Back when I officially started my company (2005), I needed a website. So, I set up a quick landing page for my company and stated that because I was too busy with my clients’ work, I didn’t have a fully functioning website. I figured visitors would think I was so busy and successful that I didn’t have the time to create a proper website, and they would flock to work with me because I was so busy. You know the saying… “the cobblers children have no shoes”, right? WRONG!
The truth is—not only was I lying to my potential clients—I was lying to myself.
A logo design contest site is basically an online marketplace where people or businesses looking to have a logo designed, post the project/contest to the site along with some requirements and prize dollar amount—usually miniscule. The members, usually consisting of thousands of designers, proceed to design potentially hundreds of options for the contest holder to choose from, typically by a specified due date. The contest holder then either chooses a logo and “rewards” the winner with the prize, or decides there is no winner and the project is reposted for more designs until he gets one that he likes. That’s it in a nutshell.
Sounds like a great deal…hundreds of design options to choose from and only a few bucks, right? Not so fast!
The dictionary defines art as “The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture.” It then defines Design as “A plan or drawing produced to show the look and function or workings of a building, garment, or other object before it is built or made.”
Kind of vague, huh? Well to put it simply, art isn’t always design and some design can be art. Still vague? Well it inherently is. There is definitely some gray area between the two.