Whether you’re a designer or a client, I’m sure you’ve heard of these things called design contests. Also called crowdsourcing or spec work, websites like 99designs, CrowdSpring, among dozens of others, dot our graphic design landscape. And they’re here to stay, unfortunately.
And I’m sure, either as a designer or a client, that they’ve had a certain pull or power over you. Or at the very least, you’ve been curious about them.
If you’re a young, aspiring designer, who possibly might be desperate for work or new clients, the promise of winning one might seem too tempting to resist.
And if you’re a client, who possibly might be running a new start-up with a shoestring budget, the possibilities are endless and the promise of paying bottom-dollar for hundreds of designs might seem too good to be true.
But it is.
Regardless of which side of the fence you’re on, designer or client, the dangers and evils of design contests cannot be ignored. I’ll break down both of them for you.
This week we’re focusing on why they’re bad for the designers involved, and next week, I’ll talk about the specific risks to the clients that use them. Yes, design contests are, arguably, even worse in the long run for clients.
And if you’re a designer, and you just loooove design contests, great, more power to you. Feel free to skip this article. I’m trying to reach out to those who haven’t yet been tainted by contests, who might simply be considering them. I’m here to warn you before you jump in.
There are some things you may not know about these contests. While they may seem fair or fun on the surface, when you think about it they really aren’t. Here’s why:
1. There’s a high (very high) chance you won’t get paid
I did some poking around, and it turns out the average chance of winning one of these design contests can range between .2% (that’s less than 1%) up to 10%.
Think about that.
Imagine working hard, and submitting 100 designs, which probably took you at least 100 hours, and only getting paid for less than 10 of those. And that’s if you’re lucky. The average chance of you winning any contest is roughly 5%. Which means the chance of losing is 95%…doesn’t sound like good odds to me.
And to make matters worse, even if a payment is “guaranteed,” there’s also a high chance that the contest will be abandoned; i.e., the person holding the contest cancels it or backs out. So no one gets paid. Doesn’t seem fair, does it?
While there might be the oddball person who can feasibly make a decent enough living by doing this full time, they have to work their ass off for scraps. The average payout is usually in the neighborhood of $300 for a logo (just to use an example), which, while not bad, you have to factor in how many logos (and hours) it took to get paid for just that one.
Let’s use an example of someone winning 9 logo competitions out of 146, which is 6% (about average).
Each logo netted them $300. $300 x 9 = $2,700. Not bad.
But wait, they actually designed 146 logos, not just 9. So each logo technically was worth $18.49. Err….I just hope each one didn’t take them much more than an hour to do, because otherwise they’d be working minimum wage.
Remember, as a designer, you are a service provider. And as service providers, ALL we have is our time. Your time is valuable, and should be fairly compensated.
As service providers, ALL we have is our time. Click To Tweet
2. No other industry does this
Imagine going to a restaurant, and ordering 10 different dishes.
You try each one, and decide on the entrée that you enjoy the most, and finish eating that one. Yet when the check comes you only want to pay for the one you actually finished. Outrageous? Well, that’s exactly what’s happening when designers participate in design contests.
No other industry does this.
I don’t go to 5 different dentists and have them do 5 different fillings to see which one I want to pay for.
I don’t have 20 different plumbers come to my house and I pay the one who I think unclogged my husband’s toilet the best.
No.
Why is it our industry that gets exploited like this? It’s up to us as designers to not feed the monster, and refuse to participate in it. Other service professionals don’t do spec work, and neither should we.
3. Design contests cheapen our industry and work
When you, as a designer, work for free (which is essentially what design contests are), you inadvertently cheapen our work.
AIGA, the professional association for design, holds a very strong stance again spec work (design contests), and for good reason.
If we want clients to value our work and time, we need to value it first, by not participating in things like design contests. If someone wants something designed, they need to pay you, just like any other professional service provider.
4. Contests can be psychologically addicting
Have you ever heard of Grace Oris? She’s another designer I follow, and she wrote an amazing blog post about her experience working for 99designs (probably the largest, most well-known online design contest website).
She described how she entered into all these contests, and wouldn’t win. She would become disheartened, about to give up, and then BOOM! She’d win one.
The joy and elation she felt would give her the energy to enter more, and the cycle would repeat.
The highs and lows she described sounded like a drug addict looking for their next high, or someone addicted to gambling. Interestingly enough, there is a very real phenomenon called “intermittent reinforement,” in which a behavior is more strongly enforced if it is rewarded only sometimes.
