

Ask HN: 99designs or crowdspring for large-format illustration work? - turbinemonkey

I'm working on an MVP, and have an idea for a large illustration to surround the site's introduction and a survey that will help to complement the message.  However, I'm a decent web designer with fair sense of color, proportion, &#38;c, but have zero illustration skills.<p>This seems like the perfect place for 99designs or crowdspring.  From browsing the contests on each site now, it <i>seems</i> like 99designs has more high-quality stuff in their "other" category vs. crowdspring's "illustration" category, but that might be a transient situation.<p>I'd love to hear any words of advice as to which site I should use for a project like this, which seems like it's not quite in the mainstream of "crowdsourcing" projects.  Alternatively, maybe there's another similar site that I'm not aware of that is more appropriate for illustration work, rather than e.g. logos, web design, etc.  FWIW, my budget is probably going to land in the $500 area.
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rosskimbarovsky
I co-founded crowdSPRING. Illustration projects are perfectly appropriate
crowdsourcing projects (we've done many for startups, big Brands and some of
the world's best agencies). Let me offer a few suggestions that should help
you get a good result regardless of where you post your project:

1\. Be sensitive to your budget if the illustration is complex. Many people
forget that illustrations can be rather complex - and you're talking about a
large illustration (which might have many components and may need to interface
with other on-page elements). You'll attract better illustrators if you can
stretch your budget a bit (depending on complexity, of course).

2\. Limit initial scope. If you ultimately need a full page illustration, you
might initially ask for an illustration of a portion and then narrow your
selections and ask a few people to show you more complete illustrations.
Asking everyone to do full page illustrations - especially if your budget is
modest - might limit the number of participants.

3\. Identify styles you like. Even more important than sketching your idea is
a reference for the types of illustrations you like. Many illustrators have a
particular style and if you can be clear at the beginning, you'll help them
focus on showing examples of work that you're more likely to like - rather
than just take stabs in the dark submitting random illustration styles.

I hope these are helpful and wish you luck with the illustration (and your
MVP!)

Ross

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hunter029
Check out <http://upstack.com> for illustrations, we have some stellar
illustrators looking for work. Everything is done without spec work and the
designers have to be approved to work so the quality is great.

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nhangen
I once paid Inkd.com for logos, and they did a great job, so I hired them for
a 3rd. The person responsible for making my logo good in the past, had left to
go solo, and I ended up with shitty logos that I had to send back.

Lesson learned: use them, and sometimes you'll have success and the name of a
designer that you can count on. In most other cases, you'll be wasting your
cash.

There's a lot of talent to be found on freelance sites like Elance or oDesk if
you know how to look.

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illdave
I've heard some bad things about 99designs too. While I've not done this, it
may be worth looking through dribbble.com to find a few designers that have
done something you like, and get in touch with them. They're generally
excellent designers - I have no idea how much they'd charge, but could be
worth asking.

~~~
Matt_Mickiewicz
Hi,

Matt Mickiewicz here, co-founder of 99designs.

I would highly encourage you to give us a try... the key to success with our
model is engagement & feedback with the designers. We're never the absolute
cheapest option (we charge minimimum $295 for a logo and there's sites like
20dollarlogos and 50dollarlogos.com out there) but what you get is the
viewpoints, interpretations, and skills from a wide variety of designers.

We've done over 55,000 projects, including some awesome work for Mashable
(<http://mashable.99designs.com>), SxSW (<http://99designs.com/sxsw>), the
logo for StackOverflow.com, official t-shirts for the San Francisco & LA
Marathons and tons of other cool projects. Even took home a Webby Award for
Best Web Service in 2010.

Heck - we even did the original CrowdSPRING logo:
<http://99designs.com/contests/321> .

Feel free to drop us an email or call our office if you have any questions.

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templaedhel
As a designer I hate 99designs and similar sites. They completely rip off
designers. Instead, find a designer you like, or post a job offer, here even,
and pay them. If you can, stay away from 99designs.

~~~
damoncali
How would you, as a designer, recommend people get low-budget work done?

Is it that most of the designers don't get paid at all or the lowish price
that the winner gets that offends?

There is a huge appeal in having a designer "try out" - I've been burned by
designers who couldn't get the work done to my satisfaction. It was a waste of
my time and money. It would have been very easy to weed them out with a simple
"audition". This seems entirely legitimate to me. I've ben asked to write code
prior to getting a job, for example.

As for price, I've been quoted $3k-5k for a logo and $15k for 4 pages of html.
That is _never_ going to happen. I might pay $2-300 for a very good logo, and
maybe $1500-2000 for a very good set of HTML pages. That is simply the value I
place on the services.

I hate to be the guy who doesn't respect creative talent, but I can't ignore
what the marketplace is telling me. Designers really seem to hate the
crowdsourcing model, and I want to work on terms that they like, but how?
Saying "pay me more and take the risk that I won't work out" is not good
enough - as evidenced by the success of 99 designs, et al. If designers want
people to abandon crowdsourcing, they need to come up with a better low-budget
alternative.

~~~
proexploit
I think there's a lot of range within design work so a smaller step up gets
you exponentially better work. For example, $250 logo may be 10 times better
than a $25 logo but a $2,500 logo might only be 1.5 or 2 times as good as the
$250 one.

$15,000 for 4 pages of HTML is ridiculous, as is $150 for 4 pages. $1,500
should get you amazing work. I do a lot of work coding design to HTML/CSS and
without being over-confident, I'd classify my skill in HTML and CSS as expert
level. I charge around $200-$250 a page if coding directly from a PSD or image
to HTML/CSS. Charging 15 to 20 times as much? I struggle to understand it.

If you want a designer on a mid-low budget, you can try Elance or oDesk, but
set the hourly price you're looking for at $30-$50. There are good designers
using those services but you need to get their attention.

