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Having a good logo is vital for any business. It acts as the visual representation of your company, conveying your values and helping to make your brand instantly recognizable.
Without design experience, creating a logo for your brand can be tricky and expensive, which is why more and more business owners are turning to “crowdsourcing“.
What is crowdsourcing?
With crowdsourcing, rather than using one designer to create your logo, you open the brief up to numerous designers via a logo contest.
Entrants submit designs, enabling you to choose the one that you like the best. The winning designer is then awarded the prize money, which is set by you at the beginning of the contest.
At its heart, crowdsourcing is a pretty simple concept and it can offer many advantages, particularly for smaller businesses and non-profits.
Work to your budget
Graphic design can be costly and small businesses and sole traders often don’t have the money to spend on this kind of service.
Using a crowdsourcing competition is generally a lot less expensive, and by setting the prize pot at the beginning of the contest, you can ensure that you are working within your budget.
Choice and flexibility
Flexibility is another key advantage of crowdsourcing. A price quoted by a graphic design company usually includes a set number of amends. If you don’t like the first few designs, you could end up having to pay extra just to get something you’re happy with.
In contrast, a crowdsourcing competition will provide you with a wide choice of designs and designers. You can also provide feedback to entrants, enabling you to guide the design process and ensuring that you end up with a great logo that meets your objectives.
Getting the right results
When done right, crowdsourcing can certainly offer benefits to your business, but it does require some effort on your part – you can’t just open a contest and wait for the perfect logo to fall into your lap!
Do your homework
Before opening your contest, take a look at some of the other contests currently running on the site.
This will give you a feel for the quality of designers and help you set parameters for the prize amount. You may even spot some talented designers that you’d like to invite to enter your competition.
Create a comprehensive brief
Make sure your brief is as detailed as possible. Include details on your brand values, your target audience, and how and where the logo will be used. The more information you give designers, the better the end result will be.
Check-in regularly!
Once your contest is open make sure you check in regularly to review the submitted designs and provide feedback to the designers.
This will enable you to guide the design process, ensuring you end up with a logo you really like.
By putting in the background work and giving designers the full picture, you can reap the benefits of crowdsourcing, ending up with a well-designed logo that is a great representation of your brand.