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:

-----
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.
------
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 the top spots simply with a bunch of different versions of the same logo. Recently the rules got changed so that you cannot end your contest unless the top three spots are occupied by three different designers, for fairness sake.
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.

wow, bugy, awesome post thanks:)

Thanks so much. I was just about to ask for more info on the judging process. Our contest just ended and we are getting ready to judge the entries. Is there a limit on the number of places you can award?

Also, we had close to 350 entries (which we are thrilled about). I ended up marking a lot of designs as "Not Interested" because it was becoming harder and harder to sort through everything. I also didn't think it was fair to rank multiple variations of a design, so tried to stick with the one variation we liked best.

I tried to give a lot of feedback, but was sometimes stuck on what to say when the design just wasn't going in the right direction.

Contest Holders would really benefit from more guidance on what we can do to support the process, how to judge designs and what happens when the contest ends. The more info and transparency the better.

Overall, thanks for a great experience. And, we are super happy with the options we have. The hard part will be deciding which one we like best.

i dont beleive there is any limit to the number of designs you can rank but im not 100% certain.

If you get stuck with what to say simply say so. Having a CH say "i like / dont like this but im not really sure how you could improve it or what i want you to do with it" is much better than nothing at all because at least you know where you stand. Im in a contest atm where a CH has said precisely that so its back to the drawing board to try and take the number one ranking for me.

@tini, cheers. i almost fainted at the idea of using correct grammar and punctuation on the internet but i deemed it necessary =)

kjlindsley wrote:

Also, we had close to 350 entries (which we are thrilled about). I ended up marking a lot of designs as "Not Interested" because it was becoming harder and harder to sort through everything. I also didn't think it was fair to rank multiple variations of a design, so tried to stick with the one variation we liked best.

sounds like the best way to do it to me, thats what i meant when i was referring to using the 'not interested' button to remove clutter.

Thank you bugy it was a very helpful post.

^^^yep, I saw that one...alot of work, we need to remind CH constantly, that all the rest, besides the winner, will receive at least a ranking for their time spent on CH logo.....

all you have to do is post a link to this thread in general or via pm to the CH, thats what ive been doing and haven't had any troubles without one designer cleaning our the points... yet. =)

^keep your fingers crossed;)

@SpeedLogo and tini1, if you take a closer look at the feedback and amount of concepts/variations i brought to the table you may understand the ranking, I posted about 50% of the logos and was the only designer to keep designs coming, scnikstudios was the only to show sustained effort and if he had posted in the last 6 days he may of finished top 3. Speedlogo your logo wasnt even posted for 24hrs you need to give CH's more time to evaluate.

I understand the concern but what you guys are asking for is charity for putting a design in. In some cases this is an issue but in this situation I can guarantee I spent 10x the amount of time and submitted the most concepts that she liked, and thankfully she was fully aware of that. :)

grats on the win aus-media. pls keep this thread on topic guys

thanks bugy, sorry about that as it does detract from a very concise post, the only thing I would amend is

bugy wrote:

The main issue here is that when we are designing alot 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).

I have seen this on numerous occasions(one designer multiple good concepts) I think a more neutral guidance could be...

"Please rank logo's by concept, not by color changes or layout changes, this ensures that all the top concepts/logos finish on top."

Designers needs should not influence this process, other than that, great post :)

@aus-media....the designs are the same, meaning the are minor tweaks and color variations, ranking should be, in a perfect LT world, based on each individual, unique concept.......not on variants of 1 concept. I think every designer that brought to the table a concept, should be in the run for ranking. After all, they all worked just as hard as the winner did(I don't think changing colors, sizing is major work, sorry, it is a click of a button;))

(also, all winning logos go in a community portfolio, see the tab up a top, PORTFOLIO...this is why we have submission guidelines, no borders, patterns, etc, so they all look professional/neat and pretty:))

I just looked again at the clean momma contest, the ranking was done incorrectly......I will ask Tyler to look at, ranking is important to all LT designers, and this contest show how it works incorrectly.

I am new to LT, but in one of the contest I entered, the CH ranked one designer 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, I could see doing this if the designs were different, but they were the same design one was in black and white, one was color with a white background and the other was color with a black background. Isn't the CH going to get all these variations of this designs from the winner anyway?

Should I not be frustrated? Just wondering...

Bugy thanks for this post, I hope more CH's read it!

