Design contest websites are known to be the most competitive fields in the world of freelancing. On the one hand, this is highly beneficial for the buyer who receives dozens of high-quality artwork proposals for a price of one, and then has the luxury to decide which one to roll with. On the other hand, designers must live a high-octane lifestyle, where they must compete with other talented artists on every single project, knowing that only one can remain. At first, design contest websites seem to be pretty simple, but there are some hidden features and possibilities one may overlook.
Design contest websites have “design” in their names for a reason. First and foremost, they strictly limit projects to graphical work only, thus coding, developing, and even writing are all excluded. Other than the above restriction, you can enjoy total freedom: you can get custom logos for your business, animations and illustrations (2D and 3D), tattoos and stylish wedding invitations. Furthermore, freelancers can create advertising art for marketing purposes, web design for blogs and sites, special design for smartphone applications, package labels, t-shirt logos – and the list could go on forever.
In short, if you need any sort of graphical artwork, design contest sites will surely deliver it.
Most design contest websites proudly boast about a money back guarantee, but there are a couple of details you should take with a pinch of salt before jumping into conclusions. First, make sure that its’s a full refund or not, because certain sites keep the service fee when you cancel a contest. Second, there are always rules imposed on this feature: such a rule is that a “final round” entitles you to a refund, while non-assured contests usually exclude a money back guarantee. For the record: whenever you hold a contest, the offer status displays whether there is an assured prize or not. Not surprisingly, if you make no promises for a winner, you’ll get fewer and lower quality results.
It should also be mentioned that you are allowed to offer complementary prizes or participation awards for the runner-ups (adding an extra layer of motivation for freelancers to participate), but it requires additional deposit on your part.
In case you are eyeing a freelancer website that specializes in design contests, allow us to suggest two thoroughly-tested platforms: 99designs and DesignCrowd.
99designs is a freelancer website that has an international presence, with localized versions for the Spanish and Aussie audiences. The site operates with a strict policy: they only deal with graphical designers, thus programmers, writers and other workforce won’t find any work here. However, digital artists will find a thriving community where they can challenge their skills against others. T-shirt designs, business card logos, YouTube-channel mascots, book covers: any type of digital creative work goes. Design contests are the main attractions of 99designs: employers are able to launch a contest by prompting an idea, while freelancers can create their own work according to the guidelines. Although only the winner can take a monetary prize, none of the other contestants leave empty-handed, as they receive lots of help and feedback too. Admittedly, becoming accepted as a freelancer is quite the challenge, but don’t forget one of the greatest pros of 99designs: the site won’t charge any service fee on the freelancer’s earnings.
In our current age, visuals are everything: logos represent companies to such extent people immediately associate the golden arches logo of McDonald’s with its gold fries. Even the nowadays outstandingly popular YouTube channels and videos cannot exist without good design. Thus, to suppress the millennials’ seemingly infinite appetite for custom made artwork, DesignCrowd came up with a crazy new idea: instead of spending hours browsing freelancer websites for possible candidates you could just post a design contest, set a prize and let artists compete with each other. The website is a huge job board, including several categories, where employers can create projects (describing their wishes in detail) and receive multiple design ideas from various freelancers. Furthermore, not only do all participating designers receive a small compensation, but if you are unsatisfied, you can get your money back as well.
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