Since winning a contest is unpredictable and rarely happens, it reinforces the addictive nature of it. Do you want to be an addict, looking for your next fix?
5. It’s a lazy shortcut
I get it. You’re a design student, with no experience. Maybe you’re just starting out and need some portfolio pieces. Maybe the economy took a dump and you’re desperate for work, any work.
I know the feeling.
However, design contests are not the way to go.
This may sound harsh, but I believe it’s the lazy way out.
And by lazy I don’t mean you’re not working hard, churning out designs for them. Hardly. But it’s lazy in the sense that it, as a solution to your problem, it doesn’t require much creativity.
You can sit at home and enter these contests with the click of a mouse. There’s no real risk involved.
On the other hand, putting yourself out there and getting real clients…I don’t know about you, but that still scares the shit out of me.
Networking is hard. Working on your SEO, that is hard. Sharpening your design skills and getting real constructive feedback, that sucks sometimes. Thinking long and hard about your marketing plan isn’t fun. Following leads and meeting potential clients, that takes work and effort. And you will get rejected. That’s hard.
But you have to do it; it’s the only way to really build up your portfolio, reputation, and business.
Flip burgers in the meantime if you have to, just please don’t give in to the temptation of contests. Here’s a great article on how to find clients if you’re still struggling that involves zero spec work.
You can still get experience, still get portfolio pieces, and still get clients, in an honest way. If you’re willing to put the work in, you can do it.
In conclusion
So, it should be pretty obvious that design contests are always a risky gamble for the designer, period.
But what about for the client? Surely it’s a win-win for them at least.
Stay tuned, we’ll cover why design contests are just as dangerous—if not more so—for clients as they are for the designers that participate in them.
What about you?
Are you a designer that has done design contests? What was your experience like? Do you think our industry should celebrate contests, or shun them and encourage others to do so?
Sheila Patterson is the owner and Creative Director behind Apex Creative. GCU professor by day, brand identity expert by night, she loves all things related to design. When she's not creating amazing logos and websites, you can find Sheila tormenting her husband and two feline furbabies, catching the latest Game of Thrones episode, or reading a good book.
Naps are nice too.
34 Comments. Leave new
Couldn’t agree more. Sometimes I’ll do a search for “logo design” on google news. Nearly 1/2 or sometimes more of the displayed articles are contest related (i.e. “XYZ School Uses Crowdsourcing For New Logo / Identity).
The results of those contests are almost always beyond horrendous; consisting of cliche and amateurish work, half of which is probably stolen.
It’s always good to see others like yourself portraying the reality of these contests that have become so popular. It’s probably the best thing we can do to break this conditioning that’s been instilled by participating designers and clients.
Hi Derek! Always good to hear from you, thanks for reading!
What gets me is that there are some designers out there that actually support contests, sometimes rather vehemently. I don’t get it. Sure, it’s a free country, blah blah blah, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t stand up for what’s right.
You’re totally right though–the results from these contest are often lacking in creativity and quality. Like I always say, the only “winners” from design contests are the websites that host them.
Great article Shelia! Most young or naive designers do not realise the actual odds of “winning” designs are quite low even if you are quite good at it. Yes the odds of “winning” a design is actually lower then 5% and that is if you get paid at all. So by the time you add all of the work spent doing the ‘lost’ designs and ‘wins’ (if any) your hourly rate is a pittance – you would earn more serving tables 🙁 I love your line: “I don’t have 20 different plumbers come to my house and I pay the one who I think unclogged my husband’s toilet the best.” It made me LOLFR (laugh out loud for real). I love how your husband was the immediate suspect in that ‘hypothetical’ crisis.
You are right it cheapens our craft and there no real winners. It’s what I call ‘a race to the bottom’.
Thanks for reading, Omar! Yes, what saddens me is how naive most inexperienced designers are…most design contests are really good at making lofty promises, but rarely deliver. Oh, my husband is always the immediate suspect 😉 Glad you enjoyed!
When I first decided I wanted pursue a career in design, I actually looked into these sites because I thought it would be a good way to build up my portfolio while making money on the side. My degree isn’t in design so I had very little work for a portfolio, but these contests never worked out.
Like you said, I’d enter a “guaranteed” contest and then it would be abandoned. It only took a few tries for me to realize that going this route was just a huge waste of my time. It wasn’t worth the effort. I wish somebody had been there to stop me from making this mistake. I think most of these contests are pointless and I wouldn’t recommend anybody enter them. I agree with you, I think these contests devalue what we do.