Sorry bugy...
@tini1
(1st point please take a closer look at designs
http://logotournament.com/contests/cleanmomma/by/naresh11381
count the amount unique logos, I have removed some but you should get the idea)
Throughout this contest 5-6 different concepts of mine have been ranked no.1 As the contest progressed some of these designs became not interested because a new concept took precedence. Throughout the whole contest I held down 85-90% of the rankings and was 99% of the time no.1

I was the only designer to stick out that contest and the CH appreciated that and that's why she ranked me highly. She did adjust the standings so designers who did put in effort received something. I honestly spent about 40hrs on those designs, that's what the CH was ranking "blood sweet & tears" a bit dramatic I know but read the list of changes, on a logo of this nature its not a few clicks... Morally its unfair, nobody was interested in designing this logo but everyone's interested in the rankings. She may not of ranked to your needs but she ranked on her happiness regarding effort, which should be her prerogative.

tini1 I understand your point on how it was ranked but please understand this CH had her reasons... PM her and ask her, if I loose rankings because she wants to re-asses fair enough but please point her to this thread as I think it covers all angles from bugy's 1st entry onwards...

I hope a little light has been thrown on the situation and I don't just sound like a spoiled twat, I'm going to bed and taking my medals with me... (at least for tonight) :)

A few thoughts from the perspective of a CH:

When you find this site, decide on an amount you're willing to award and fill-out the brief the next thing you know logos start popping up. You kinda have to figure out the whole rating/comment thing on-your-own.

I would imagine most CH's, like myself are juggling the new-logo process along with about 1,000 other things. What I (and maybe others) don't know coming into this is how interactive, interesting and honestly - fun this process can be. The designers here are genuinely interested in good design. They're honestly competing for the prize, but they're polite and professional along-the-way. We've used online logo design companies before. They're impersonal and limiting. I would only come back here in the future!

I think it would be a great idea to initiate some sort of a quick introduction to the CH. Something that they're required to see (maybe a quick wizard-style walk-through or a short video). It should explain how this process works, who these talented designers are, and how the rating and reward system works.

There will certainly still be CH's who don't care - but I would imagine that a lot of CH's don't know the value associated with a ranking. They're just looking for a good logo. I have to imagine that most CH's would spend a few minutes ranking those designers that produced something of interest - even if it was far-off.

Having said that, it would also be a great idea to add a third sorting option called "holding bay" (or some-such thing - feel free to steal that if you wish). Logos that you don't want to rank right now, or variations of logos that you don't like as much - but don't want to dismiss. The problem is that when you have over 100 logos to look at (many being variations) it becomes very difficult to sort through everything.

I decided early-on that I would leave feedback for anyone that submitted a logo - even if the concept was nowhere near what we wanted. It was very difficult to keep track of everything once we had over 100 logos.

To all the designers out there - keep up the great work!

some very good ideas there kevin, thanks for taking the time to post.
(thanks also for the way you have run your contest, continuing to give me feedback even though you havent really liked my designs, i appreciate it.)
@tatude, i dont really see the logic behind limiting the amount of designs, i myself submit quite a lot of variations, i believe its best to give the CH a maximum amount of choices. I think a much better solution is to make it easier for the CH to manage the entries with ideas like kevins "holding bay", rather than making it easier for them by giving them less choice and therefore, a potentially lower standard end result.

also when it comes to wading through huge amounts of variations this is where the individual designer boards come into play. as mentioned above i like to submit heaps of variations when i get onto a good thing. i always make sure i leave a comment of some kind explaining what changes i have made to make it much less confusing for the ch,

i still dont see how that would change anything but to limit both what the designer can create and what the CH gets to see, you might as well make the contest 48 hours shorter...

maybe ive misunderstood but it makes no sense to me =\

First, Bugy - we design buildings just like you design logos. Sometimes designs "click" with some people - other times they don't. I looked at your profile, and you are a talented designer. Some of your high-ranked stuff is really cool.

I would hate to limit anything here. It can be a little overwhelming. I would assume that most CH's can spot someone who's "flooding" the queue with a million entries. That tells me they're trying too hard. It doesn't take too long to shove a whole-bunch of the same-thing over to "not interested" (I did that several times...) However, you never know when that one variation pops-out at you.

As designers, you guys should lobby the admins of this site for better CH instruction from the get-go. Not everyone has the time (or interest) to see how the site works.

yea i think i get what your saying now tatude, it makes sense but im not really convinced. ill guess we'll have to agree to disagree.
when i said i submit lots of variations i mean very subtle variations. i dont flood one contest with all the ideas i can think of at the start to create a roadblock for other designers. have a look at the designs i have done for the rojomojo and faith portraits contests and you should understand what i mean.

kevin, thanks! =)
thats sort of what ive been doing with your competition, fishing for a design that just clicks with you.

note that i also accompany each variation with a comment explaining what i have and havent changed to further reduce confusion

yea i get ya, im on the same page now =)
and thanks, im really addicted to this site already, cant wait for that first win!

Its coming bugy, nice style's...

