Logos are of utmost importance to brands and their identities and in the digital space, crowdsourcing has become an effective way in which businesses can utilise freelancers to re/invent their logos and inject fresh life into their brand for less.
Yet there are still many lies that haunt the idea of freelanced logo design and crowdsourcing. In this post, we take a look at a few of these lies, plus the truths – and the beautiful designs!
Lie: “Freelanced Logo Designs = Low Quality”
This is perhaps the biggest 'lie' about freelancers and crowdsourcing; there's a common misconception that 'lots' somehow equates to 'low quality', often because people erroneously assume that the designers entering these comps are either lazy and uncommitted, not experienced enough or degree 'unqualified' and therefore only capable of producing poor quality.
Truth: In the crowdsourcing space, competition drives top quality. Freelance designers are keen to get on your shortlist and win the logo contest in order to make money and grow their portfolios, so their incentive is to design a logo that's as creative and innovative as possible.
In addition, degrees and qualifications don't make a person a brilliant designer, as David Airey elaborates: "The point isn't so much whether or not one is a "designer". Labels mean very little. Good quality is good quality, whether created by a janitor, a grandma, or a 30 year pro."
Lie: "Crowdsourcing is Costly"
People either don't understand how crowdsourcing works and assume it's expensive or they claim there's a mismatch between what you pay, the quality of the experience and the designs you get.
Truth: Partnering with a design agency can see your logo design costs stretch into the thousands or even millions. If you're a brand like Pepsi, BP or Accenture, then great for you. If you're not, you'd better be looking for a cheaper solution. Crowdsourcing is an affordable way for brands to develop a logo, with much more financial flexibility: you can set your own budget, get more designs and ultimately create or refresh your logo for a portion of usual costs.
Big brands agree. Although they might have millions to spend, many utilise crowdsourcing to create new logos and designs for less. Consider the beauty behind these crowdsourced designs for Madrid 2020, Occupy.com, Amnesty International and Google Doodle.
Lie: "Freelancers Won't Understand My Brand"
It's any business's worst nightmare: source a logo and end up with something that doesn't work for the brand or that's just a complete "hit and miss."
Truth: The truth here is two-fold: first, if you give your freelancers as much information as possible about your strategy, target audience, values and vision, the more designers will understand what you want. This results in quality designs that speak to your needs. "More importantly that than "you get what you pay for" in a crowd-sourced model", writes Sarah McIntyre, is "you get what you put in."
Secondly, freelancing your logo design means expanding your design options significantly, so that you're presented with multiple and often brilliant choices (rather than a risky few).
This rang true for TimesSquare.com and CEO Lorenzo Tartamella, who crowdsourced their site's new logo via DesignCrowd and ended up with almost 6,000 designs: "It's incredible… An ad agency would have never been able to give us the diversity and the choice that we've been given the way we have with this contest."
Freelancers can also open your eyes to new branding ideas and concepts that you, or even a design agency, would never had thought of. These logo designs, for instance, offered each brand a different and fresh way of envisioning their logo design.
Written by Clancy Clarke on Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Clancy is the Organic Search manager at DesignCrowd. Clancy has over 7 years of online marketing experience and a passion for analytics. Get in touch via Google+.
