Many of you will know my stance against spec work, but it’s safe to say my opinion of the practice just got worse.

Backing up for just a moment, here’s the sales pitch on 99designs, one of the main spec work websites:

“We connect 56,816 passionate designers from around the globe with small businesses who need design projects completed. And, we do it in a timely fashion without the usual risk or cost associated with professional design.”

Disregarding the fallacy of the numbers game — recently examined here by Steve Douglas — let’s focus on how such companies minimise client cost.

If you consider “working on spec” a form of free work (i.e., the designer carries out a request in the mere hope of getting paid, with no guarantees), and if you consider that people under the age of 18 are covered by child labour laws, then by that definition, 99designs is keeping costs down through the use of unpaid child designers.

Member profiles show designers as young as 11 years old.

These screenshots are from 99designs (click for full size).

That’s how little spec work websites actually value design. They pitch the work of 11 year olds as a viable alternative to hiring professionals. Appallingly, the owners make this statement on their “About Us” page:

“It’s definitely a cliché but there’s no other way to describe it—99designs was started by designers for designers.”

It’s billed as “The leading marketplace for logo designs.” I don’t know what your definition of a leading business is, but I’d hazard a guess it doesn’t include said leader collecting its share of payment up-front, then having children provide the service, with each kid merely hoping to get paid.

It’s beyond me how these companies call themselves designers.

More info elsewhere:
Children designers on design contest & crowdsourcing sites?

——

Update: 28 January 2010
If you’re one of the budding designers featured above, I think it’s fantastic that you’re interested in the design profession. If you have any questions, or think I can help in any way, feel free to get in touch. I’ll do all I can.

——

Published on Logo Design Love

Related posts on Logo Design Love

• The problem with online design contests
• SpecWatch on design contests
• BBH and logos worth a dollar
• The reality of logo design contests
• BP logo gets a makeover

The same freely available vector icon is entered into logo design contests on Crowdspring and 99designs.

The icon in question is available from Vecteezy and has been downloaded 45,149 times.

The usual “ripoff” accusations ensue amongst contest entrants.

The icon was the winning entry on Crowdspring, and upon submission, the designer had affirmed in their ‘disclosure’ that they had “created everything in [their] entry and [they] didn’t copy anyone else’s concept.”

And who entered the icon? Only the second most active “creative” on Crowdspring, having entered a total of 636 contests, winning 33 times.

Full info and links here on SpecWatch.

Published on Logo Design Love

Related posts on Logo Design Love

• The kiddie designers of 99designs
• SpecWatch on design contests
• BBH and logos worth a dollar
• The reality of logo design contests
• BP logo gets a makeover

The logo board game. It’s all fun and games (apparently). Well, it is for the over 12s anyway—sorry kids.

Evolution of the LEGO logo. Such a simple product. If I was to tally the hours spent with it as a child, I reckon it’s easily triple figures.

Logo Design Love book available for pre-order. Time’s a pressin. Not long to go.

Commonwealth logo in overhaul. For the English out there.

The 9/11 Memorial brand identity. One of my favourite designs of the noughties.

New Doctor Who logo revealed. I’ve never been a big Doctor Who fan. I quite like the “tardis” monogram, but it’s not working so close to the type.

The Wolff Olins Guide to Corporate Identity. One I’d love to get my hands on.

Apple bites over Woolworths logo. A bit over the top from Apple’s legal team, no?

$500 logo design contest. 102 submissions. No winner. Same old.

85 automotive logos. No chat. No details. Just logos.

Yale University Press to ditch Paul Rand’s logo. Another one sadly bites the dust.

Tony Spaeth reviews Hilton’s new logo.

Punctuation-inspired logo designs. But none can match Pentagram’s Curious Pictures logo.

LEGO logos.

Google and LEGO have a fun and special history… The Google company founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, are both avid lovers of LEGO toys, as are many of the company’s employees.

New Nickelodeon identity. More contemporary, with consistency across networks, but more corporate and I’m not sure about the uppercase K.

Typembrya—a homage to Herb Lubalin’s Mother & Child logo.

To receive similar links before they’re published here, follow Logo Design Love on Twitter.

Published on Logo Design Love

Related posts on Logo Design Love

• SpecWatch on design contests
• Logo laws, black versus colour, tarnished brands, and a juicy fruit salad
• Available book translations
• Braun logo evolution
• Indian rupee symbol selected

It’s interesting to see the recent appearance of SpecWatch, a venture that educates about the very real risks of design contest websites and “their so-called communities”.

