A Logo Design Contest Explainer

A Logo Design Contest Explainer 2
Copyright 2015 Steve Douglas.
All rights reserved.
Published by The Logo Factory Inc.
The information presented in this publication are provided
‘as is’ and as such no warranties are guaranteed, offered,
or implied. Neither the author nor the publisher shall be
held liable or responsible to any person or entity with
respect to any loss or incidental or consequential damages
caused, or alleged to have been caused, directly or
indirectly, by the information contained herein. References
are provided for informational purposes only and do not
constitute endorsement of any websites or other sources.
The Logo Factory is a registered trademark of The Logo
Factory Inc. All other logos and trademarks are the property
of the original holders. Used with permission.
For more information visit us online at
www.thelogofactory.com.

Thinking of running a design contest for your new logo?
We can start this decision tree with one simple question.
“Do I need a logo?”
If you’re reading this, your answer is probably yes. Ask
this one too:
“Do I believe my logo is important enough to require the
services of an experienced design professional?”
If the answer to that is “yes,” you probably don’t want a
logo design contest. If you don’t really care one way or
another – you just want a decent logo – ask yourself this:
“Do I need to see a lot of design options, many of which
are completely unusable, just for the sake of seeing a lot
of options?”
If that seems silly, you probably don’t need a logo design
contest either. A cacophony of proposals, especially if a
lot of them aren’t great, can be visual noise that actually
hinders the development process and burns up time. If
viewing a ton of options is still your thing, or a
barometer that you use to gauge “design value,” then a
logo design contest might be up your alley.
Types of design contests.
There are two ways to go about this (see above.) The
ﬁrst is pretty straightforward – ask people to submit
logos to you. Pick one. Award a prize. This is your typical,
organic logo design contest. It will require you to have
some base – fans let’s say – to draw from.
The other is how things take place on commercialized
design contest sites – platforms like 99designs, Design
Crowd, Zillion Designs, Crowdspring and a host of
others. They often refer to design contests as
“Crowdsourcing,” part of the so-called “Shared
economy,” also known as the “Collaborative economy” or

unpaid contests – hoping to win something, anything –
rather than focus entirely on one. Yours for example.
Remember, these designers aren’t getting paid for their
work in a majority of contests they enter – but they ARE
participating in HOPES of getting paid and would prefer
to be – a fact that you should keep in mind throughout
this treatise.
The mechanics of logo design
contests.
It doesn’t matter what platform you use, or which
package you purchase. The formula is basically the
same. You pay 100%. The platform takes around 40% in
“fees” for standard “packages,” the remaining 60%
supposed to be doled out to the “winner” of your
contest.
This is at odds with design contests selling point – “pay
only for the design you keep” – but it is what it is.
Originally marketed as “pay what you like” – contest
whatever people are calling it today.
“[The design contest] model short-
circuits the promise of CS
[crowdsourcing.]”
Jeff Howe - author who coined the phrase
“crowdsouring.”
The ethics of commercialized design
contests?
Many professional designers and organizations are
opposed to design contests and the sites that host them
– they refer to the entire shebang as spec work. A variety
of reasons for that really, but the main one revolves
around ethics, unpaid designers and “exploitation.”
How’s that? Truth be told, a logo design “contest” on a
commercial platform isn’t actually a contest at all.
Is design different that any other
profession?
Ask yourself this fairly logical question:.
“Do I believe that people who aren’t assured a paycheck
would take short-cuts in their job?”
That’s any job by the way. Be it janitor. Cook. Doctor.
Lawyer. Of course, the answer would almost always be
“yes.” Why would you think design is any different?
“Would someone hoping to win a contest focus on one,
or enter many to maximize to their chances of getting
paid?”
Again, the answer is pretty straightforward. It would be
much more conducive for someone to enter a lot of
It’s a group of people submitting logos and revisions
based on your feedback – usually a professional activity
– hoping to get paid if you pick their logo as your
“winner.” One person in your “contest” will receive
payment. The rest won’t, regardless of how much time
or effort they spend at your request. Is that
“exploitative?” Some think so:
“Exploitation is seen as the failure to pay labor its
marginal product…”
Source: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/exploitation/
It’s also worthwhile to point out that most design contest
platforms are owned by profitable Western companies.
These businesses, and your logo “contest,” are only
possible due to unpaid labor.
All this boils down to one simple, binary equation. You’re
either okay with it. Or you’re not.
If you are, let’s continue.

