Are you in need of a graphic design for your business but aren’t sure who to turn to? Granted, there are a lot of opinions out there for finding designers, from established agencies to a freelancing friend fresh out of design school. However, one of the newest and increasingly popular routes is opting to use crowdsourcing. Here are 5 reasons you may need to crowdsource your design.
1) You don’t know any designers
If your business doesn’t have any designers in mind, the process of finding one that is trustworthy, skilled, and reliable can be lengthy. Furthermore, you may think you’ve found the right person and so you invest in them, only to be disappointed with the results.
With crowdsourcing designs through DesignCrowd, you don’t have to worry about that or putting all your eggs in one basket. You submit your brief to a whole community of designers who are ready to come back to you with their ideas.
Instead of crossing your fingers and hoping for the best with one person, you get to see various designs from multiple creative minds, and then choose what you like from there. This can simplify the searching process and help to save you time and money.
DesignCrowd gives you access to 500,000+ designers from around the world who can deliver your first submissions within hours of launching a brief. It’s a global set of on-trend and professional ideas all in one place.
2) You want choice
When it comes to graphic design, it is clearly an art and so there are elements of creativity and individual interpretation at play. With that the case, every artist will have their own unique design for your project.
This can sometimes be an obstacle when you have an idea of the end goal, and a hired designer is way off base. Sometimes their style and your style just don’t mix well together and you will have to find someone else.
If you can relate to this conundrum and would prefer to have a wide selection of choices, then you would probably like the crowdsourcing process. For example, on DesignCrowd, the average contest gets 100 designs submitted.
DesignCrowd also hosts ‘blind’ contests, which means designers cannot see each others’ submissions, leading to less instances of copycat work and even more scope for unique creativity.
3) You need designs quickly
Often the design process can be slow when using a traditional designer. Once you’ve found your designer, you meet with them to go over the project brief. Here you will explain what you need and any further guidelines you’d like to provide. Then the designer will go and research your company and any other factors they need and come back to you with any clarifying questions. Once the brief is clear, they will go through their design process. The length of this can vary depending on the designer and their schedule. You also run the risk of your designer falling ill, having technical difficulties, or having their dog eat your creative brief.
Assuming everything goes as planned, they will come back to you with a design. At this point, you will review the design and give them feedback. Then they go back to the drawing board and revise the design. This can be repeated as many times as needed. Then when you are finally happy, you can ask for all the formatting you need and finish up the project. The problem is, the timing is not entirely in your hands. The designer brings an unknown variable that cannot be factored in, which is frustrating when trying to operate your business efficiently.
If time is of the essence for you, a crowdsourcing contest is helpful. You can choose the length of time you want to receive designs in, on DesignCrowd it’s 2 – 15 days. Then once you’ve chosen your design you have one week to ask for little tweaks. You are given control of the time scale which is great when you need designs quickly and to a set deadline.
4) You are looking to control your budget
One of the challenging parts of hiring a graphic designer is knowing what you should pay. You will find established agencies who can charge thousands of dollars for a design, an individual designer who charges a moderate fixed price, and then maybe freelancers who charge hourly. If you are like most, you would aim to strike the right balance between value and price, but it can be very confusing. You may hire a designer at a decent hourly rate but what if they charge way more hours than you were expecting? What if you pay a modest price but the designs don’t meet your expectations?
These are real concerns that are completely avoided when you crowdsource your designs. On DesignCrowd, you choose how much you want to pay up front, it is entirely in your hands. You can then monitor the submissions as they come in while providing focused feedback to ensure the results you want. And you can also look to increase the budget further to encourage even more designers to take part, but again, it is all within your control.
5) You are looking for specific branding
Hiring an agency or professional designer can be a big ordeal. This may be worth it if you are completely rebranding your already established business and prepared to undertake six months of negotiations and reviews. However, if you already have your brand in place, know enough to lead on a brief, and just need some flyers or a brochure, crowdsourcing is perfect. This way an agency won’t come in and blitz through your existing designs and you won’t need to bring them up to speed on your entire strategy before asking for one piece of design work.
When running a business, there are times when demands require quick turnarounds and a definite budget. Furthermore, you may not need the expertise of an agency that will want to fully analyze your business.
On another note, you may not know any designers to start with. For these circumstances, and there are certainly others as well, crowdsourcing is a great solution. Click here to learn more about how it can work for you.
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Sourcing design for your business shouldn’t be difficult. Let us help you make all the right calls!
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Written by Jessica Walrack on Monday, November 7, 2016
Jessica Walrack is a professional freelance writer with a background in sales and marketing. After 7 years in the corporate world, she stepped into the online sphere and has now been freelancing for 4 years. She specializes in helping businesses to create a stellar online experience for their audience in order to build industry authority and increase profitability. In her spare time, Jessica enjoys traveling all over the world with her family.