Creating a Logo for your web 2.0 service
As we were approaching the launch date for http://clikboard.com (at least once we were adding items to the Lighthouse list slower than we were implementing them), we realised that we needed a cool logo that people would remember and associate with the site. After briefly flirting with the idea drawing it ourselves, we decided to go with an outside designer.
I had heard of design contests before and thought this would be an interested excuse to try them out. Here’s what happened…
First, I picked http://99designs.com to run the contest. They’re pretty new but have a clean, transparent service and have a good number of designers available. The contests are fixed to run for exactly one week which seemed perfect. The cost for running a contest is $39 (assuming you don’t add any extras). You have to set a prize amount which is what you pay for the winning design. I set it to $300 which seemed typical.
Second, I wrote a design brief. This is pretty important because you have to give a design something to start from. The way it seems to work is that they come up with concepts from the brief, and then evolve the designs based on your feedback.
Once the contest was launched, we had the first designs within hours! We realised that it was really important to send meaningful feedback as quickly as possible so that the designers could act on it. Because the designers were from all over the world, new designs were coming in right around the clock!
By the end of the week, we had 45 designs. You can see them at our contest page – In the end we went with this design (it captured the ‘click’ and ‘board’ part best and has a distinctive favicon):
Overall, the experience was very positive. In the past I’ve worked with designers where you just don’t ‘click’ (no pun) and it’s hard to get him to understand what you’re looking for. By working with a group and scoring the designs as you go, it seems easier to steer the design and get what you want.