holders were originally allowed to “set
their own price” within certain
parameters – most design contest
platforms now oﬀer several packages
at varying cost.
Naturally, their websites will try and up-sell you to the
more premium packages, claiming that by paying more
prize money, you’ll “attract” better designers. While this
may be true in a sense, you’ll attract more designers of
ALL levels. Of course, as the platform “fees” are a ﬁxed
percentage, not on a sliding scale, they’ll actually end up
taking more of a cut. In some instances, even the
percentage is higher.
Good design takes time. Your contest
will take a lot of yours.
It’s certainly true that you’ll be deluged with options
throughout your contest but are you willing to spend the
time it takes to give feedback on all the submissions?
Sure, it’s easy to critique the logos you like, but are you
going to spend hours giving feedback on logos you
may have some interest in using, but aren’t sure?
How about the designs you have absolutely no
interest in selecting as your winner? It’s good
“contest holder” form to give feedback to
everything, and while certainly not mandatory, it’s
expected on some level. Designers on contest sites
are said to “thrive” on feedback and as they’re
generally not getting paid, a little tip-of-the-hat goes a

NOYES
NOYES
YES NO
long way towards motivation. It’s also
the least you can do for people who
are working for you, the majority of
which are doing so without any
remuneration.
There’s another, less
altruistic, reason to
be as active as you
can too. As it’s the
currency of contest
sites, and also
indicates your level
of engagement,
people tend to avoid
“contests” with little
or no feedback.
Trouble is, you may
get overwhelmed
with the hundreds of
logo options tossed
at you, and ﬁnd
giving feedback to
everyone simply
unmanageable.
Platforms have come
up with an ad hoc
solution to this
dilemma – rating
stars. As cynical as it
may seem, clicking
on stars allows
designers to believe
you’re giving them
feedback on their
work. Some sites
even have a selection
of “canned”
comments that you
can pick from using a
pulldown menu.
The money
back
guarantee.
Most design contest
platforms advertise a
money-back
guarantee of some
sort. It’s 100% on
some, on others they
don’t refund any up-
sells or add-ons
(private contests, NDAs, Twitter mentions, bolded text in
their contest listings are a few examples.) In either case,
it’s a simple matter for these platforms to oﬀer such
things – they’re not paying designers for their time to
enter your contest. And while this:
“A logo you love or your money back”
looks great in a starburst on a webpage, when it comes
to launching a contest, they’ll recommend that you make
it “Guaranteed” – in other words, waive the right to a
refund – to attract more or better designers. That’s
actually true by the way. Many people won’t enter

contests unless they are “guaranteed,”
having been stung many times before
in contests that weren’t. At some
point this is academic anyway.
Contests are no longer “refundable”
once they’ve crossed a certain threshold, usually past
some type of initial “qualifying round.” It’s also why most
design contest sites will let you extend your contest past
the original deadline, often many times, and often over
the protestations of participating designers. This gets

