Need Some Great Design Work? Run a Design Contest.

Tuesday, August 7th, 2012
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At one point or another all online merchants are going to need some design work done for their business. This can be a simple task like spicing up your logo or creating a new banner advertisement. You may also have some more complex projects you need designers or developers for, such as website design or mobile app creation. Unless you’re a designer yourself or you have a designer on staff, you’re going to need to hit the web to find someone to do this design work for you, which can be a difficult task. One option that you may want to consider is running a design contest that saves you the time involved searching for a designer by bringing the designers to you.

The company that Nexternal recommends for running a design contest is www.99designs.com. Nexternal has recently used www.99designs.com and the results have been great. If you use click here: www.99designs.com you can save $50 off of your design contest.

Holding a contest with www.99designs.com is completed in a few simple steps:

     1. Decide what type of contest you’re going to run (ex. Logo, Banner Ad, T-Shirt).

     2. Provide a design brief that will be used to describe your project to the pool of designers. You’ll want to use significant detail here, as this will save you from receiving designs that  don’t fit your requirements.

     3. Choose your contest details. This is where you determine what you’re going to pay for the winning design and how long you’d like your contest to run.

     4. Launch the contest.

It’s that simple. Very shortly, designers will start to submit designs they think you’ll like. Depending on the length of your contest, this can take a couple of days. Don’t be surprised if the designs really flow in towards the end of the contest. You’ll want to do your best to provide feedback right away to the designers and keep communication consistent with them. You’ll get more accurate and better designs the more feedback you provide.

Once you’ve identified your potential design options, you’ll pick a few designs and move on to the finals. Here is where you provide feedback to the designers to fine tune their designs before eventually choosing a winner. Once you’ve selected your winning design, the designer will transfer all the files over to you to use as you need.

Design contests can save you the significant amount of time it can take to find a designer, agree to terms, see mock-ups and finally approve a design. If you’re looking for a quick and easy solution, running a designs contest using www.99designs.com is a great option.

eCommerce Ninja by day and husband & father by night. Since 2003 Ty has been part of the fast growing eCommerce industry both as an Account Manager and online retailer. Ty has played a vital role in the conversion, launch and day-to-day operations of hundreds of online businesses ranging from multi-million dollar corporations to one and two person companies.