Crowd sourced design – is it a good thing for the creative industry?

The largest crowd-sourced design website – 99designs.com is heading back to it’s roots in Australia.

Started in Melbourne in 2008, the website hosts “design contests”.
Companies create the contests and specify the price and often the concept. Designers then submit designs hoping to win the contest.
If you are young designer starting out, it might be a fast way to gain some exposure and credibility.
For established designers, is it valuable service that you should participate in, or is it another way for the “web” to under value a market.

Print brokers essentially did the same thing to printing 15 years ago – got a stable of printers to outbid each other for work. The end results was a headlong rush to the cheapest price!
Similar thing happened to photography with the explosion of stock photo websites.

Post a comment or contact us and let us know your thoughts – good, bad, indifferent.