How to Crowdsource a Logo

Mar 2

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.

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

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. Putting In Your Order

Do Not Pay For Upgrades: Purchase the minimum logo amount, you’ll be doing all the legwork yourself
Do Not Order Anything Else: Don’t order anything else, just stick to the logo. Your logo designer is usually not the same person you use for your business cards or website. Make sure both you and they only focus on one thing — making your logo awesome.
Do No Pay For Promotions: I have tested the different upgrades many times (with different projects) and they get you absolutely no extra designers.
Do NO Pay for Faster Logos: From my experience, we always end up asking for an extension anyway so there’s no point in trying to speed up. Plus this is important, I think it can wait 7 days! And if you're not totally finished after your time period, you can contact customer service for an extension and keep getting free extensions until you're happy.

4. 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.

5. 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
Look through designers who are winning contests
Look through designers in high paying contests
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

The more designers you contact the more you'll get on your project. Don't worry if they are designing on other contests for big money, they'll come to you if they think they have an "easy" chance to win.

NOTE: You can message a maximum of 50 per day. What I’ve done in the past is make a spreadsheet and do all my research one day, and make a spreadsheet of about 150 - 200 designers - that might take a couple of hours - and then message 50 0f them using my template text below. And then set a calendar reminder for myself to message another 50 each day.

Here’s a little template for what you can say when you invite the designers you like

Hi, I really like some of the logos on your portfolio, I like the ________ one because it's really _____________ [insert description of what you like about it].
I'm wondering if you'd submit a design for our contest. [Insert a single line about what your company does] [Insert the link to your contest]

6. 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.

Give lots of feedback as fast as you can, rate and give comments and you'll get the best results.

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.

And if you don't see what you want, don't get discouraged, for some reason the best logos come at the end, some designers need time to think ;)

7. Choosing a Logo

THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT: Don't close the contest until you've got the exact logo you want.

BUT WAIT, DAFNE, WHAT IF I KNOW WHICH DESIGNER I WANT TO WORK WITH AND SO I CLOSE THE CONTEST?

BIG MISTAKE.

I have seen this mistake so many times. We’ll close the contest because we’re so so close to getting the logo we want, so we’re working with just that one artist in the “back room” and then the contest totally stalls, he/she/they take forever to get back to us, and it is so so frustrating.

Because when you close the contest that means you've paid for your logo and the designer is not obligated to make any more changes for you.

So now, I just keep the contest open, anyone can keep submitting logos while I get every single detail sorted out for my logo.

Make sure that all the lines are perfect
Make sure that you see the logo in all kinds of different colors as well as black & white
Make sure it’s just perfect

When you're finally ready to choose a logo, or even while the competition is going on, you might want to ask some of your customers for feedback, after all, they ARE your target audience. Give them a heads up in advance and invite them to a 15 min Zoom meeting 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.

But be careful here too. I find that logos are a very emotional purchase, and your customers can sway your decision. Be open to ideas, but in the end, it’s your logo. You’re the one who’s going to wear the t-shirt!

Final tip

It’s really important to get the right kinds of files, otherwise, you’ll have a hard time working with your logo.

The jpg, and png (transparent background files) are for you to work with.

The eps or ai files are for any future designer to work with their graphic design program.

Before you release the funds, make sure you open every single folder and file, sometimes, when the designer is in a hurry they save the files incorrectly - it’s a lot of files!

You’ll want to make sure that your transparent files - png - are actually transparent and not just a white background. (happens all the time!)

This is the exact message I send the designer

Hi, for my final files I’d like the following,

Please load the final logo file into 2 folders:

Logo on Light Background
Logo on Dark Background

Logo on Light Background Folder

Logo is on a white or light background for JPG
Logo is on a transparent background for PNG

1. Horizontal/Rectangle Version

Horizontal with White Background (.jpg, .png, .eps .svg)
Horizontal with Transparent Background (.jpg, .png, .eps .svg)
Horizontal with White Background in Black/White (.jpg, .png, .eps .svg)

2. Square/Stacked Version

Square with White Background (.jpg, .png, .eps .svg)
Square with Transparent Background (.jpg, .png, .eps .svg)
Square with White Background in Black/White (.jpg, .png, .eps .svg)

3. Icon Only

Icon only on White Background (.jpg, .png, .eps .svg)
Icon only on Transparent Background (.jpg, .png, .eps .svg)
Icon only on White Background in Black/White (.jpg, .png, .eps .svg)

Logo on Dark Background - Folder

Logo is on a black or dark background for JPG
Logo is on a transparent background for PNG