undefined

There are now dozens of places you can get a crowdsourced logo including: 99 Designs, CrowdSpring, Logo Tournament (a Canadian Company by the way!), Design Crowd and on the lower end Zillion Designs

Along with all the options, you'll want to consider all the pros and cons of getting a crowdsourced logo:

Businesses of all sizes are using crowdsourced logos
Crowdsourced logos range in price from $250US to $550US (and starting at $50US for Zillion Designs)
It is very time consuming
You get what you pay for, so you're either going to spend alot of money or alot of time to get the result you want
You're going to see a ton of options from different points of view
You'll get a ton of designs, you may find it hard to choose
Once your contest is finished you'll find that it's hard or almost impossible to go back to the designer to ask for changes or updates

Now that you know what you're getting yourself into, here are a few things you need to know to get the best results:

1. Do Your Homework

Get clear on your company branding. What do you want to convey to your target audience? Are you affordable? Exclusive? Fun? Serious? You need to know who you are so that you can communicate that idea to the designers making your logo.

Client Example

When we were designing a logo for our most recent client, a Naturopath, we were thinking in terms of healing and medical care etc, but the client had something more like a Spa-type logo in mind. Even though it's the same business, the designs for these two concepts would take you down two totally separate paths.

Once you decide on the "feel" you want your business to have, you'll want to research the web and see what businesses out there have the type of branding you're looking to achieve.

Client Example

A dance studio client wanted to look "exclusive" so we started by showing the owner logos like Channel, Holt Renfrew and Tiffany's.

An affordable jewelry vendor, on the other hand, would NOT want to look like Cartier or Rolex but instead like a brand that offers something similar in price range and to a similar target audience. Looks matter!

If you think about your target audience, you might even go outside your industry to look for logo ideas. You don't have to do what your competitors are doing. In fact, I would suggest that as part of your homework you take a look at their logos and make sure you're NOT doing anything similar.

2. Pick Your Platform Carefully

There are dozens of crowdsourcing options these days offering a variety of benefits including no minimums, money back guarantee, an email blast to their designers. There are a ton of standard and upgrade options.

What you want to look at, is if the logos that are currently showing up on the platform resonate with you. When you're looking through the logos that are currently being produced on the platform, you don't want to look too far in the past, because the designers might not be around anymore. You'll want to look in the last few days, and at most a week back to see the kind of work that's being produced.

And here's the big secret!!! Pick the platform based on the designers who are there and not the price or the guarantees!

3. Provide as Much Detail as Possible in Your Design Brief

You'll be asked to create a design brief so that your designers can get an idea of what you're looking for. This is where all your homework pays off:

Attach pictures of logos you like
Tell a story or summary of what your business does
Explain to the designers the look you're going for
Tell them what you DON'T like

The more you can share, the better your logo will be.

4. Pick Your Designers Carefully

You can often pay a premium to get an email sent out to all the designers about your contest, but if you think about it, it's totally not worth it, because "every designer" is not YOUR designer. What you want to do instead is:

Spend your time looking through the designs that are currently coming through on the platform for other businesses
Decide which logos you like best in that particular competition
Visit the portfolio of the designer you like and find more logos you like
Make yourself a little spreadsheet of the designs and the url of the designer that you'll like so you can share those ideas in your design process.

The key here is to privately email each of the designers you like and ask them to design for your competition, include a link to your competition and tell them which logos you like in their portfolio, and WHAT you like about them.

Privately email each of the designers, tell them WHICH logos you like in their portfolio and WHAT you like about them

5. Leave a TON of Feedback.

Depending on the platform, your feedback to designers may be public or private, you really need to find out how that works, because the more feedback you leave the better your design will be.

Leave feedback for every single design
Explain what you like or don't like about it
Explore the designers portfolio and tell them what you like about the logos they've already created so they can incorporate those elements into yours (or at least understand what'll make you happy)
Depending on the platform's communication, you can leave feedback for the entire group, or leave individual feedback.
If the competition keeps the feedback private, make sure to rate your logos so the designers understand your preferences

Here's a BIG TIP!!! Even though you're giving feedback to both the logos you like and the ones you don't like, try to keep it positive! Keep in mind that these are all "artists" and they've put alot of effort into coming up with something for you, so be nice when you're leaving feedback so that they continue to do their best for you.

6. Choosing a Logo

When you're finally ready to choose a logo, or even while the competition is going on, it's a great idea to ask some of your customers for feedback, after all, they ARE your target audience. You might want to give them a heads up in advance and ask them if they might be available to give you some feedback. The logo competition is usually really quick (between 3 days to a week) so you'll have to ask your customers to set out some time for you.

As you can see, crowdsourcing a GREAT logo is a ton of work, and you may want to delegate that to an agency, but if you have the time to do it yourself, remember to schedule it out in your calendar and leave a good chunk of time open to deal with the back and fourth that's involved.

Posted: Monday, April 11th, 1:27am 4 years ago

Written By: Dafne Canales

Dafne’s expertise lies in creating strategic roadmaps for companies to grow their business through unique marketing approaches. Her company, Spartan Spark, works with million dollar companies, advising them on how to grow their business by using strategy and technology more effectively.

Through articles, vlogs, training and speaking engagements, Dafne shares her marketing knowledge, showing business owners how to leverage all the knowledge they have and use technology to their advantage to increase visibility and lower their cost of acquisition.