On a contest not getting 25 entries and being refunded:

many times if a contest was coming close to closing w/o the required 25 entries, I would do 2 or 3 so-so designs, different from each other completely, but no chance of winning – just to make sure the contest would be awarded – would private message 3 or 4 of the other “regulars” that were in the contest and ask them to maybe consider buffing up the gallery with a few so-so designs just so we can hit the quota and the contest has to award.

Every time I did this everyone complied 100% of the time with my “idea” – lol. There are many other things that go on with cS that I think people don’t know about.

I did not join into this site for the money, in fact the money I was awarded I gave away to a charity – I just wanted to see for myself what it was really like ( I could afford to do this.) To say the least, it was brutal, the creatives were extremely cut throat in trying to win, and many of the buyers were rude and down right ugly at times. It was a true learning experience. Suffice to say the majority of the creatives on cS disregard the various codes of conduct, and just hope they get away with concept stealing, etc., and as you know many do.

There were a handful of talented designers I observed, but sadly most of the design work was well below standard that’s for sure – just not unique, not creative, just the same old stuff warmed up over and over again. Also you would constantly see the same designs/motifs over and over again for different projects – it was actually funny to watch this one particular “creative” submit this one particular logo design over and over and over again, just modified for the new “client”.

One of the saddest things about cS – there are creatives on there that call themselves “addicted” to cS. It’s like the Stockholm syndrome for designers!

As a professional graphic artist having been in this business for many years, I found it really interesting to watch the interaction between the creatives themselves and with the buyers. I have never worked in such a way, always one on one with a client, face to face. I just thought it so incredibly impersonal and often felt very sorry for creatives that you could clearly tell spent a lot of time on a design and the buyer did not say one word to them and just completely ignored their efforts. Overall, it was sad. I truly don’t see anyway that cS could “fix” all the things that are wrong about their site. One suggestion would be to make all awards start at $1000 regardless to what it is. That would weed out many of the cheap creepy buyers – just a thought.

No way!! First off, stock photography is something a photographer does a head of time and sells specifically as stock photography. Its like a retail store purchasing items to stock their shelves and let people purchase what they need. Stock photography is an entirely different animal in that most stock photo needs are STOCK. A logo should never be STOCK becase a logo is the identity of a business. You will never find STOCK WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY! That is more like getting a “stock” logo than stock photography.

I dont know too much about stock trading.. so i am not going to comment.

But the travel agency.. If you really think that the importance of your business’ identity and future is the same as your next vacation to Florida, then you are really mistaken.

It is slightly similar in that you are giving up QUALITY of service to save money.. But the point here is that theese crowd sourcing places tout the QUALITY of their logos.. when their logos can’t possibly be any real quality because people do not know crap about their clients, their client’s clicnts, and the business that they are desinging this logo for.. A website can easily book you a trip.. you know you want to go to florida, you know where you want to stay, and you know how much you want to pay… Logos are not nearly that definite, and they never will be.

[...] Spec Watch on Design Contests [...]

[...] Spec Watch on design contests, on Logo Design Love [...]

[...] Arithmetic, from the Speak Up Archive Spec Work Is Evil / Why I Hate CrowdSpring, by Andrew Hyde Spec Watch on design contests, on Logo Design Love More logo design contest nonsense, on The Logo Factor An interview with [...]

[...] Spec Watch on design contests, on Logo Design Love [...]

[...] Spec Watch on design contests, on Logo Design Love [...]

[...] is no guarantee that a winner will be picked, take a look here for some [...]