Having worked with both crowdsourcing websites and professional designers on a one-on-one basis, I am by far more satisfied with crowdsourcing sites on the whole, for simply delivering what I ask for at an appreciable rate. I don't just like the guaranteed levels of service or the straightforward payment terms many crowdsourcing sites offer, I like the idea of crowdsourcing, for the same reason I like open source.
Just as open source developers want to maximize the number of eyeballs on their codebase, I want to maximize the number of eyeballs on my creative project. So do you, you professional designer, or would you actually prefer to start a creative project without the benefit of having 1,000 different artistic directions to draw inspiration from?
I strongly believe a good idea can come from anyone, anywhere. In light of this, it makes no sense to trust that you, Mr. Designer Extraordinare, of 10s of 1,000s of other Designer Extraordinares on Earth, have the ability to supremely encapsulate my project in PSD format from the great subconscious better than everyone else. In all likelihood, you don't - because that is the nature of human creativity. This is why I want 1,000 different designs to look at early on.
Honestly some of you designers make it seem like crowdsourcing contests are compelling designers everywhere to become robot slaves. First of all, who's to say you can't run a crowdsourcing contest and then hire out the rest of job; or hire first and then run a crowdsourcing contest? These are merely tools at your disposal in a free market.
And in regards to the supposed waste of resources, my assumption is most designers who participate in an early stage crowdsourcing contest sit down for a few hours tops and submit a thoughtful initial concept to get noticed. You see this pattern repeating itself over and over when you run enough contests with ample promised payment. 80% of the entries are a joke, submitted by people who couldn't be bothered to read your design brief, or who couldn't understand English well enough to do so; 15% have potential and maybe 5% really hit it out of the park.
I offer premium rates when I run a crowdsourcing contest, and I wait for competent designers who understand my creative brief well enough to at least pretend to meet it to submit something half decent, and then I work with those designers for the next few days to hone the design. What is so wrong about that?
Just as open source developers want to maximize the number of eyeballs on their codebase, I want to maximize the number of eyeballs on my creative project. So do you, you professional designer, or would you actually prefer to start a creative project without the benefit of having 1,000 different artistic directions to draw inspiration from?
I strongly believe a good idea can come from anyone, anywhere. In light of this, it makes no sense to trust that you, Mr. Designer Extraordinare, of 10s of 1,000s of other Designer Extraordinares on Earth, have the ability to supremely encapsulate my project in PSD format from the great subconscious better than everyone else. In all likelihood, you don't - because that is the nature of human creativity. This is why I want 1,000 different designs to look at early on.
Honestly some of you designers make it seem like crowdsourcing contests are compelling designers everywhere to become robot slaves. First of all, who's to say you can't run a crowdsourcing contest and then hire out the rest of job; or hire first and then run a crowdsourcing contest? These are merely tools at your disposal in a free market.
And in regards to the supposed waste of resources, my assumption is most designers who participate in an early stage crowdsourcing contest sit down for a few hours tops and submit a thoughtful initial concept to get noticed. You see this pattern repeating itself over and over when you run enough contests with ample promised payment. 80% of the entries are a joke, submitted by people who couldn't be bothered to read your design brief, or who couldn't understand English well enough to do so; 15% have potential and maybe 5% really hit it out of the park.
I offer premium rates when I run a crowdsourcing contest, and I wait for competent designers who understand my creative brief well enough to at least pretend to meet it to submit something half decent, and then I work with those designers for the next few days to hone the design. What is so wrong about that?