“99 Problems but Design ain’t One”: The Great Crowdsourcing Swindle

By Kie
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Modern design agencies have to share the web with an increasing number of sites that hold ‘spec-based’ design competitions – otherwise known as ‘crowdsourcing’.

On the surface, it’s a clever tactic. These websites publish a short design brief, then ask designers to post an entry (usually a logo) for the client to consider.

From hundreds of entries, only the winning designer is paid a stingy $99 dollars.

Crowdsourcing websites are a sad affair, rows of logos eagerly wagging their tails like puppies in a pet rescue centre. What happened to creative integrity?

The Logo is the Tip of the Iceberg

Advocates of crowdsourcing (usually the owners of these mega-sites) say it has democratised design, increased choice and lowered costs for clients.

Even our own government has fallen for this spin. StartUp Britain, a website built to bolster the UK economy has received heavy criticism for including 99Designs - a US-based crowdsourcing site- in their list of ‘the web’s best business resources’.

I’m no economist, but doesn’t undermining our national design industry by recommending a US crowdsourcing site seem counter-productive to UK growth?

By reducing the design process to ‘pick the prettiest picture’, UK startups will lose out on the real economic advantages of working with a design team.

Here at Ownbeat we thrive on healthy competition: winning contracts for graphic design in York and beyond. But the growth of crowdsourcing is a real threat to our industry. Quality designers need to pull together. We need to make some noise about the benefits of hiring professionals, rather than opting for bargain basement design.

So why not crowdsourcing?

As a community, we need to be firmly anti-crowdsourcing, without falling into the ‘design snob’ stereotype.

Given that communication skills are the basis of our trade, you’d think that this would be easy. Yet some design commentators have responded to the design-spec swindle by ranting and raving - without really explaining why it is such a bad thing.

I share their frustration, and it makes me angry to see such blatant exploitation. If nothing else, design spec is a complete waste of creative energy for all but the lucky winner. But if we’re going to convince people to invest in quality, we have to argue our points calmly, and with lucidity.

Fight Back!

The grassroots is where the fight back is spreading like wildfire. Fantastic designers like David Airey and the No!Spec campaign have a simple message: design is more than skin deep. By urging designers to keep their integrity and build meaningful, lasting relationships with their clients they can retain the professional and moral high ground.

Here at Ownbeat, our designs are more than an end product, they’re a service. A finished logo has been developed through a process of consultation and careful research. The absence of this intelligent design is what makes crowdsourcing an inferior system.

Graphic Designers in York and Beyond - Take the Pledge!