The Dangers Of Outsourcing Your Logo Design To A Large Group

With the cost of having a professional corporate logo designed measuring in the hundreds, and even thousands, of dollars, it's tempting to find an alternate route. Some small business owners decide to do the job themselves, a path that often leads to disaster. Others hire a "budget" designer, hoping for the best, but privately acknowledging the risk. Still others outsource the job to a large group of designers, essentially creating a contest.

To many budget-conscious business owners, stumbling upon this last option seems a stroke of luck. Known as crowdsourcing, it's not uncommon for a logo design to cost less than $50. But there are notable dangers that make this option unappealing. We'll cover the most important among them below.

To understand the reason high-caliber logo designers avoid crowdsourced projects, it's important to be familiar with the process. Typically, a business owner will offer a specific dollar amount as compensation for the artwork, and invite everyone to submit a design. The winner is chosen by the business owner, and awarded the payout. There may be dozens of designers participating in the contest.

The first reason professional designers stay away from these projects involves the payout. It can be as low as $10 (technically, even lower), which is insufficient for them to meet their business expenses. Second, there's no guarantee that they will win the contest. As such, they could potentially spend time designing a logo for which they do not receive payment. Third, there's very little opportunity for the designer to work directly with the business owner. Because communication is a large part of a professional logo design process, this hampers the designer's effectiveness.

If you decide to travel this route, realize that the chances of working with a top-shelf logo designer are minimal.

When you crowdsource your design project, you leave yourself open to receiving artwork that has been "borrowed" from other designs. Many of the people who participate in design contests will not maintain the integrity you might expect from a professional designer. To save time, they may simply copy an element or two from a trademarked image. Or, they might borrow elements from stock art they find online.

Consider the long-term consequences. If you're unaware that elements of your new logo have been copied, you may spend thousands of dollars printing stationary, sticker printing, brochures, signage, and other collateral. What happens when the owner of the trademarked logo from which the elements were borrowed notices the similarity? You would be forced to throw away the material you've printed.

Graphic designers who participate in crowdsourced projects cannot apply the same meticulous logo design process as a professional. Given the low payout (assuming their mark is chosen as the "winner"), there is insufficient time. Researching the business owner's industry, reviewing competitors' logos for positioning, and sketching preliminary designs are luxuries that must be abandoned. Instead, the designer is forced to hurry through the process. This too carries consequences.

Because a careful logo design process must be abandoned for speed, many of the features that make a corporate logo effective will likely be missing. For example, the timeless quality that can last for decades will be absent; the versatility that allows the design to be used across various media may be lacking; and the simplicity that drives instant recall in the viewer will also be missing. What's left is an image that may seem fine on the surface, but will fail to do its job.

Can crowdsourcing a corporate logo produce a high-quality design? Perhaps. Keep in mind, however, that Gap.com tried to do something similar in 2010 with disastrous results. A better solution is to rely on a professional designer who can instill your company's brand mark with the qualities that best convey your business's values and story.