Hi Meriel, thanks for sharing your experience! I totally get how design contests can look good to someone just starting out, and I’m sorry you had to learn the hard way. Hopefully your story will serve as a warning to others who might be considering making that same mistake!
Thank you for your article, I have faced that temptation of participating in design contests when I first started out. I really wish designers would recognize their worth and disband from things like 99Designs and spec work.
You’re welcome, Cybil, thanks for reading! I totally understand how design contests might be appealing to someone just starting out, but you’re right, no matter what, every designer should just say no.
Thank you, this is the type of information that every graphic designer must get, especially here in Puerto Rico where every day the Professions is devalued .
bravo!
Thanks for your comments, Genghis! Agree, 100%, we need to educate other designers AND clients about this issue.
i think design competitions are a great learning opportunity for current students. they have no use beyond that (for recent graduates, start ups or professionals).
Hi Kristy, thanks for leaving a comment. I can see where you’re coming from, but I respectfully disagree.
I believe there are many other options for design students to get real-world experience, without resorting to design contests. They can do pro-bono work for their favorite charity, or apply for an internship. They can do work for friends or family, or redesign their favorite brand for fun; anything is better than a design contest.
I’d go so far as to say that design contests do not even accurately capture what it’s like working with a real-world client anyway, so there’s really no use for them, other than to exploit inexperienced designers and gullible business owners.
I tried a couple of contest sites a few years ago and found them to be a complete waste of my time. I know spec work is frowned upon in the design community but I thought it might be a fun way to get creative outside of my day job where I don’t get to design logos anymore. After a few contests I quit submitting ideas and shut down all of my accounts.
Here is why quit doing it.
1. The amount of information in the descriptions and briefs provided in the contest is not enough to properly understand the needs of the company or person requesting the logo. The process should include much more communication between the client and the designer. I often felt my designs were a shot in the dark.
2. The payouts were not worth the effort it takes to create an original, well designed logo. Every logo I submitted was an original design. I never used clip art or ripped off another idea to save time. $300.00 for a quality logo is an insult. And asking me to whip out a logo worth only $300.00 is an insult.
3. The person selecting the logo is not usually a trained artist/designer and should not be picking their favorite logo out of a lineup. In a perfect world the client works with the designer to provide valuable input. The designer creates the logo and helps the client understand the final solution. It’s a symbiotic relationship that doesn’t exist in a contest.
4.Once the contest is over your logo is free to be used and abused by the new owner and anybody else they hire to create web sites, business cards, vinyl signage, etc. The new owner (and anybody else they hire for $300.00) knows nothing of building and managing a brand.
Mike- Here’s another reason to quit…
Some of the contests display everyone’s submissions and during my time patrolling the contest sites, a contest holder would often tell the rest of the participants that he likes what so-and-so did so he would like to see more designs in that direction. So if you come up with a great idea, other designers can use it to compete against you and you have no recourse.
Hi Sheila, Thank you for posting articles like this. I am currently studying to be a graphic designer, and have already heard of 99Designs!… and been thinking of how I could build up a portfolio when I near the end of my training. After reading this article I totally agree with so many points. It is great to have a forum like this (AIGA) which can act as a mentor to me on many topics – right from the outset. 🙂
I worked for 99Designs and tried Elance. I won one contest. They paid so little. It is slavery. I do not participate in such contests anymore. It is better to volunteer and make free design than do “super best exclusive out of the box etc” for $100.
Thanks for sharing, Anna, I always find it fascinating to hear stories from those who actually did participate in design contests. While I’m sorry it was such a horrible experience for you, at the same time I’m glad you figured out the truth!
How can they even get away with it? The nearly every design I saw use fonts from free fonts sites like dafont. The majority of logo designs are hacked together from stock illustrations from istock. Designcontest.com is probably the worst.
Thanks for reading, Jason! Totally agree, there is A LOT of copying going on at design contests, plus the overuse of bad/free fonts. I think they get away with it because no one bothers or cares to check. The client certainly doesn’t know any better, and trusts that the designers are giving them a good product.
I very much agree, with all of this! I’ve only ever did 1 design contest in my life after I become a professional designer with school and experience under my belt. I only did it because it was data visualization (which I love) and in a topic that I’m interested in and feel strongly about, and it was for the UN. Which…while the UN is a non-profit…it doesn’t mean that they are a poor organization either.
