Getting the right logo that makes your business stands out, and represents the very best of what it is should be a priority and a focus. But doing it right, while under a budget, or without knowing where to start, can be challenging and difficult.
There’s numerous ways to get your logo made, from the online logo maker, to the freelance designer, and even as far as the professional design agency, there’s a lot of options at your disposal. But, perhaps, the one cited as the most cost-efficient option is the design contest platform.
The design contest platform offers you an option that is both practical and leads to quality results. But it’s important to keep some things in mind when choosing to go down the design contest path. Doing it right is key, and here’s how you can ensure you are.
What is a design contest?
A design contest is a more modern approach to get your business logo designed. It’s simple, you start a contest, giving some guidance of what you’re looking for in your logo and the needs of your brand. Designers all around the world see your contest and decide whether to partake or not. If they decide to join, they’ll send you some designs tailored to what you’re looking for and you can go through and pick which ones are your favorite. You can offer some feedback to help them improve their designs and receive revised versions. In the end, you choose a winner, and just like that you’ve got yourself a logo.
The Issues with Most Design Contests
You can find numerous companies that work with design contests online, although many of these are considerably flawed in a number of ways. How so? Well, in a lot of design contests:
- Designers are not vetted, which means someone with no experience at all can also participate. This leads to lower quality designs for clients.
- Only the winner receives the prize, meaning that designers have much lower chances of getting paid. Experienced designers are, thus, often unwilling to participate.
- Designers can see other entries, which leads to less originality between entries.
- The number of entries is unlimited, which means that the client is often overwhelmed with too many options, of which many are similar, or of bad quality.
Solving the Problem
DesignBro was born out of the need to improve upon design contests. We’ve developed quality control methods, limited entry competitions, created “blind” competitions, and ensured that all finalists get paid. What does this mean?
- In terms of quality control, designers upload their portfolio to DesignBro and have to be accepted before being allowed to participate. This ensures that all designers are experienced and likely to produce high-quality designs.
- Clients are allowed to pick how many designs they would like to see, with ten being a maximum. This gives designers a higher chance of winning, and avoids clutter for the client.
- A “blind competition” means that designers cannot see what other designers have uploaded. This leads to greater diversity for the client.
- All selected finalists get paid, meaning that three out of the ten designers could receive compensation for their work. This entices better quality designers to join, and make an effort in winning the competitions.
Is a Design Contest What I Need?
If a contest design is done right, it can be cost-effective and not time-consuming. For example, at DesignBro a logo design can cost between $199 and $479, which is fairly cheap for a high-quality business logo. The process usually takes about three weeks, and allows you to give feedback to designers, receive updated versions and begin narrowing down which designs you’d like to pick.
A design contest allows you to pick from a variety of designs made by diverse designers. This abundance of choice gives you a greater chance of getting something you love than with a freelance designer. Moreover, you have the opportunity to provide as much guidance as you’d like to the designers, ensuring you get a logo tailored to your brand. It’s also a relatively cheap solution to get a high-quality and professional logo. On top of that, a design contest company will, usually, take care of copyright, making sure this doesn’t become a problem in the future.
However, depending on which design contest platform you choose, you could be bombarded with too many low-quality and similar designs. This may become more work for you than you intended. To avoid this, review how the design contest platform that you’re going to pick deals with these issues. Whatever platform you choose, it’s important that you take a proactive attitude and invest some time in providing guidance for designers to make sure you get what you’re looking for.
Overall, a design contest could allow you to get the high-quality business logos that may otherwise have been out of price-reach for a decent value, with increased variety, and relatively quickly.
Besides having grown up in the design Industry, Christiaan has advised some of the world’s largest companies on their branding & packaging designs. Has been the resident judge for design awards, and has spoken at numerous global design & marketing events. Christiaan founded the London office of the award-winning Cartils agency, and has founded the DesignBro.com platform.