you over the timed refund hump and
into non-refund territory. If you still
don’t like anything after that point,
your “prize” money will be distributed
piecemeal to “qualified” designers (if
it’s guaranteed) or just pocketed by
the site (if it’s not .) As one designer wasn’t selected, or
paid the total in prize money, that means no logo for
you.
Let’s talk about the (optional) Non-
Disclosure Agreement.
In order to get more money out of the “prize” portion of
your contest, and into their “fees” section – where they
don’t have to “share” it with designers – most contest
platforms will also offer you additional options above
and beyond their “package” fees. Whether these are a
worthwhile investment – they’re usually offered at a
minimal surcharge – is anyone’s guess.
Critics view this is as a “Rights Grab.” In essence, you’re
telling people what they can, and can’t do with their own
artwork – their property – even though you haven’t paid
anything for it. People entering your contest don’t get
any portfolio pieces, benefits or perks because of this
NDA (the platform does by charging a premium.) Do you
think an NDA will stop participants in your “contest”
from revealing details of your contest? That’s the
question to ask, because they are NOT between you and
the contest platform.
They are between you and the people entering your
contest. Further, would the information you’re revealing
qualify as “trade secrets?” Are they available elsewhere?
There are countries – India, where many participants hail
from, is one example – where an NDA usually has to be
stamped by a court to be enforceable. There’s the ethical
question too – do you think that people, who didn’t get
paid anything for submitting their logo ideas into your
contest, should never use those designs to showcase
their skills to anyone else? After all, building a portfolio
was part of the recruitment spiel that got them to work
for free in the first place. Here’s another, more
pragmatic question – are you willing to hire lawyers in
two countries, one in yours and the other in theirs, to
sue some kid from Pakistan or Burma for using a logo in
their portfolio? If not, those NDAs are unenforceable and
for all intents and purposes, worthless.

A quick Q & A.
Q: “Are design contests crowdsourced
collaborations between different
designers?”
A: “No. They’re the exact opposite.
Designers will even copy each other’s ideas and
concepts to win your attention and your contest.”
Q: “Really?”
A: “Yes, but there is a solution. You can always host a
“blind” or “hidden” contest where only you and each
entrant can see their submissions. Some designers will
only enter contests that are blind or hidden. Trouble is,
designers are also supposed to report copied logos to
the host site and in ‘blind’ contests, don’t see the entries
until contest end.”
Q: “Do design contest platforms vet, or pre-qualify, the
designers on their platforms?”
A: “Most don’t and anyone can join anonymously. Some
platforms have “premium” or “platinum” designers that
are supposedly pre-qualified – either by automated
point “system” or some undefined internal criteria – but
it costs much more for a contest that’s restricted to
these designers. Ironically, you’ll also have access to far
fewer people from the “pool,” at odds with the entire
premise of “crowdsourcing” in the first place. The vast
majority of contests however, are of a “anyone can
enter” variety.”
Q: “Doesn’t that mean that unless I pay a premium,
some people with little design, technical or
communication skills, might be entering my contest?”
A: “Yeah. It kinda does.”
Say hello to your contestants.
It’s hard to know what to call people who enter contests.
Participants? Competitors? Entrants? Submitters? Just
designers? It doesn’t matter really, but there are several
types of participants that we do have names for. Here’s
who you’re likely to bump into during your contest:
Honest Designers.
Many designers on contest sites ARE talented, honest,
hard-working and ethical – presenting original concepts
& design – and it’s safe to say that the majority of
participants start off with only the purest of intentions.
That is to provide contest holders with decent artwork,
while hopefully picking up some pay here and there.
They initially believe that the “best” design will win, that
contests are above board and the process just another
method of marketing design services in the digital age.
Whether they stay that way depends entirely on how
successful they are. How many contests they win. And
how many they have to enter before they do.
Here for the cash.
Design contest “communities” recruit new designer sign-
ups by advertising that “anyone” can design logos &
make money on their platforms. It was part of their
“democracy of design” spiel used originally to sell
contests as a viable enterprise way back when. They
don’t boast about this anymore to contest holders, but
it’s still true and very much part of their DNA.
Accordingly, it’s no surprise that many people with
nothing more than internet access sign up. Alas, they
have little appreciable design talent and marginal
technical expertise. While there may be an occasional
gem from this group, most submissions, being
charitable, will be underdeveloped. They also qualify
often as plagiarists too – they don’t know how to design
and knocking off a logo from something they found on
the internet is the next best thing. That this startles
anyone remains a mystery.
Repurposers & design necromancers.
Becoming disenchanted at not winning, and more
importantly not getting paid for hundreds of hours in
effort, participants often enter rejected logos from other
contests in order to spread their probability of winning
around. They may change them up a bit to customize
them for your contest. They may not. This isn’t actually
taboo – as long as the contests aren’t running at the
same time – and while design contest platforms don’t
exactly want this fact advertised, there’s not much they
can do about it anyway. While it defeats the purpose of
writing an effective creative brief at the onset of your
contest, as long as you end up with a logo you “like,” no
harm, no foul.

