You need a memorable new design, but you don’t have a graphic designer on staff and you have no idea what you want your design to look like. Now what? Crowdsourcing graphic design lends itself well when you’re not sure what you want, but you feel you will know it when you see it. The process is simple:
DesignCrowd is the #1 custom design marketplace. They have 448,472 designers around the world who have delivered $25,306,978 worth of designs. The average number of designs per project is currently 102. (See the bottom of their home page for their latest stats.)
Types of Graphic Projects
Any kind of graphic can be crowdsourced at DesignCrowd. The most common projects are:
- Logos
- Websites
- T-shirts
- Flyers
- Stationery
- Packaging
- Any creative project
Choose from a much longer list of projects on the site.
How the Process Works
Using DesignCrowd is a simple process. Watch this video, or read the highlights below it.
Video Highlights:
- Post a creative brief including budget
- Receive designs from designers within hours to a few days
- Share the design to get opinions from others
- Select a design and ask for changes
If you don’t like any of the designs (which should be unlikely given the number of designers), your budget amount will be refunded by DesignCrowd.
How to Get the Best Results
Using a crowdsourcing platform isn’t a hands-off process. The more you provide feedback and answer questions from the designers involved, the better they can refine their designs.
Don’t expect designers to put hours into polishing each submission. They need to keep the time they invest into each entry to a minimum.
Once you narrow your choices, you can upgrade your project to guaranteed payout. Don’t expect the graphics to be fully finished until the final draft.
You Get What You Pay For
Even when using a crowdsourcing platform, don’t expect to get designs from top designers for bottom dollar. While there are experienced graphic artists on DesignCrowd, if you want to get their attention your budget must be reasonable.
Spend some time looking at the designers listed in the type of project you’re planning. Once you post your project, invite the designers whose work you like best by clicking the “Invite designer” button. (See on image below.)
If you want designers to take your invitation seriously, you will want to include a $20 or $50 participation payment. DesignCrowd calls this their “hybrid crowdsourcing model”. According to their statistics, including a participation payment increases the chances of a top designer accepting your invitation to 92%.
Projects can also be managed one-on-one with your chosen designer rather than crowdsourced publicly. Before you select the final design, check the designer’s portfolio and interact with them to ensure they are qualified designers.
Payment Escrow
DesignCrowd holds your money in escrow until the graphic files are received by them and ready for you to download. They verify the graphics are “in the file format that you require and that the files meets our Minimum Design Standards. This involves checking that file contents match and that vector files are scalable and editable.”
If you don’t like the results, you can request your money back (excluding initial posting fees). Before you approve payment for your design, check to make sure it is original.
Designer Income and Opportunity
By providing participation payments and the ability to work one-on-one with a designer instead of only through crowdsourcing, DesignCrowd offers designers more opportunities to become well-paid.
Their top designer joined four years ago and has earned over $700,000 on the platform. Designers can build their portfolio on the site to attract invitations.
They encourage clients to offer participation payments of $20 at the start of the project to submit or as a reward at the end of the project.
Top designers are also eligible for $50 participation payments once they start winning contests and receiving consistent customer reviews.
Even established designers could use DesignCrowd to expand their clientele.
Live toll-free support
I phoned the DesignCrowd 800 number on Saturday evening. They answered immediately, and the person I spoke with knew the answer to every question I asked.
If you want to work with a particular designer, you can call and ask them to assist in the arrangements. You can also request a design quote for personalized assistance.
Want more choices in your project? Just give them a call and ask for advice. They will let you know what to do next and personally recruit more designers for your project.
Whether you want to see 100+ designs or you just want to find the perfect designer to work with your business, DesignCrowd is a strong option. Just be willing to be an active participant in the process for best results.
Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Post. Although I was compensated for writing it, what I wrote is entirely my own evaluation of how the sites works and how to get the most out of it.
Gail Gardner
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Great article on graphic design . Thank you for sharing this information.
Thanks
Amazing blog post about graphic design. It is very beneficial for us ..keep writing. good job.
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This is a very convenient method for any company, especially those just starting out and unsure of what kind of image they want to be known for. Thanks for sharing!
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Crowdsourcing is a great idea for small businesses to get all things at one place. Designhill is a platform which helps small businesses, startups and first-time entrepreneurs to get their business branding done at affordable price. Branding includes logo design, business card design, website design etc. Small business branding is very important to stand out from the crowd and get one upper hand with your competition.
Thank you for sharing this concept. It will very helpful for me and specially free launcher. I am new in graphic design . Keep it up.
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I agree that logos are very common creations with programs like that. Not having a logo in print can make or break a company, from what it appears. I think that it’s important to have logos on labels, bumper stickers, shirts, and other such things for which a company might use to advertise.
wow great ..This blog design is really awesome .this is such a nice and informative blog by reading this blog i will be understand important concept og graphic design,Thanks for sharing free blog commenting sites..
ovi sheikh
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Nice Blog Graphic Designing is my passion, Still a newbie in the field but your support helped me, Looking forward to crowdsourcingThe only downside to this solution is that many clients still prefer to meet with the designers in person to better convey their views of their websites and of course there is the sit next to the designer sessions with the quick fixes and edits on the spot.It will be beneficial to everyone who uses it.including me.Keep up the good work.
