Regardless of how you feel about Brigada’s new loco logo, you’re gonna love the $50 savings (if you want to use 99Designs to develop your own, that is). If you launch your own logo contest on or before Apr. 22, you can save $50 on the cost of your 99Designs fee. What’s more, 99Designs will send a $50 check to Brigada as a thank-you gift for generating more business. Everybody wins. Just use the following link…
http://99designs.refr.cc/M7BT85V
Was the 99designs.com contest helpful? Without a doubt. Within 7 days, the contest generated 500 logo design proposals from some 50 different artists. Try it. It’s fun!
Be careful here folks. Most designers like myself that make a living at brand identity see these sites as really de-valuing what we do. We spend hours and hours researching the market, competition and the company itself to come up with a solid brand identity that will make the organization stand out. There is real value in what we do, so when anyone with Photoshop can enter a design contest like this is really makes it hard to continue to sell the value to our clients (and I believe there IS real value in what we do!). For Brigada this was probably ok (although I would have done it for free for you guys) but if your are looking to do this for your organization please consult a real designer. Thanks!
Hi Kyle. I’m no economist — nor am I a politician. I only know that for those of us who work for non-profits, we will generally always migrate to the source that will give us the best value for our money. Period. Because of our responsibility to donors (and because funding is generally always short), please put yourself in our place: We’re not going to pay more for a ticket on a traditional airline just to keep them in business — if Southwest has introduced a new, lower fare that still gets us there (with no extra fee for luggage, by the way). Nothing personal, mind you. Just imagine if offset printers told all of us, “Hey, these guys that do digital printing are going to try to take your business, but if they do, you’ll be putting all of us offset press operators out of a job. So please keep using offset printing even though it takes longer and costs more. Does any of that make sense brother? Keep in mind, we ran a logo contest in Brigada about 5 years ago and received virtually NO responses at all. 99Designs is getting looks from customers like Brigada because it’s fast (7 days), cheap ($200 after the referral discount) and — it can even be effective. A lot of people really like the Brigada logo that developed in those 7 days. I know that design is a subjective matter — but isn’t art usually always that way anyway?
Agree that there is no reason to pay more for something if offered for less. The only thing that I’m warning is that if you need a true brand design (not just a logo for something like Brigada) then to consider using a designer that will take the time to understand the business, the market, etc. There is value in this and many companies overlook it and wonder why there is no result even with that shiny new logo. I was simply responding to the fact that there was an “invitation” to all to check out this service. For some, the responsible thing to the donor would be to have the strongest brand possible in order to be the most effective to reach the world for Christ.
I’m sure you’re right, Kyle — that there are many designers on 99designs who are amateurs and beginners. But to me, we always have to scout out the person with the experience, expertise, and sensitivity — regardless of the context. So I guess the bottom line for me is — going with a service like 99designs doesn’t excuse the buyer from the responsibility to find a person willing to adequately understand the design parameters. But nor does it means that a designer working in the 99designs web world couldn’t be good at it, either.