Looking for a new logo or brand identity to set you apart from the competition, but don't have a four plus figure advertising budget? One resource to consider is using crowdsourcing to find a solution to your creative quandary.

An amalgam of the words 'crowd' and 'outsourcing', the term 'crowdsourcing' describes the emerging phenomenon of seeking creative input from an undefined public. What that means for businesses is that with a clear set of goals and some good people skills, designers around the globe can contribute to your product.

In return, most participants often just want recognition, to be a part of a community, and, yes, sometimes a financial incentive. So while the labor isn't always free, it still costs less than paying traditional employees.

That appealed to Carl Loubert, a veteran personal trainer from Jonquière, Quebec, was looking into purchasing a health club and building a new brand to go along with it when he stumbled upon the crowdsourcing concept. "I had never heard of it until I read Tim Ferris's book, The 4 Hour Workweek," he said. "It is a huge time saver when it comes to online resources."

Frustrated with the traditional business model, Loubert appealed to the vast pool of potential contrbitutors via the Internet. "I know there had to be a better way to deal with designers," he said. "I had a few bad experiences in the past, spending hundreds of dollars to finally realize that the designer just didn't get it."

Soliciting customer input and using outsourcing are hardly novel ideas. But technology, principally through the prevalence of the Internet, has given rise to everything from collaborative, open source software development to vetting product ideas to solving vexing R&D questions. And while anyone can crowdsource on his or her own, a new breed of online services has emerged that concentrate the efforts of potential contributors and put them in touch with potential clients.

One such service, 99designs.com, touts an online community of over 76,000 graphic designers. The company incentivizes participation by making each project a competition with cash payouts, with the client being the final arbiter and owner of the winning, copyrighted original artwork.

"For a $250 price and a $120 dollar fee, I got 302 entries from 32 designers from nine countries," said Loubert on his initial forray into crowdsourcing. "Who would ever be expecting that? I was very surprised. Although it appeared to not be the norm, if you find out what designers want and give it to them, they will come and stick around."

The idea for 99designs began on the SitePoint web development community forum, said Matt Mickiewicz, co-founder of both SitePoint and 99designs. "Designers there were playing 'Photoshop Tennis' -- they were making up fictitious design projects and then competing to see who could come up with the best designs," he said. "It was a way to polish their skills while competing and having fun. An entrepreneur came along and suggested that rather than making up a project - why not design his logo and he would give the winner a cash prize?" "Word spread and more and more real projects started running in the forum. We built out a platform to make the process easier and spun 99designs.com into its own company in 2008."

Mickiewicz said the majority of 99designs' customers have been small businesses, startups or solo entrepreneurs, although the company has also run projects for larger companies like Adidas, DISH Network and TiVo.

While the concept of crowdsourcing is not without controversy -- the losing entrants in such contests are not paid for their work, for example, and clients have no direct control over contributors as they might with employees -- the opportunity for designers to show their work is one factor that keeps a steady stream of participants in the market.

"Anyone is free to join the community," said Mickiewicz." 99designs was founded on the idea of leveling the playing field and creating opportunity for designers all over the world. We believe people don't need a fancy office downtown and plaque on the wall to prove themselves -- with a little talent and a healthy dose of passion people can succeed at anything."

In the 99designs model, clients begin by creating a design brief and setting a prize amount. Continual feedback is encouraged in order to home in on concepts, with the client selecting a winner. Composing a brief description of is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to running a successful contest hinges on good communication between the client and contributors.

"One of the biggest advantages is the ability to not feel limited to only one idea or concept," said Richie Garard, owner of She FITNESS, a start-up fitness company in the Sydney, Australia, area. "More importantly, you can continue to refine and improve your product until you get what you are looking for." Like Loubert, Garard was looking for a logo to go with his business, and was looking for an alternative to the traditional client-designer relationship.

Working with Crowdsourcing

"What I love about it is the element of control for a client," said Garard. "For someone like myself, who is very picky and particular in the final design and had an idea of the level of quality that I was looking for, crowd sourcing gave me access to a community of designers who could apply their creativity to our brief, and provide me with different concepts."

Crowds are not employees, and a client should not expect to control them. But being willing and able to provide feedback throughout the design process can be the key to achieving the desired results.

"Designers are looking for guaranteed money and feedback," said Loubert. "Give them feedback and keep their momentum going and you'll get a lot more out of them.

"Like with most things in life, you get what you give," said Garard. "It helps if you have an idea of what you want -- or at least what you don't want -- and to be able to communicate this on paper. If you can show examples, then even better as it helps provide a starting point." "I think a lot of people think it is a kind of magic set and forget process, where you describe what you want, pay your money, and wait for the perfect design to come out the other end," said Garard." But it really doesn't work like that and these people are likely to be disappointed. You need to be involved in the project and work, offer great feedback on what you like and don't like, then keep refining."

Working successfully with crowdsourcing requires time, attention, good listening skills, patience and honesty. But the payoffs can be well worth the effort, said Garard. "Since we were a startup, we didn't have anything to compare or measure it against," he said. "But I know that from client feedback that we have hit the nail on the head with a logo and design work that appeals to our target market."

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written by Johnny Fitness, August 31, 2010

Great blog post!

I used 99designs.com to crowd source the logo for PersonalTrainingBusiness.com and it came out great!

A very powerful tool that helps you leverage the internet.

JF

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