In the end, the winning entry, and “notable mentions” were very disappointing from a design perspective. It’s not only that it’s unfair to designers to belittle our industry by way of contests and pit ourselves against one another for the slim probability of glory and maybe a bit of money (less than usually what a professional designer makes when they charge paying clients) but it’s also disheartening when winning entries are the ones that are poorly designed.
I’m not one to try to rag on someone else’s design skills. But if my non-designer friends say something is poorly designed, that’s got to count for something.
Sadly….with design contests, very rarely is someone who is actually knowledgeable about design helping to call the shots. So in the end, poor designs win and it increases the issue of designer v. “designer” that we all struggle against.
Anybody can learn Illustrator but it takes years and a lot of time, energy and dedication to hone your design skills. Just because I can wield a pair of scissors it doesn’t make me a hairstylist.
This might sound harsh to some…but it comes from a really personal perspective. For years I identified myself as a graphic designer. It was only when I went to school that I realized how much knowledge and skill I lacked. Since then, I have dedicated hours and hours upon refining my skills, learning more, etc. My previous ‘design’ work was no more than someone who knew how to use the program to cobble something together that wasn’t on Microsoft Word. But would I ever put those pieces in my portfolio today? Hell no. Was I designer then? Hell no.
Contests are a dangerous territory and they dilute our industry for so many reasons.
Hi Renee, thanks for reading and sharing your story!
Your experience totally resonates with what I keep hearing from other designers who tried their hand at contests. You’re right, it’s almost always a lose-lose, for both the designers and client. The designers get the shaft, and clients get subpar design that doesn’t meet their business goals. It also reduces our profession down to a commodity, which it’s not.
I love your comparison to knowing design software and how to wield a pair of scissors. Neither makes you a skilled professional, spot on!
I sure I’m going to be unpopular with this comment, but I enjoy entering contests and not because I’m addicted to it or anything like that. I just like designing logos and keeping my creative juices flowing in my down/spare time. I’m not talking about spending ten hours entering 20 designs, but if a see a contest that intrigues me I’ll take an hour and submit and entry or two. If I win…hurray, if not I don’t lose any sleep over it. I see a lot of valid points everyone is making..bad entries winning, clip art logos, abandoned contests, etc… There is one site in particular where the contests are prepaid and winners are guaranteed. If a contest is abandoned you just let the admin know and they will award the winner and pay out the prize. Also, entries with clip art or entries that copy concepts of other designers are deleted and the designer is banned. Granted there are many sites that are crap, that I will admit. I could go on but I’ll just end it here. Thanks for letting me voice my opinion!
Hi Mark,
Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts! LOL, differing opinions are allowed (just as long as you’re nice 😉
Even though I think your unique case is an exception, I still overall contend that contests are not a good idea. Even if the designer, such as yourself, is just doing it for fun, I still think it’s ultimately detrimental to the client (read more here: http://apexcreative.net/8-reasons-design-contests-bad-for-clients/)
Thankyou for the great information about logo contests.. I hate because they are destroying the field I think some one should stand up against these companies and ban them or submit law case on it… Totally waste time for designer s…and also they have fake designers in the website they win more and more contest…. It’s full of betray. Fake winners. Fake contests..believe me I.understand now how they are earnings money from these contest.. They have there own team of fake designers from different countries.. And lots off from Philippines.. They win every competition.. You wouldn’t believe if you check the winners.. Many times clients pick rubbish design believe me.. It’s fake contest.. They are trying to take our logos concepts and they can sell and use in future.. I believe and I am pretty 100 % sure.. I know how they are making money from contests… Totally destroyed our design industry… And destroying the proffesional designers future..
Thanks for reading, Ahsan! Totally agree with you, there are a lot of fakes in the design contest world. I too wish there was some law and/or governing body that prevented these sorts of things from happening. But unfortunately, some clients are always going to be drawn to their lofty promises and cheap prices; the best we can do is to educate, educate, educate.
Thank you for this eye opening article, I always sold my skills for pennies to friends and even referrals as well 99designs. I’ve been a stay at home mom for 4 years now, prior to that I designed for an agency so I needed to continue my creative venue at home too. I started off with stationary and selling on zazzle but then I heard of 99designs and I’ve been doing this for only 2-3 weeks and I’m closing shop. Half of the contests are abandoned, no feedback most of the time, even some shady contests asking for a lot of original artwork for a mere $200. I think I’d rather watch my kids play then waste my time with customers who don’t value my time or skills. But I also learned that if you price yourself cheap at the beginning you get stuck with it. Mistakenly designed a logo for a friend for $50 and got referred to a few other folks through her on the premise of charging only $50 for a logo. Set the standard high right away is my new motto!
