DesignCrowd is another creative crowdsourcing resource for small to large businesses. The platform connects freelance designers and artists with business owners looking for logo designs, illustrations, graphics, business cards, or even t-shirts.
Design Service Reviews
My Honest Review of DesignCrowd [Updated for 2024]
Table of Contents
DesignCrowd Overview
What is DesignCrowd?
DesignCrowd is another creative crowdsourcing resource for small to large businesses. The platform connects freelance designers and artists with business owners looking for logo designs, illustrations, graphics, business cards, or even t-shirts.
How does DesignCrowd Work?
How it works
The process is similar to other creative resources on the market. Multiple steps throughout the process require the business owner to enter various specifications.
- Create an account – Like most other creative services, DesignCrowd requires you to make an account as both freelance artist or business owner before you start launching projects or working on the
- Launch you project – The first step in all projects requires you to create a project brief, where you detail all the specifications for your project. You need to include as many details as possible to give the artist a good starting point. Include elements like color, imagery, pricing, themes, or styles. Additionally, should you forgot to include important information, the brief process reminds you throughout.
- Get Custom Designs – Artists from all over the globe submit designs based on the specifications included in your brief. The number of submissions you receive depends on the pricing for your budget. The higher your budget the more designs you will receive.
- Select and approve the final design – From all the submitted drafts, you will pick the artwork that best matches your vision. Once you select it, you will be able to communicate with the artist any final changes or revisions. Finally, you will receive the final product after any last changes and all the downloadable and editable files.
DesignCrowd Logos
Logo designing is one of the more popular services DesignCrowd provides. Their website boasts 900,000 freelance designers available for projects and a minimum of 25 designs per project. Their process is a design contest, which means many different global artists are competing to give you the best logo design. The contest process is popular for small and large companies because it offers faster turnaround time, is cheaper, and often produces better artwork.
These contests let you pick the best from upwards of hundreds of submissions for your logo design. If you have a vague idea of what you want in a company logo, the design contest is perfect because it will produce a variety of concepts. Additionally, in the final steps, you still can submit feedback, so you get a polished final product. Once you are satisfied you receive all the printable and editable files.
- Logo
- Infographics
- Websites
- Landing Pages
- Apps
- Print Materials
- TShirts
- Social Media
- Illustrations
It is for All
How Much is DesignCrowd?
The prices on DesignCrowd vary widely. You could pay more for a web design compared to a logo design. The other factor that drastically increases the cost is the number of design submissions you want in your contest. As the number of designs increases, so does the price. For a logo project, the minimum price for a design contest with 1-3 submissions is $109.
The pricing model for logos is as follows:
- 1-3 Designs – $109.00
- 6+ Designs – $229.00
- 50+ Designs – $319.00
- 100+ Designs – $499.00
- 150+ Designs – $739.00
In addition to the base package price, there are also various project upgrades you can add like top designers, making your project private, or express turnaround time. These all have different prices some as low as $30 and as high as $150.
The other project types follow the same pricing model. For example, a web design project is only $779 for the top-line package, while the bottom tier is $149. All project type prices increase as you add more designs for you to select the final product.
How long does a DesignCrowd project take?
You should expect seven days for a design contest to finish. With DesignCrowd, their contest structure is relatively simplistic. You submit a project brief, and then designers start submitting their concepts. You can run polls, share the submissions with friends, or have people vote on a design. You can also give feedback and request revisions.
The projects tend to average a seven-day turnaround, but this can change depending on how much feedback you get or the number of designs you need to review. Once the designers submit their final concepts, the turnaround time is more dependent on your actions.
After you are satisfied with the final product, you simply download the printable and editable files.
Running a Successful Contest in DesignCrowd
- Take time to fill out the project brief with all available information. You may not know what you want in your new logo or web design, which is fine. However, to get the best designs in your contest, you want to give the artist as much information as possible. It can be a feeling, emotion, concept, or image, but giving the artist a starting point in your project briefs will lead to better artwork.
- Choose the contests with more submissions. You pay more for the additional submissions, but you want a variety to compare them. Maybe there is a color scheme that would work well on a design with better imagery? It could be anything, but when using DesignCrowd, you should opt for the project packages that include more designers to increase your chances of finding the right logo
- Invite designers to compete in your contest. Hand-selected designers are going to work to impress. When someone feels singled out for their talent, they are going to produce work that lives up to the expectation. Additionally, they are more likely to participate.
- Provide ample feedback. I In the final stages of the design contest, you can provide artist feedback and request revisions, and you should. A design may look great looking at it the first time. Set it aside and examine some others. You may find techniques or schemes used in another you want in it.
DesignCrowd Review
My “Expert” Opinion
DesignCrowd is another option among a crowded market for outsourcing the creative process. If you are a small business and do not have time to hire a full-time creative or agency, it may be the right alternative for you. They boast over 900,000 artists on their site, which, if accurate, is an impressive talent pool. Keep in mind there are many creative crowdsourcing platforms, and there may be better options that are more situated to your individual needs.
The design contests offer the opportunity to receive many quality submissions only if you are willing to pay a high price for them. So, for small business analyze your ROI is crucial. You may end up paying more using this platform than hiring a part-time or even fulltime employee.
PROS of DesignCrowd
● It has a simple design process that boast a large talent pool. The process mimics what you would receive from a full-time creative or agency letting you choose your desired specifications and can give ample feedback.
● There is a money back guarantee should you not like your design.
● You can set your budget.
● Offers blind or private contests for an extra fee. Many creative platforms do not provide the same.
CONS of DesignCrowd
● The pricing model is expensive if you want a variety of designers. While you can set your budget, there is a drastic price increase when adding more submissions for your contests. The bare minimum project package is three designs for $109, which seems pricey.
● The project upgrades feel like a cash grab. Some of the upgrades feel like they should be included in the initial project package price. For example, you have to pay extra to invite top-rated designers to compete in your design contest.
● Design contests attract inexperienced designers. Many graphic designers with little to no experience seek design contests to develop their skills. Which means they are using the project you are paying to do so. However, on the upside, you may find a future master before they become too expensive.
● Contestants are paid even if they do not win. Most major platforms include this feature, but sometimes it can cause some artists to submit just for the payout, so you are not getting their best work. This means of the 30 designs you paid for ten could be junk because the artist just wanted the payout
Alternatives to DesignCrowd
While the company boasts a large number of graphic designers and promise high submission numbers on projects, you may find a cheaper alternative better suited to your needs. Finding the right fit means finding the platform that offers you the best ROI on your investment. You want to make sure you are getting the best logo for the price you are paying.
Leave your own review of DesignCrowd!
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