DesignContest.com Review

Crowd-sourcing is the buzzword in the logo design industry these days. Why have a couple of designers work on your logo when you can outsource the task to a huge pool of designers all around the world? One of the companies that is taking advantage of the design contest craze is DesignContest.com.

We took some time to look over the DesignContest site and write up a summary of what they do and how they operate. We also provide links to certain resources on the web so you can see some of the feedback and comments that they have received from customers. We'll be adding any reviews, complaints or comments that we come across to this list over time.

Overview

Design Contest was operating as DesignContest.net for several years but switched to DesignContest.com when they purchased the domain in 2010. They are based in Marina Del Ray, California and have a team of approximately seven employees. The business is owned by Sergey Nekipelov. You can connect with them on their Twitter and Facebook pages.

Products and Services

While the scope of this website is logo design and we have focused on this, DesignContest also host a wide range of other design competitions. These range from business cards, icons, T-shirts, websites, banners and more. The site is similar in style and operation to the popular 99designs.com. Basically, users hold a design competition for their project, put up some prize money, guide the contest to completion by giving feedback, appoint a winner and then receive the design work of their dreams.

Anyone can visit their site and view some of the contests that are currently taking place as well as a portfolio of designs that have been completed via the site in the past.

One thing that makes Design Contest fairly unique is that they pre-screen their designers. Some sites boast of pools of designers that number in the tens of thousands. However, as many of them are amateurs, they don't always bring a lot of value to the contests that they enter. At Design Contest, designers are checked out before they are given access to the contests. They must understand the basics of design and show an interest in design ethics.

DesignContest.com also gives users the option to work directly with designers if they have a favorite. Design Contest facilitates such a transaction securely so that the interests of both the designer and the client are protected.

How it Works

To start off a logo contest you first have to choose a package with $289 being the minimum in terms of price. Bear in mind that the higher the prize that you offer is, the more likely you are to receive a higher volume of concepts.

You then choose the duration of your contest. Standard duration is seven days but you can pay an extra $19 for an extra week. You can also pay extra if you want your contest to have extra exposure within the community.

Once you have completed a brief for your project and your contest has started you will start to receive concepts from some of the designers that work within the community. To guide your contest in the right direction you can eliminate any entries that are way off target. You can also score designs and submit comments so that the designers can get a better understanding of what you like and dislike.

Once the contest comes to an end you then decide on a winning design. You'll then get access to the necessary files and receive full ownership of the artwork. Finally, the winning participant will receive the prize money.

Guarantee Policies

Before using DesignContest.com you will want to familiarize yourself with their 'terms of service' and refund policy. The following is our interpretation of their money back guarantee.

They do offer a 100% money back guarantee but this is subject to conditions that would make some contest holders ineligible. For example, if you received more than 30 unique design entries you would not qualify for a refund. Another instance where you would not be able to get your money back would be if you had not given feedback to at least 80% of the designers who submitted designs.

User Reviews

We did some research on the Internet to try and find some independent reviews and feedback relating to DesignContest and their services. Before you choose a company to design your logo it is helpful to know if they have received positive reviews or excessive complaints. Although we were unable to come up with much on this company we have provided links to two references below.

1) The Better Business Bureau (BBB.org) is a great place to check if you want to find out if a business has a lot of complaints filed against it. Design Contest was accredited with the BBB in 2011 and they currently have a perfect A+ rating. No complaints had been filed against them when we checked. See their DesignContest.com profile.

2) One person posted a very brief DesignContest.com review on a site called ReviewCentre.com. They felt that they had an awesome logo as a result of the help received from DesignContest.

Overall Rating - Not in the Top 5

To visit the website for DesignContest.com - www.designcontest.com