DesignBay Makes Graphic Design More Affordable

One of the main reasons small businesses don't use professional graphic design is because of the expense. If you want a wine label designed, for example, you can spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars with a designer to create a few options for you to choose from.

Alec Lynch, the founder of DesignBay, has created a company that helps resolve this problem. DesignBay is a crowdsourcing marketplace for graphic design, logo design and web design. What this means is that you can get multiple designs from multiple graphic designers for one very low price. DesignBay organizes "design contests" where graphic designers from around the world will submit designs based on your specifications.

An example best describes how this process works. Look at the Key Lager Beer labels above. This is for a small brewery in the Florida Keys that wanted to create a new beer label. They created a design contest on DesignBay with a $250 budget. They received 16 different designs from several designers, and they were able to review all the entries before selecting the winning designs pictured here. The only additional cost is a $30 posting fee. So, you can get completely different ideas from professional graphic designers for less than the cost of hiring one freelance designer.

There are more than 1,000 designers from all over the world registered with DesignBay. Everything is done online, so it doesn't matter if the designer is in the US, Britain, Australia or India, you will interact with them through the DesignBay web site.

I think this is a great idea that takes away the main objection most small businesses have in working with professional designers. Not only that, but you get a number of different ideas to choose from. So, if you are looking to design some new product labels why not give DesignBay a try.

Comments

[web design India]

very cool post

[Terre]

Actually you have to be very careful with so-called 'crowdsourced' design.

Because the people who submit to websites of this kind are not paid anywhere near living wages, the temptation to rip off artwork they find on the internet is strong. If a business pays for a brochure or logo that's been stolen from a legitimate designer or illustration, it is the business that will face charges copyright infringement.

Read the fine print on websites like DesignBay: they don't guarantee anything. They exist to skim a little off whatever you pay the poor sucker who "wins" the contest. The winner doesn't make enough to legally own the design software, and all the others don't make anything.

This model is obviously not sustainable. Businesses who buy into this scheme, be aware.

[peterrenton]

Thanks for your comments Terre. You make good points, some things I hadn't considered.

Let me also say that I don't think this is a replacement for a professional graphic designer. I see it more for those people who would like to hire a graphic designer but can't afford one.

I guess time will tell if this model is sustainable or not.

Thanks, Peter

[Pete Cooper]

Great post. Thanks.

Hmmm... If you have a coffee shop and your logo has your name on it plus a cup of coffee, just how many people would successfully challenge on originality? Same for so many industries.

Besides, the majority of the designers from what I can see are actually independents in OECD countries so the income point is irrelevant because they are using it for lifestyle flexibility or supplementary income.

The plagarism point you make is interesting but not new. It is an existing industry wide issue regardless of which 'channel' (like www.designbay.com or traditional designers) you use. Read the small print on an ecommerce site!

I really like the fact traditional designers can use www.designbay.com as a supplementary source for creativity, no one has a monopoly on creativity. There end clients probably don't even know they are using it but everyone wins. Neat.

Thanks again Mr Renton!

Cheers, Peter.

[Alec Lynch]

Peter - thanks for the blog.

Good to see an alternative perspective from Terre - an opportunity to bring up further benefits of using DesignBay over the alternatives and other crowdsourcing sites.

Regarding Terre's comment on copyright - using DesignBay means that designer's works are made public and they can be called out if they're infringing copyright. If you use elance.com or a designer down the street their work is not public until you put the sign up out the front of your store or put the labels on your product - and by this stage it's too late.

I also have a few points regarding sustainability and the money that designers can make from DesignBay:
- DesignBay helps designers utilise and make money from their spare time in the most efficient way possible. Utilising capacity is a key success factor according to IBISWorld's industry reports on the graphic design industry. DesignBay is not a full time job it is a new form of very efficient freelancing
- DesignBay (unlike our competitors) offers participation payments so that designers are guaranteed earnings even if they're not selected. This helps distribute the wealth and, if you reserve a payment, worst case scenario is you make US$15 for an hour or so of work
- Istockphoto and threadless use similar business models and are sustainable. DesignBay has been running for over 1 year and our growth, happy customers and loyal designers suggest we are definitely sustainable.

Thanks,

Alec Lynch
DesignBay

[Vorzie Studios - Santa Rosa Graphic Design]

Excellent posting! With this in place it would definitely separate the men from the boys, so to speak. In the end the true winner is the client who ultimately gets what they desire, design suited for their purposes.

[Vorzie Studios - Santa Rosa Graphic Design]

Interesting, although I really don't see the difference between this service and ones like Elance for example.

Please visit our site to view the latest designs from Vorzie Studios.

[Logo Contests]

Their site makes it hard to search for open contests. I do think there is a lot of potential though in Design Bay. Hopefully they will get more IT people working for them...have a contest!

[Web Development]

Very Intersting. I don't have words to tell few words about it. Thanks for Valuable info.

[Website Designing India]

Well Written Story. It is readable to all designers.