Who wins with a design contest? Sites such as SitePoint, DigitalPoint, NamePros, DNF, etc all seem to be full of people who enjoy holding “design contests”. A design contest is when somebody posts a description or idea of a logo or graphic of some sort and then states a price they are willing to pay to whoever comes up with the best design. Hence the term contest. I’m not a fan of these at all. I wouldn’t host one, nor would I generally participate in one. Here’s why:

9 times out of 10 the “prize” amount is around $20-40. Many times I see people looking to get by with just $10 out of pocket. Somehow hundreds if not thousands of web designers pour into such threads on these forums day after day scrambling to come up with the best design. I’ve visited these threads often to see what types of graphics people come up with. I am usually shocked to see that in many cases what I consider the best looking graphic is not always the winner.

I think design contests are definitely a good way to get a cheap design made. I am a graphic designer by trade (at least one of many trades I dabble in) and most contests do not interest me. Why? Because when I do a logo or a graphic I tend to spend time getting it right. I am a major detail person. If something is slightly wrong I won’t even show a client until I have fixed it. With many of these design contests, it’s hard to justify spending an hour or two to come up with the best design only to get paid $30, let alone not “winning” at all and getting nothing.