Why Designers Hate Crowdsourcing

An anonymous reader writes "Since Wired's Jeff Howe coined the term in 2006, 'crowdsourcing' has been a buzzword in the tech industry, and a business model on the rise. 99designs.com is a site that hosts design contests for small businesses requiring relatively smaller design projects. Anyone can submit their near finished pieces of work to the contests, but only one winner gets paid. Forbes covers just why established graphic designers are so angry at this business model's catching on."

Comments

Angry?

[Bing Tsher E]

They're angry because they're established. Expensive suits. Exquisitely designed suites to work in.

It hurts when your whole business model is built on puff and people start figuring it out.

Re:Angry?

[Hylandr]

Arrogance in the Nerd Population?

We run the friggen planet with with software we write! Most of the Planet can't even change their oil or tune of their car! ( And yes, I can do both )

Arrogance would have us in towers running star-trek NOCS with FAT Handsome paychecks.

Instead we are paid squat, have unrealistic expectations on our time and often no budget to speak of while we work in the */b/asement*.

Don't get all pissy when we read your email, and intercept the porn you shot of your wife or girlfriend that you just sent over the company email system. The sales of that and other things is what pays for our hardware at home.

I, and others like me make your universe operate. Piss us off, and reading your email or watching your daughter strip for her boyfriend will be the least of your problems.

- Dan.

Re:Angry?

[Anonymous Coward]

People without n-years of reputation to go on have to take junk. The difference between the snooty we-give-you-nothing-but-questions and those delivering near-finished-product is that those delivering up front want the job more and are willing to work harder for the business. You can yelp about 'oh, we are professional blah blah' but there is nothing stopping the up and comers from being professional too. This has been written extensively (read Gladwell: Outliers). It was about lawyers who wouldn't touch certain cases because it was beneath them. Big, ultra-expensive New York City (Specifically Manhattan) law firms losing hundreds of billion$ (thats Billions with a B) in contracts to less expensive, cut-rate firms who had been doing certain less-than-completely-upscale commercial legal work for years. Quality for less is what people (everyone) is looking for. Notice I didn't say crap for less, I said quality for less. In your words "oh, its only 87% as good as ours, at 1/3 the price". But they will do five times the business you do, and their market is more stable. At some point, they will be able to churn out 92% of the quality the expensive firms can do, at 1/4 the price. At some point, customers will expect product in the first meeting. No product, no customer. They set the terms, not you. They are the customer, not you. You can carry on all you want about quality, but every dead industry in the US has yelped about quality and cheap foreign (or local) competition. It happens just before they die.

Another industry F/OSS has killed.

[RLiegh]

By allowing anyone too download a professional level editing program free of charge it's no longer necessary too have a formal education in order too enter the graphics design field. While this sounds great in theory it's pretty apparent that those who have taken the time and disipline to actually become proficient in there profession. However, there being crowded out by comparably unskilled students who are willing to work for a latte and their name in print.

If this continues, you will not see a single person their who has a degree above a high school diploma.