Thanks For the blog.
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Well! I am working as a designer in Minneapolis. Thanks for informative share about this.It is really helpful to check out Crowdsource from this post.very interesting and inspiring topic about this Crowdsourcing Graphic Design Process. I’m sure many will be glad to read article. Thanks for it. Fantastic post!
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hello
very interesting tips
can you describe more about packaging?
I will use the mentioned services soon
what about paying by PAYPAL instead of using Escrow?
Great post! Thanks for clearing a lot of the confusing parts to this. I appreciate this.
– Nestor
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Great I think the rates at designcrowd is expensive the on other sites or may be there are more professional designers there.
Thanks
Hi Arpan,
We get what we pay for and money is relative. It seems like so much when we’re spending it, yet so little when we’re earning it. There are designers at many different price points. The person who did my logo gets $1200 and there is a difference. I explained all that in How Much Is A Memorable Logo Worth?
That post includes many tips on how to evaluate a logo plus an explanation of the various image formats. There is a lot more to it than simply creating the image.
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Hey Gail Gardner,
Well-written article. Keep up. Being a graphic design company, we just loved your blog.
great idea it is more important to have a good designed website for getting more traffic and increase the visitors on the website. i like that way that you use by posting a blog.
I personally would hire in-house designer for my company. Outsourcing work, especially design and development work have never bring any good results and most of the times have been a time wasting. Nothing against freelancers, but this simply have never worked for me.
Hi David,
Crowdsourcing can save money, but it requires investing much more time to find the right designer. Most businesses don’t need a full time in-house designer. Outsourcing works well IF the person requesting the work is very, very clear about what they expect AND they choose someone who has an excellent business process. See https://growmap.com/logo-design/ for some details on what I mean by that.
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Great point – crowdsourcing graphic design can be a competitive solution on both sides – for unknown and up and coming designers as well as smaller businesses who want a great product but perhaps don’t have a concrete vision of what they want (and want choices) or the budget to hire an established designer.
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The need of a designer can never be refused. In today’s era a person may get full training and could be a professional in any field of designing.
Thanks for your article is much important for designers.
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Crowdsourcing graphic design – the term is new for me but it helps me to think on it.
simply great.
I live in Savannah, and all these kids are coming out of SCAD with design degrees looking for work, and over valuing themselves. It’s like none of their professors told them they were entering a global marketplace where they’ll need to compete against talented designers from all over the world.
My main guy (though we usually crowd-source) is from Thailand, and his rates are half of these new grads, his work is better, and he’s been in the biz for a decade.
Hi Logan,
Colleges need to be teaching designers to run their own businesses and how to survive freelancing. Most students would have been better off not going to college and burying themselves in debt. They don’t know that they are unlikely to land a position that pays well enough to live on and repay their loans. They’ll end up living at home with their parents or in an apartment with many others because they can’ afford their own place.
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Hi Gail,
In your line of work you obviously know how valuable a technique like this can be. I work with small businesses as well and while I provide graphics/web design services, some people simply can’t afford them. Crowd sourcing is a fantastic alternative way to get high quality work at a price that fits inside a small business budget. Thanks for sharing!
Tim
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Hi Tim,
What I like about DesignCrowd is that they have mitigated some of the reasons why crowdsourcing is bad for the designers and provide a way to see their portfolios and choose someone to work with at the price level you can afford. They also let new designers get started. I just hope businesses realize you really do get what you pay for so you can’t expect a $1200 logo for $50.
There is a reason that some designers can charge $1200 and others will be at $50 forever just as there is a reason some writers charge $18 and others $150 or $500+.
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really this is possible…??
without graphic designer, we can create an attractive and useful design with the help of this website???
You find and work with graphic designers using this site. If you want to try to create your own designs you would use a solution like Canva.com.
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Yes we can create graphics with the help of websites…!!
thank you for sharing this informational content…!!!
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HI ””
wow great website It will be beneficial to everyone who uses it.including me.Keep up the good work.- i will definitely read more posts. thanks
Graphic Designing is my passion, Still a newbie in the field but your support helped me, Looking forward to crowdsourcing
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I’m a new blogger but I have no idea about Grapics design. But I got some idea from your post.
Thanks and Cheers up.
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Wonderful post I guess, Well I’m not a graphic designer or a creative person so I’ll have to pass this graphic design thing. But I was always thing about how this work? I think I’m at the right place to learn about graphic design process.
Thanks for sharing!
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I am in the digital business and I certainly love the idea of having access to many of designers across a wide range of experiences and cultures which means plenty of design options from which to choose.
The only downside to this solution is that many clients still prefer to meet with the designers in person to better convey their views of their websites and of course there is the sit next to the designer sessions with the quick fixes and edits on the spot.
But it would be the perfect platform for the initial concept design. Big like :d
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hey thanks for this post, this is such a nice and informative blog by reading this blog i will be understand important concept og graphic design.
Very well written information. It will be beneficial to everyone who uses it.including me.Keep up the good work.- i will definitely read more posts.
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i agree with you, superb information about graphic designs, keep on writing. Thank you for sharing this information
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It’s very interesting and inspiring topic about this Crowdsourcing Graphic Design Process. I’m sure many will be glad to read this article. Thanks for sharing it. Fantastic post!
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