Hi Cami, glad you enjoyed! Thanks for sharing your own experience–I keep hearing similar stories from others who have done design contests. My motto is “just say no” 😉 Hope you’re able to break the cycle of cheap clients!
Great article! I mistakenly got involved in design contests. I am looking to get back into design, yes I’ve done a little work over the years primarily to keep my skills up and was looking to update my portfolio. I had made calls and secured a couple of clients knowing I was working for free (they both actually paid me, and are both good clients). I was actually looking for insight on building my freelance business perhaps a place to put my portfolio where potential clients could look at my work. I came across freelancer.com first. I found that on all of these sites you can’t upload your other work, just work on their site. The only way to get a portfolio is to enter contests. Since I wasn’t ready to commit I tried a contest and won. After all was said and done I was paid about .10 an hour and I am still waiting the money transfer. He then needed a logo done, but wanted to run a $50 logo contest, not a repeat client and they LOVED my work, I went out of my way for him. I enter a couple more and what I found were “designers” who would copy each other, use clip art, one guy was taking logos from other companies(the CH loves him). I tried 99design, they limit your contests to 20 in 28 days and then “they” decide if your work is quality enough to let you do more contests.I haven’t gotten to the review process yet nor do I plan to. I entered one contest with 106 designs, 6 were not clip art. One contest holder who ended up asking for a refund (I was watching the contest) he was screaming at the artists. I entered a total of 6 contests and have made the finals on 2, 3 were refunded and one is actually still going. Six days work+$0 paid= all work no pay. I’ll still look for a website to hang my hat and display my work, I don’t mind if there is a small monthly fee so the website can market us. If you know of any please let me know.
Thanks for reading and sharing your experience, Beth! Live and learn, right? 🙂
Even worse, I’m seeing a new trend especially on Craigslist, where contest participants actually have to pay to enter. I saw one the other day… it was $10 to submit a logo design and the “winner” received $100 for their logo. Most likely that company actually MADE money.
Life is so amazing how we really come across challenges of this nature, 99 Designs, is a complete rip off, because, it takes a Client a few designs to know what he/she wants, but you look at Designs submitted, OMG, in hundreds, imagine there are thousands of Designers so desperate to win a Single contest, imagine $300 for a Vehicle wrap……..there’s nothing we can do about it, but ONLY if we as Designers can come up with our own sponsored Site for Legit Designers where the Client interested can work, One on One with the respective prefered Designer profile.and get paid directly by the Client, i guess thats the only way, we can Cripple such Site..
I agree that most design competitions are bad for designers and often for clients. However, you are wrong in saying that “No other industry does this”. Many other industries have similar exploitive traditions. Acting is one of the most severe, where actors must prepare for countless auditions, for free, in the hope of getting a part or some kind of work at long intervals. But many, many other fields must prepare some amount of work on some amount of speculation. You mention the restaurant, which won’t feed a customer on spec. But they will feed the Food Court manager or Festival organizer for free, if they want to get their product into those venues. Even high-tech companies that design military aircraft for the Air Force are often involved in a design competition with some spec work.
It’s not that “no other industry does this”. The key problem is that it is a bad idea, as you have explained well in other paragraphs. If they desire, designers can seek the company other professions, with whom they can enjoy the love of shared misery. But they are wiser to avoid most design competitions.
My goal is not to quibble, but to point out that invoking inaccurate “this only happens to me” rationalizations doesn’t help win respect for designers and the design industry either.
I think it’s about time these kinds of contests are challenged in court (all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary)! They are clearly deceptive an exploitative (asking people to work for free and accomplish specific tasks) and often are really only lotteries in disguise (based on the legal definition of lotteries).
99designs.com is a 100% scam site, they don’t pay you
99designs.com stolen my winning money and suspended my account
I won a contest at 99design, after i won the contest they said my money will credit on my account ASAP but they suspended my account and stolen my money, i think they are big scam in online. My user name is imaxqapp
They just suspended me without paid my contest winning money
“Your account has been suspended forever for the following reason:
Hello, Thanks for your interest in 99designs. Unfortunately the current quality of your work does not fit our site standards. As a result, we have put your account on hold. We encourage you to improve your design skills. You can find design tutorials and inspirational work here:”
Milton
http://www.imaxq.com
Website Developer & Graphics Designer