Currently there are a couple of issues with CH's not being aware of certain features or other important issues. I'm sure the site admin's will be working away to implement this information somewhere in the site so you can read it all before you start (some of it already is). In the meantime i thought i would post this so its all here for you in a nice little package.
Some of you may be aware of all or some of this, if so i apologize and thank you for taking the time to read this.
Firstly, we as designers absolutely thrive on feedback. The more feedback and the more detailed it is, the better. No alteration is too small to ask for, after all its your logo and its our job to give you exactly what you want. Giving feedback either to all designers through the general comments board at the bottom of your contest page or individually by clicking submitted entries and posting there, is the best way to ensure you get the highest quality result. Also try not to be too brutal with the 'Not Interested' button (especially early on in the contest), i would strongly recommend saving it for terrible designs or to help deal with clutter if your contest is getting a huge amount of entries. It can be very discouraging to upload a bunch of concepts only to have them all binned, especially if the CH doesn't even tell you why. A comment like "These aren't what we are looking for because of -------------------- but keep trying!" goes a long way. I myself have given up on contents due to CH's binning designs (mine and other peoples) without any feedback. Ranking as many designs as you can helps to bring in more designers while the contest is in progress because they will feel that they at least have a chance of getting some points. Also the best way to thank all of the designers who have put time and effort into your contest is by ranking as many as possible at the end of the contest so we all at least gain some points for our efforts.
Most designers will leave a comment explaining their design when they upload it and it is very important that you read these comments as they will help you to better understand the ideas behind a design. Also most designers will leave a note saying what they have changed when doing slight variations, this is also quite important as it can get very confusing when you have 20 different versions of the same logo that all look very similar.
Another point i don't think CH's have been aware of is that when the contest ends and goes into the judging phase the designer who has an entry in the #1 rank is still able to submit entires. This enables you to work very closely with that designer to tweak the concept to utter perfection.
A big point of interest / conflict in the designer forum has been the way CH's rank entries at the end of the contest. All of the designers on this site have an overall ranking. This rank is determined by the number of points we have. Points are gained by having an entry in the mix at the end of a contest. Its a consolation prize of sorts for those designers who worked very hard only to miss out on the cash. The points allocation follows thus:
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Points are awarded at the end of the contest by the client:
1st - 50 points
2nd - 20 points
3rd - 10 points
4th - 5 points
5th - 5 points
6th - 3 points
7th - 3 points
8th - 3 points
9th - 3 points
10th - 3 points
11th+ - 1 point
Overall site ranking is a total of all points received and is calculated once per day.
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Entries that are left with 'New/Unranked' status gain nothing.
The main issue here is that when we are designing a lot of us will post huge amounts of variations on the same concept, eg; different colour, typeface, sizing, arrangement etc. When doing the final rankings it is important to us that one designer doesn't get all three top spots simply with three different versions of the same logo. If he had three completely different logos this would be fair enough (i cant imagine it ever happening though).
Keep in mind, this is for the final ranking, after the judging phase, when the contest comes to a full close. Feel free to rank your contest in whatever way you wish during the "accepting entries" stage, but keep in mind that some designers will be scared off if they see only one or two different designers in the top 10. The best way to do it is choose your current favorite version of each concept and rank them accordingly, while ranking all other versions of that logo much lower down. For example, in a contest I'm currently in i have the first rank, and about 20 other versions of the same logo which are ranked 60th+.
Copying. The big issue. Basically, we have a range of procedures in place that allow us to resolve any disputes that we may have without involving the CH at all so as a CH you really don't need to worry about it. It is however, good to be aware that it does happen, as designers will really appreciate a CH calling out someone who has copied. Or on the flip side, put less effort into a contest where the CH is happy to rank designs that are very similar to someone else's without a care who entered them to the contest.
A couple of other points that you may or may not be aware of:
- You can end / extend your contest at any time.
- Most designers will jump at the opportunity to design other pieces for you after the contest has ended, this site is set up to promote us as designers.
- Most contests, especially longer ones of 5-6 days and up, tend to have a bit of a quiet period in the middle where not a lot of entries come through. So don't panic if things seem to slow down halfway through.
- Almost all contests have a big last minute rush of entries in the last 12hours or so. A lot of the time these are just people doing their own version of the top ranked design to try and score the cash with little effort. But you will almost always get some new unique concepts that are worth considering in the last rush as well. A lot of the top ranked designers prefer to wait for the last couple of days before they enter to give copycats less time to pinch their ideas.
Just to reiterate, communication is the most important thing here, its what makes this site work.
Talk to your designers, keep them up to date and give them as much info as possible.
The more you communicate, the better your logo will be.
Thanks for taking the time to to read this, i and I''m sure all of the other designers really appreciate it.
bugy.
PS any other designers feel free to add anything i might have missed.
Malaysia
Hong Kong
Indonesia
