In a Nutshell
pros
- Fund crowdsourcing platform
- Fast turnaround times
- Hundreds of thousands of talented designers
cons
- So many options can be overwhelming to choose from
- No free trial
DesignContest at a Glance
Ease of Use
Analytics & Reporting
Pricing
Integrations
Customer Support
Best For
- Businesses who want a lot of variety in design options
- People looking to capitalize on competitive crowdsourced rates
- Businesses on a budget
Value for Money
How much you spend on your logo design from DesignContest is entirely up to you. That’s because when you pitch a contest, you get to set the “reward” as DesignContest likes to call it. The reward is the fee you’ll pay for the logo design project, and it’s awarded (i.e., paid) to the designer that you eventually choose to complete the project with.
The beauty of this platform is that it is entirely crowdsourced. So, the pricing is incredibly competitive. Once you set a price for your project, DesignContest sends the contest out to its network of designers. With nearly 240,000 designers on call, there’s going to be plenty of talent vying for your business, so you can really get top quality work for less with this business model.
Brands can choose from several packages or set their own prices. Packages include:
You can also add contest upgrades like these:
- Promoted
- Featured
- Highlighted
- Blind
- Private
- Add 2nd and 3rd place prizes
These extras range in price from $18 up to $79, depending on the feature. Since you have such a wide network to work with, DesignContest is one of the most competitively-priced logo design services in the industry today.
Portfolio/Experience
DesignContest is serious about its work and strives to upkeep the level of professionalism and quality delivered from each of its designers. DesignContest has a one-on-one service that lets you work on projects together with individual designers, as well (we’ll talk more about this feature below). There are dozens of designers who have published their professional portfolios on DesignContest. You can browse through these attractive designs to see just how professional the designers in this network are.
What’s more, designers have to go through a rigorous pre-qualification process only after which they can be included in the DesignContest network.
Contract Terms
The contract terms are pretty straightforward. Once you choose a designer to work with, they’ll sign over the copyrights to you. From there, you’ll work on any edits, finalize the details, and confirm the design. Once you’ve done this, the prize will be awarded to the designer.
DesignContest has an excellent return policy, too. It has a 100% money-back guarantee. If you aren't happy with the work, you have seven days to request a refund, and you'll receive it in full. In terms of privacy, DesignContest has enhanced privacy features that include an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) clause for anyone who works with or even views your project.
Customer Service
DesignContest has a live chat, email, and phone customer support, all of which typically answer within a few minutes, if not sooner. Customer support is well-versed in the design industry and policies, so the reps are generally very helpful.
Mailing Address:
DesignContest LLC
2121 Tropicana Ave, Suite 2
Las Vegas, NV 89119
USA
Toll-Free:
1888-906-1888
International:
+1 (310) 933-4443
Design Process
DesignContest’s design process is definitely different than your typical logo design company. Here’s how it works in a nutshell:
- Start by filling out a brief for your logo design. This is basically a description telling the potential designers exactly what you’re looking for. It will include details about the overall project, the specifics about your logo requirements, and anything about your company that will be relevant to the design.
- Next, you’ll set a price. What’s cool about DesignContest is that you can set your own pricing for each project. So, it’s easy to work within your budget on this platform. Companies can also choose from the preset pricing packages DesignContest has already set out for you if you prefer.
- Choose your design. Within the brief, you'll choose from a sliding scale on five important design topics, including minimal to complex, modern to classic, playful to serious, loud to subtle, and luxury to budget. You can also add details like the type of style (pictorial mark, letterform, emblem, calligraphic, character, wordmark, etc.), choose colors, and even upload a file to help guide the designer towards your idea of a good style or format.
- The next step is done by DesignContest. The company will send your logo design contest out to its network of professional designers, almost 240,000 highly-qualified designers on call.
- Now, for the fun part. You'll receive loads of design pitches from the DesignContest network to choose from. Browse through and pick the one that matches your specifications, brand image, and budget the best.
- Announce the winner of the contest by choosing your fave logo design. DesignContest has a lot of features to help make this step easier, like its voting tool, comments, and more.
- Copyrights are transferred directly to you, and you have just bought yourself a brand new, professionally-designed logo.
Revisions are dealt with in a team collaboration style format. You’ll leave comments on the actual contest or design page for designers, and they’ll respond in kind. It’s a fast, organized, and convenient way of dealing with revisions.
Contests can run anywhere between one and fourteen days, so the longest you’ll have to wait for your fresh logo is two weeks. DesignContest also filters through the thousands of logo designs that are presented from the potential designers, so you don’t get 240k pitches. You’ll only receive the ones that DesignContest deems to be the highest quality and the best fits for your contest.
One feature we found very cool was the voting process feature. This allows you to share the design pitches with other people from your teams or offices. Then they can vote on the designs they like best. It’s a really great way to get additional feedback from others who might have worthwhile opinions to give.
What’s also interesting about DesignContest is that it offers the option of working with designers one-on-one after the initial contest is completed. So, if you like the work the designer did for you, you can hire them through DesignContest to create other designs for more projects you have in the future. It’s a nice way of vetting designers and gives you the flexibility of working with the ones you like best.
You can also launch an entirely new project with a one-on-one designer you’ve never worked with before. Instead of sending your brief to the entire DesignContest network, one-on-one briefs can be sent to up to three designers of your choice from within the network. You can make your selections based on their portfolios on the DesignContest website. The rest of the process is the same. You’ll receive logo designs from the three designers, and you choose the one that you like the best.
Conclusion
DesignContest was launched in 2003, and it’s been delivering quality and professional designs to businesses ever since. The crowdsourced structure allows brands to find the most competitive pricing for any design project they’re looking for. DesignContest has several categories, including logo, business card, banner, icon, graphic, website, and t-shirt design. Designers in the network are incredibly talented, and the turnaround time is also fast. Bottom line, DesignContest is a great way for businesses to get professional logo designs for less.