Cloners & recyclers.
When repurposing old rejected logos
doesn’t work either, some participants
eventually get impatient and enter the
same logos into many contests at the
same time. Sometimes on multiple
sites. While this increases their odds of getting some
traction with contest holders, there’s a very good reason
why platforms view this as a fairly serious “offense.” The
same logo may win multiple contests. That usually isn’t
discovered until much later – long after the prize money
has been awarded – and with multiple parties happily
using the same logo to market themselves. Blissfully
unaware of each other until someone notifies one or the
other. This does happen and sometimes it’s even more
than just two contests that have ended with the same
winning logo.
Toolers & Frankensteiners.
These guys are a particular nuisance. While out-and-out
copied logos are relatively easy to detect – either visually
or via automated algorithm – these participants cobble
together logos using bits and pieces copied from other
designs, stock art & portfolio sites and are almost
impossible to catch. Whether these “frankensteined”
logos would pass a copyright challenge by the various
parties being infringed upon is anyone’s guess, and their
logos may be ticking time bombs in the intellectual
property department. Toolers and Frankensteiners
enter, and win, a lot of contests.
Plagiarists & copycats.
There’s no other name for this category. Plagiarists copy
logos wherever they can. Google Image Search, stock
image sites and even winning logos from old contests.
While they will eventually get caught out and banned
from the platform, they’ll enter many contests before
that happens. Once banned, they’ll simply move onto
another site – they’re not exactly hard to come by.
Contest sites will tell you that this type of participant is
“rare.” They aren’t. They’ll also tell you that it’s rare these
copied logos win contests. It isn’t.
Gig snipers.
This is a relatively new phenomenon, and while the
previous categories are well established, the impact of
Gig Snipers on design contest sites is yet to be
determined. Problem is, this “technique” is almost
impossible to detect, so it may never be, and not
technically against any “rules,” so it may not matter
anyway. This all started with the advent of “gig”
platforms – websites were people can purchase tasks or
“gigs” for a minimal amount of money – Fiverr is the
most well-known example – including logo design
“services” for $5. The way gig sniping is supposed to
work is this – someone grabs a brief from a design
contest platform, hires a seller on Fiverr, then submits
those designs into your contest. Trouble is, there’s
nothing actually wrong with this, it’s known as arbitrage
and is a perfectly legit way of doing business, merely
exploiting a vulnerability in a system for low-risk, high
profit. It is, ironically, the very concept that design
contest sites utilized in their own business models.
Trouble is, low-cost gig platforms that offer design
services are also rife with copyright infringement issues
too, so this could turn into a major headache for
everyone concerned. And you, if you’re running a logo
contest. As this is a recent development, how
widespread it might be is anyone’s guess but there are
several articles on “Get Rich on the Internet” websites
that outline, step-by-step, exactly how to participate in
this scheme. Again, if you end up with a logo you “like”
there shouldn’t be a concern, outside the “value” of
running a design contest, and the chance of selecting a
copied logo with questionable, or unknown lineage.
Plagiarism & design contests.
Sure you’ll get a lot of logos to sift through, but do you
care if design work submitted to your contest is original?
You should. And while not completely exclusive to
design contests, knocked-off logos are certainly an

inherent risk of the model. Do you
believe that the platform you’re
running your contest on will monitor
your contest for plagiarized logos?
They won’t. They expect other
entrants to your contest to do it for
them and then report the knocked-off art. Fine and
dandy, but remember the “blind” or “hidden” contest
proviso we talked about earlier? Nobody will even see
the plagiarized work till your contest is closed.
Here’s another problem. Contest platforms like to boast
about the size of their communities. Often in the high
hundreds of thousands. Some near a million. A few over
that. The sites themselves are staffed by a handful of
support personnel, representing a wildly
disproportionate ratio between staff and online
designers. One major site has a ratio of 1 staff member
for every 9,580 designers. Most design platforms are so
over-scaled and deluged with support tickets, their
responses to copied logo reports so delayed, if some
designs in your contest ARE reported by another
participant, you may pick one before support even gets
to it. Then they have to make a judgment call on

