Logo & web design: the crowdSPRING alternative

By Richard Earle,
Regis Affiliate


As a consultant, your role is that of teacher and adviser, but every so often, I learn from a client, and I’m  happy to admit  it! 

Usually, when I consult with a client on branding  or rebranding, I find that they have a  staff designer  or a design firm that they are used to working with, and trust, and that’s fine. The Regis way is to work with a client, and organize and guide them into a plan or strategy that is truly theirs. So we work with them to develop a very tight Creative Brief, and often I work with their designer to execute it.

Recently, I worked with a client and we did a Branding session with client and their design firm. We put together a strong creative brief  and I assumed that the designers and I would go to work on an identity package. Then the client called out of the blue and said she had strong disagreement with the design firm and fired them. But since we were under a very tight deadline, she suggested crowdSPRING.

I admit to being quite skeptical, having had them recommended by another client, and after checking their web site, and noting the extravagant claims there (“over 72,000 designers, worldwide,” “a professional logo for as little as $200” “the world’s best creative team”) I said there’s no way this system can work, especially since one of my early mentors, Bill Bernbach, had turned advertising around by elevating the Art Director to full Creative partnership with the writer. Some of my best creative moments occurred sitting in a room with an Art Director, tossing ideas back and forth. Th e idea of doing this electronically with someone thousands of miles away made me very leary.   

Knowing that some clients pay anywhere from  $5-50,000 for a logo (Coke is rumored to have paid in the millions for theirs!) I remained skeptical as we started the process. My client posted a low-ball fee of $250, and a time frame of two weeks, and posted our very detailed Creative Brief , including a tag line, so I frankly expected about a dozen or so submissions. Actually, we got over 70!

They came from all over the world, and new ones were added every day. Most were quite professional and some were modified by the designers in subsequent postings. The one we all agreed was best was from a young designer in Transylvania. Once we had selected him we were urged to contact him by e-mail. His command of English  was excellent, and we went through a week of normal client/designer give-and-take, over color palette and such. All requests  were professionally answered in a timely fashion, and we finally got a very satisfactory logo for $250 from a  guy who lives somewhere in the neighborhood of Dracula’s castle!  

Check out the crowdSPRING web site at  http://www.crowdspring.com. Ignore the hyperbole and try them out! We can’t promise you’ll have the kind of smooth experience we had, but for $2-500 bucks, it’s worth a try!