I too am an addict, soon we will need LT anonymous meetings ;)

isn't that what the facebook group is for?
:p

Good information to have. Thank you.

I wish I had read this at the front end of my contest. I didn't get the importance of feedback or the ranking system at all. Good stuff to know.. thanks.

bugy wrote:

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 admins 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, we live for it (well, maybe i'm speaking only for myself here). 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, 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. 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 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: ----- 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. ------ Entries that are left with 'New/Unranked' status gain nothing. The main issue here is that when we are designing alot 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). A couple of other minor 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. 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.

I'm not sure if this help for LogoBuyer/Competition Holder/Contest Holder
As a designer, I have an idea to make a very special interface/page more friendly, easy to understand even for new user to manage the contest. Maybe inspiration start with the "schedule work" for inspiration.
Any opinion?

PS should this issue posted as a new title?

Not sure if somebody has already added this point:

I agree that CH's shouldn't ranking similar logos twice, given that they are clearly slight variations on the same concept/idea. However, if the same designer submits multiple logos that are CLEARLY different (obviously there's a bit of a grey area here), I think that each different logo should be separately ranked by the CH.

Of course, all this is extremely difficult to monitor, but I'd like to think in most cases, common sense would prevail.
To increase the chances of the logos being ranked appropriately, a list of guidelines should be presented to the CH upon them judging the logos. Something for the website management to think about.

yea thats been covered in most of the discussion feen. im sure tyler is working away on some sort of 'info pack' for CH's to read before they start their contests.

Having over 300 entries in my first contest... here's an idea:

Change the organizational structure of the submission process to add one more level. Instead of having designers submit individual logos, have them submit "concepts." A "concept" would be like a category, then the individual versions of each concept would be uploaded and displayed on the concept "page." Then, have us rank the concepts, placing our favorite version of the concept as the display icon on the main page. I would guess that would make it much more fair for the designers, and MUCH easier for the CH, who gets bombarded with 4 or 5 revisions of every logo coming in. That would also make it easier for the CH to say, "we're not interested in this concept."

I'm sure that requires re-programming the entire site, so I'm not sure how feasible it is - but I think it would make it much easier for everyone to participate.

that sounds like an excellent idea kev, how likely it is that the admins could implement something like that i dont know but yea, great idea.

great idea :)

Totally true, I do believe that would be a better way to rank all designs, and to create submissions, because from what I have seen most CH require sometimes minimal changes in a logo concept, and then have to look for those between all the others.

i think one way should be that the winning design cant be ranked down the line We all now by now how hard it is to win a contest and that many time the client doent choose the best logo but what he has in mind. I dont think any of us would mind not being ranked anywhere else in the contest if we win the gold. This would give more space for other designers to get ranked

To all - great info. I am brand new to this. Never knew it existed. Robert www.robertholland.com

The Amazing Kid Company:
this is the at least the second contest I have entered that the ranking has been very disappointing...I hope LT gives bugy's info to the CH when they first join, i have presented this info to the CH, but he is either ignoring it or who knows what...

After many many entries and time making every little change and tweak the CH wants me to make to the logos, it makes me want to either throw something or cry, lol!

Good Post.

bugy wrote:

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 admins 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, we live for it (well, maybe i'm speaking only for myself here). 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, 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. 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 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: ----- 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. ------ Entries that are left with 'New/Unranked' status gain nothing. The main issue here is that when we are designing alot 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). A couple of other minor 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. 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.

bugy wrote:

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 admins 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, we live for it (well, maybe i'm speaking only for myself here). 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, 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. 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 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: ----- 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. ------ Entries that are left with 'New/Unranked' status gain nothing. The main issue here is that when we are designing alot 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). A couple of other minor 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. 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.

I thank you for making this process easier to do. Don't want to discourage anyone. This helps a lot.

Thanks for all the input! This thread should be mandatory ready for all CHs. Now that I KNOW how things are scored, I'll do a better "job" for the designers! For those in my contest (still 5 days left), I'll be careful with the not interested column. I wish there was a way everyone got a piece of the pie. I think this is such a NEAT concept. I'm going to tell all my business contacts about this... AND about the great designers who worked with me on my logo. Already the ideas have far surpassed my expectations.

Another thing i'd like to say to CHs,

This maybe not about after judging ranking system, but its more about 'in progress' ranking system..

We designers would be very more appreciated if our CHs really consider about copycat-ing issues in their contests. We spend a lot of efforts to create something outstanding to fly up to the top ranks fairly. Copying and modifying concept from an existed top ranked entry is always much easier.. and this could be marked as cheating as well.. i think everyone knows that rip-er/cheater should not be given an award.

Good luck...