SpecWatch has been cataloging unpaid and refunded projects, and those terminated due to copyright violation.

In their own words:

“We’re not going to debate the morality and / or ethics of participating in design contests and calls for crowdsourced design. We’re not going to debate whether these kinds of services are an effective way for buyers and clients to obtain design services. We’re not even going to debate how good, or bad, the work produced by design contests is or isn’t. Those arguments are raging elsewhere. Our main purpose is the look at the actual logistics of design contests and crowdsourcing to present the facts behind same. We’re not going to comment. We’re not going to editorialize. We’re simply going to present the facts as we discover them…”

Here are just a few examples of what’s going on.

“The winner of this contest was unawarded as she has used so much clipart we have had to suspend her permanently”

“According to the “suspended” designer’s profile, they had entered 711 contests and won 37 before being suspended “permanently”. Their portfolio still features the ‘unawarded entry’ as an example of a 99designs “product”.

No comment necessary.

Crowdspring vs. 99designs “Logo Smackdown”

“Two design contests, for the same logo, were run simultaneously on 99designs and Crowdspring by a Texas Startup Blog who wrote about their “Logo Smackdown”.

As if these contests weren’t wasting enough of designers’ time, one project was never going to be awarded from the outset. And this certainly isn’t the only case where no winner was selected.

“How do I know when buyers are trying to trick me?”

“A guy posted a project for $1000, after the project ends, seems like Crowdspring gives him his money back (even though there were more than 25 entries), and after that he sends me a message saying that the prize was to attract designers only, and offers $200 for my design. I’m okay to losing projects to other creatives, but this sucks, now how do I know when buyers are trying to trick me?”

Nasty. And it’s not an isolated incident.

How about this one, where yet another prohibited iStockphoto image wins a contest?

One of the contest holders on 99designs had this to say about the process after unknowingly selecting a copied logo as their “winner”:

“We are considering holding another contest, but currently questioning the value, considering the time investment of several people in our company policing designs, vs. just hiring someone directly whom we can then hold accountable for any infringements.”

You can read the whole sorry tale of plagiarism via SpecWatch.

Have you had any similar contest experiences?

This appears to be a regular occurrence on Crowdspring and 99designs, and to see for yourself you should follow SpecWatch on Twitter.

Published on Logo Design Love

Related posts on Logo Design Love

• BBH and logos worth a dollar
• The reality of logo design contests
• The folly of logo design SEO
• “Logos are dead.”
• The kiddie designers of 99designs

I know we’re in a recession and all, but something’s up when a billion dollar ad agency chooses to crowdsource its BBH Labs logo.

Logos from the BBH logo contest

“It’s difficult to write an end-line for this. Suffice it to say it’s a ‘white sheep’ approach to commissioning design that we would never have expected from an agency of BBH’s stature.”

Read more on the Johnson Banks Thought for the week.

Update: 16 April 2009

• BBH Labs is having a few issues with the crowdsourcing process, and published a blog post mentioning the spec model
• “Slapped together without much care or thought”
• Gerardo Olavarría asks if it’s even crowdsourcing, as opposed to plain spec

Having mulled over the logo options shown above, I actually think the lower-left idea has some legs.

Published on Logo Design Love

Related posts on Logo Design Love

• SpecWatch on design contests
• The reality of logo design contests
• The kiddie designers of 99designs
• The problem with online design contests
• An anti-spec work parable

Many of you will be familiar with the recent Jon Engle versus Stock Art battle, but for those of you who aren’t, Steve Douglas of The Logo Factor, has published a compelling account of the issue, creating a well-written anti-spec work parable.

“…in today’s Web 2.0 world, with its instant internet echo chamber, mob mentality can be a very dangerous thing… I wondered aloud about how long it would take for a very high-profile incident to occur that would illustrate exactly how dangerous spec work, logo contests and design “crowdsourcing” really are.

Well folks, here it is.”

Great read, Steve.

Published on Logo Design Love

Related posts on Logo Design Love

• SpecWatch on design contests
• BBH and logos worth a dollar
• The reality of logo design contests
• The kiddie designers of 99designs
• The problem with online design contests

Logo design contests receive a lot of bad press, but is it justified? After all, companies hosting a contest can gather tons more ideas than they would if working with just one logo designer, and novice designers are offered the chance to gain ‘real world’ experience.