whether to inform
you or not.
There’s a solution
to all this that you
can provide
yourself, but it’s not without some
caveats. Can you use Google reverse
image search? You can check
submitted entries to see if Google
knows about them. The downside to
that is many of the logos entered
into your contest are presented on
mock-ups – business cards, on walls,
the side of vehicles and the like –
which while looking pretty and all,
also bypass Google Image Search’s
algorithm.
The contest platform you’re using is
responsible should you pick a
winning logo that’s been copied
anyway, right? No. Their Terms of
Service state speciﬁcally that they’re
not. Any legality and liability rests
between you and the winner of your
contest. Quite often some kid in
Pakistan or Bangladesh.
Generic logos &
concepts.
Did you know that even if reported,
most design contest platforms won’t
remove “commonly used” “common
ideas” or “generic concepts” from
your contest? Sadly, that’s true too.
Sites can’t ban someone from their
platforms when they submit logos
for which there’s no clear lineage of
ownership, so they’ll stay in your
options. What if a design is deemed
as a copy before your contests
closes? They’ll eliminate it from your
options and probably ban the
designer, closing their account. An
odd twist to that? If a designer
whose logos you like, gets banned
for submitting copied designs into
other contests, they’ll get banned
from your contest too. They’ll
disappear. As will their submitted
logos and all the time you’ve spent
“art directing” them. Good luck
trying to ﬁnd them again.

If you pick a bootleg logo
as your winner.
If the platform finds out your
“winning” logo is copied, they might
“let” you keep it – though this is knowingly facilitating
copyright infringement and not really their position to
do so – but they’ll tell you that you’re “fully responsible”
and ask you to “waive them” from future liability. All fine
and dandy, but are you prepared to redesign and reprint
all the material you created after your contest was long
since over? Once the owner of the intellectual property
in your logo, tells you to stop?
Exercise this option, if made available, with extreme
caution.
Stock art logos.
There’s also a very high probability that some of the
logos submitted to your contest will be from stock art
libraries – commercial outfits like iStock, Shutterstock
and some lesser known free vector sites. The problem
with this? Most stock art sites don’t license their art for
use in logos. If they do, you could buy the same stock art
yourself for a few dollars, not the hundreds, or
thousands, you spent running your contest. Or all the
time you invested giving feedback on logos you weren’t
interested in.
Identical logos on different sites.
In a more bizarre twist, and it does happen, you may
pick a logo that won another contest on the same site,
or another contest site, but resubmitted into yours by
the same designer or someone else. What’s the official
position on plagiarism in commercial logo design
contests? They can’t deny it because there’s so much
evidence of it happening, so the party line is that it’s
“rare, but does happen.” That’s only half true. It DOES
happen. But it ISN’T rare. In fact, it happens all the time.
Logo contest deliverables.
How your logo “looks” is one thing. How it “works” is
another. The file setup of your brand assets is actually
very important, becoming more of an issue the more
complex your logo is. Here are some common file types:
As this is supposed to be a DIY enterprise, with you
playing art director and all, it should come as no surprise
you’re on your own there too. Can you check these files
to see if they’re set up correctly yourself? Before you
send them off to the printer? This may require Adobe
Illustrator or similar software and some technical
knowledge of how these files are supposed to be,
otherwise, it’s a matter of blind trust.
But if you’ve made it this far, and are okay with this too:

Copyright 2015 The Logo Factory Inc.
www.thelogofactory.com
A deﬁnitive look at the mechanics of design contests – why they work, some reasons
why they don’t and some very real issues you should be aware of, but probably aren’t.
A series of buyer’s guides & help sheets.
Thinking about launching a design contest for your new logo?
You should probably read our primer ﬁrst.

A Logo Design Contest Explainer

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