An enlightening thread but also one that presents a similar challenge to another than faces CH's. That of time and ability to scan and pull out the bits need/wanted. What I mean here is that as with all long threads you start off reading the first posts then eventually it starts turning into Tolstoy and it's just difficult to read everything which is why you then start to speed read and jump around to get the information you need.

So where am I going with this?

There appears to be an 'issue' with the 'not interested' section that is provided to the CH for when they perform ranking. Like many things that get misinterpreted in the cyberspace, email etc., it would appear that some people interpret this section as simply 'no thanks' whereas others interpret it as 'terrible design'.

You know it could just mean 'not interested' and if a CH hasn't explained why a designer can always ask. Certainly this is what I would do in the physical world if someone tells me that they are 'not interested' in a proposal I have made.

For me this section has always meant 'no thanks' but I'm beginning to realise that for some designers it is almost akin to insulting their mother.

Maybe if there was another ranking section that says 'this sucks' then it would make some designers feel happier because I sincerely doubt many CH's would ever put an entry in there.

Unfortunately, it's simply not always possible to provide every entry with a commentary. The day job, which regrettably doesn't only consist of reviewing several hundred designs and making a non-stock answer response, gets in the way.

For me the 'no thanks' box is the 'stock answer' for rejections so that, combined with the designs left behind and the ones ranked, designers can see where the contest is leading. I also try to use the general comment box and when time permits provide comments to designers directly particularly if they ask following a rejection.

I'd like to echo the comments of other CH's here and thank the designers for all the hard work here - most of my interactions have been great!

Thank you all so much for advising us on all the points that were not clear when we signed up as a CH. I look forward to receiving entries and making comments. :)

straight to the heart of the issues that we all suffer sometimes around here...well put and it is as well helpfull for us "designers" it would be encouraging to all of us if only most of our entries get ranked somehow and, what's the point for the contest holder to just not have any sort of activity or feed back through out the contest or taking way too long to rank anybody if any in more than a 24h period and/or concentrating the first top 20 the "CH" have liked their work and I think we all come in here with different Qualities, Experience...but we all deserve the acknowledgment for our work. it is a fact not quick sifting through 10's of pieces of work and in many case a lot very close calls but to all "CH" please help us help you.
Cheers.

Bump (sticky).

Kevin wrote:

A few thoughts from the perspective of a CH: "When you find this site, decide on an amount you're willing to award and fill-out the brief the next thing you know logos start popping up. You kinda have to figure out the whole rating/comment thing on-your-own. I would imagine most CH's, like myself are juggling the new-logo process along with about 1,000 other things. What I (and maybe others) don't know coming into this is how interactive, interesting and honestly - fun this process can be. The designers here are genuinely interested in good design. They're honestly competing for the prize, but they're polite and professional along-the-way. We've used online logo design companies before. They're impersonal and limiting. I would only come back here in the future! I think it would be a great idea to initiate some sort of a quick introduction to the CH. Something that they're required to see (maybe a quick wizard-style walk-through or a short video). It should explain how this process works, who these talented designers are, and how the rating and reward system works......" I am sorry I did not read this thread earlier. I just finished a logo tournament and I believe Kevin has it right. You would benefit from a little introduction. As an Architect, I provided a lot of feed back but most of the time I was operating in the dark. I know I could have done more research, but there is only so much time. To all the designer I want to to say - Thank-you. This has been a nerve racking experience. I was online for the last 2 hours giving feed back. Frequently giving feedback and ranking while other designs were coming in - but I loved it. The variety of designs was unbelievable. The quality and number was tremendous. Please keep up the great work and help us CH to provide good information giving a lesson on what we should be doing. We just need to be guide a little. I am currently judgeing 269 entries - I may go insane - but I would not want it any other way. Thank-you, Michael Smith OneAverageJoe.com

Excellent information! I'm researching as my contest is coming to a close... again, as a CH none of the info on how this works for the designer is disclosed other than the one who wins. I'm so happy that the others I've worked with over the last week but will not win (there can be only one winner, so this is an upcoming truth) will get some kind of benefit, even if it is not the cash.
First of all, more of this info up front would be extremely beneficial to CH and LD. Secondly, your ranking system... having worked on an incentive system for a Fortune 10 company for many years, it would be worthwhile to figure out how to have an authentic judging system from the CH without concerns over the point system for the designers. I definitely want the designers who put a lot of effort into my designs to have proper credit, but I'm seeing MANY last minute entries up to the wire, some of them who do not even properly spell my company name... why should they get the same amount of credit as a designer who worked hard with me early on but did not rank in my top 4 or top 10 or whatever is the right value at the end...
I LOVE this service and would be happy to share my experience in incentive based "compensation" with LT if it's welcome.
Now, my contest has closed and I have some tough decisions to make...
Thank you!!

another bump.