What’s bad about that?

Quite a lot, actually.

I’ve heard the supposed positives being preached on many occasions, and a recent blog article from Steve at The Logo Factor re-ignited my thoughts on the matter. He’s responding to a spec work debate where the owner of eLogoContest.com, George Ryan, fights his corner.

I’ve included a little of the debate here, along with a few thoughts of my own, and further spec discussion elsewhere.

“We regularly have “designers” attempting to pass off ripped work as their own, thanks to our viligant community of designers these “designers” are usually reported and banned within minutes of posting the work, let’s see that happen with a conventional studio!”
— GEORGE (ELOGOCONTEST)

“On any logo design contest site, that’s ANY site that uses the contest model, I can guarantee that copied logos will eventually find their way into the submissions. To say that this happens ‘regularly’ at conventional studios, or with fairly established freelancers is, to be charitable, nonsense. It doesn’t.”
— STEVE (THE LOGO FACTOR)

Quite a strange assumption for George to make, don’t you think? Steve, on many occasions, has seen his logo designs entered unlawfully as contest submissions.

“If you are starting out as a designer, or are having a dry spell, design contests can be a readily available way to bring in some quick cash.”
— GEORGE

“Judging by the number of contests that are abandoned without any winner being accepted, and the sheer volume of designers participating, the chance of an individual making any ‘quick cash’ is almost nil. Especially if they’re going to put any effort, and the required time, into their entries (which goes a long way to explaining why so many copied logos and purloined clip art designs make their way into submissions).”
— STEVE

Logo design projects can take many months to complete. Quick cash isn’t a term I’d use when describing effective design of any kind.

“…regardless of what the critics say, the skill of the designer DOES make a HUGE difference in winning a contest.”
— GEORGE

“In terms of the best design winning one of these contests, and judging by the winning designs themselves, the client is often unversed in what makes a good logo, how that logo will reproduce over a wide range of media, and even the difference between vector art and bitmap generated designs. Without any one-on-one interaction, they remain unversed throughout the design process, unaware of the technical and visual issues with the designs they’re viewing. Bottom line, they pick crap logos.”
— STEVE

As Steve suggests, a client isn’t just paying for pretty pictures. Design is mainly problem solving, and decoration is just a part of the process.

Further logo design contest discussions

• Design Contests
  The thing that contest originators don’t understand, however, is that the contest model is just as much a lottery for them, too. Without meeting with the contest entrants, and seeing their past work and experiencing their personalities, the contest originators put themselves in the middle of a very risky gamble. Based simply on a submitted image, it is impossible to determine whether or not the designer has the knowledge and background to guide the project to an efficient (or even successful) conclusion.
• When a “contest” is not a contest
  The only thing worse than a client, or potential client, who does not value the efforts of a professional graphic designer, is a designer who doesn’t appreciate the value of their own time and work.
• Are logo design contest sites even legal?
  …what if these sites are breaking a ton of laws, in jurisdictions all over the world, as well as running afoul of state and national lottery and gaming laws? A little far-fetched? I thought so at first, but after fairly intensive research, I’m beginning to think otherwise.
• 99designs: Bullshit 2.0
  To summarize: you’re doing spec work for third-world prices with no option for copyright retention. Everyone wins! Oh wait, except you.
• Logo design contests are bad for business
  You, as the client, should know that your designer values your business. They’re not providing you with a design based purely on aesthetics, and one that took perhaps 30 minutes to create. They’re looking deep into your business plan, your company mission, your background, your way of dealing with people, and many other aspects your working practices.

Printed reading

Cover illustration by Noah Woods

• Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines

If, as a graphic designer, you want to build your portfolio, contact local non-profits and offer your services pro bono. By doing so you’ll be lending your talent within the community, for a good cause, and you’ll be honing your communication skills for future benefit. You can also count on receiving feedback — something that’s far from assured in a contest.

It’s important to highlight the spec debate from time-to-time, and ultimately, a designer’s choice to participate boils down to this: you can spend your time working on logo contests with no guarantee you’ll be paid, or, you can build a solid long-term client base by investing your time in an effective marketing strategy.

Published on Logo Design Love

Related posts on Logo Design Love

• SpecWatch on design contests
• BBH and logos worth a dollar
• The kiddie designers of 99designs
• The problem with online design contests
• An anti-spec work parable