crowdSPRING.com: More Bang For Your Logo Buck

0 Comment(s) | Posted Sep 3, 2009 by Pat Morrell

Patrick Morrell

We tweeted about this the other day, but felt a more in-depth description was in order.  In getting Three Ships Media off the ground, one of the first orders of business was creating a logo.  We shopped around Raleigh, North Carolina but couldn’t quite find what we were looking for.

Eventually, our buddies over at New Media Campaigns turned us on to www.crowdSPRING.com.  Operating almost like a half eBay, half wholesaler graphic design hub, crowdSPRING allows companies to post a budget and short description of their project, and then opens it up to graphic designers from around the world to submit proposals.  The minimum budget is $200, and companies are guaranteed at least 25 submissions within a seven-day span.  CrowdSPRING takes a small percentage fee as the facilitator and host of the transaction, but the bulk of the fee goes directly to the designer.

Doing the math, Caroline, Graham, Zach, and I agreed this was the best value for our dollar.  So, we rolled the dice, wrote a short description of what we wanted (what our company does, desired colors, etc.) and sent it out.  We set our bid at $350 as crowdSPRING recommended a bid of $300 to insure the highest-quality submissions (and based on our brief search among other outlets, this was a very fair price).

The results were very positive.  For $350, in 72 hours we received over 80 submissions, all varying in scheme and design and nearly all of the highest quality.  A handful did have an elementary school art class feel, but the overwhelming majority was very professional looking.

The first go-around didn’t yield exactly what we wanted, so we went back to several of our favorite designers with a few notes and suggestions.  Within 24 hours every one had come back with multiple variations and improvements, giving us even more specialized options.  We ended up selecting a design by designer username sq1rsa and are very pleased with the versatility of our final proofs.

Moral of the story: to get the biggest bang for your logo buck, check out www.crowdSPRING.com.

Filed under: 3SM Logistics