reasonable rate.
What Are The Pros And Cons Of Using DesignCrowd?
Like any service, there are pluses and minuses to DesignCrowd’s model. The obvious advantage, of course, is the large number of designs you get with your projects. Most competitions see designs pouring in within twenty-four hours. Not only are there forty or more offerings on average, the artistic range is substantial, given the sheer number of designers. Another benefit is getting to keep so many of the designs. The customer may be able to use the variations for different branding needs in multiple venues.
DesignCrowd’s packages are flexible. Their turnaround is quick, and they stand by their work. With their crowdsourcing model you can complete projects in days that might have taken weeks had you done them elsewhere.
With every benefit comes a drawback of course. DesignCrowd’s method isn’t perfect. If designers aren’t attracted to your project (and your prices) you might not get the best talent. Being in the mosh pit of crowdsourcing doesn’t always guarantee the best quality or workflow. Also, unless you do a one to one project, you’ll need time for the project to develop, so quick turnarounds may not be practical or even doable.
How Does DesignCrowd Work For Freelancers?
In some ways DesignCrowd can be a sellers market for freelancers. The site ranks their designers partially by earnings. Top artists have made hundreds of thousands of dollars with DesignCrowd. While such high volume sales may be an outlier, it does show the site can become a reliable revenue stream for designers who fit their model.
