Forum
Client
Just finished up our first competition and thought I would provide some feedback to the site owners and to other designers.
1. I think it would be really useful if artists spent some time to explain their concepts and the thinking behind their ideas. I think in the nearly 400 entries we received only a handful explained their concepts. We provided pretty in-depth feedback for every entry. I do understand that this method of concept design is different than working with an ad agency, but none of those designers would ever present the designs to the client and walk away without explaining what they were thinking. A logo design is just as much about the design as it is about the concept and thinking behind the design. I also think that if designers thought more carefully about why they are drawing what they draw their designs would be stronger. Again maybe this just does not fit when your talking about $300-500 and not $10,000 + Something to think about anyway.
2. I was really impressed by the designers who spent the time to read all of the information we presented in our brief and the feedback we were leaving for top ranked designs and the general comments section, but I found it really irritating to get submissions that were so off base it was abundantly clear they did not even take the time to read anything. Even more irritating when they did not read the feedback we were providing them and continued to submit the same designs over and over. No different than the contest holders that bin designs without feedback, but I guess it goes two ways.
3. Maybe it's because I come from a design industry, but I think it would be more time effective for artists to submit one version of each concept and see what kind of feedback they get from the CH before submitting 20 different iterations of color and slight modifications. I would rather an artist spend the time working up a new concept them making many changes to a design that is not headed down the right path.
4. I wonder if it would be useful for CHs to be able to put logos into a separate category of "elements we like, but not there yet". I found myself having to put a lot of designs in the not interested pile because other artists would not spend the time to read the feedback we provided if we ranked the design. As a result we would get designs containing the elements we didn't like. Of course we even posted the elements we did not want to see on the homepage and still that was ignored. I guess the bottom line is if CH provide feedback..read it! I'd say in our competition it was 50/50 as to who read the comments.
5. In understand why artists wait until the last few hours to submit, but one of the problems is this leaves very little time to try to guide artists to the perfect logo. Case in point, today I spent the last 3 hours of the competition typing detailed feedback as quickly as the entries were coming in. There simply was not enough time to provide feedback and get revisions in such a short period of time. A submission that came in the last 3 hours today ended up ranking #2, but maybe could have been #1 given more time. I know we could extend, but other deadlines preclude us from doing that.
6. I don't know if the LT servers are being hammered but we found times where the three progress loading squares would blink away for minutes before the entries would load. It was so slow at times we had to move on and come back later as it was taking too long to navigate the site.
7. I really like the drag and drop ranking system, but found it frequently misranked things. I would place them into a specific position and when I went to the home page they were in the wrong place.
8. A small programming issue, but when you submit a lot of text in your brief the line breaks are not being preserved. As a result it all flows into one long paragraph. Maybe the reason so many artists did not spend the time to read it. Also links to URLs have to be copied and pasted and you can't click on them. There are methods to prevent script attacks and also allow HTML links to be active. Any user forum software is a perfect example as they use special BB code to cleanse the link.
9. I would like to be able to upload information for the artists. In my case I put links to some PDFs on our server, but the ability to upload files would be better. In my case I uploaded a PDF featuring a whole list of logo designs we liked.
At the beginning it was looking like it was going to be a waste of money based on the early designs we were getting, but near the middle and end, some decent designs started to emerge. Overall pretty happy with the outcome, but thought I would pass along my feedback from a first time user.
Cheers,
Jeff
1. I think it would be really useful if artists spent some time to explain their concepts and the thinking behind their ideas. I think in the nearly 400 entries we received only a handful explained their concepts. We provided pretty in-depth feedback for every entry. I do understand that this method of concept design is different than working with an ad agency, but none of those designers would ever present the designs to the client and walk away without explaining what they were thinking. A logo design is just as much about the design as it is about the concept and thinking behind the design. I also think that if designers thought more carefully about why they are drawing what they draw their designs would be stronger. Again maybe this just does not fit when your talking about $300-500 and not $10,000 + Something to think about anyway.
2. I was really impressed by the designers who spent the time to read all of the information we presented in our brief and the feedback we were leaving for top ranked designs and the general comments section, but I found it really irritating to get submissions that were so off base it was abundantly clear they did not even take the time to read anything. Even more irritating when they did not read the feedback we were providing them and continued to submit the same designs over and over. No different than the contest holders that bin designs without feedback, but I guess it goes two ways.
3. Maybe it's because I come from a design industry, but I think it would be more time effective for artists to submit one version of each concept and see what kind of feedback they get from the CH before submitting 20 different iterations of color and slight modifications. I would rather an artist spend the time working up a new concept them making many changes to a design that is not headed down the right path.
4. I wonder if it would be useful for CHs to be able to put logos into a separate category of "elements we like, but not there yet". I found myself having to put a lot of designs in the not interested pile because other artists would not spend the time to read the feedback we provided if we ranked the design. As a result we would get designs containing the elements we didn't like. Of course we even posted the elements we did not want to see on the homepage and still that was ignored. I guess the bottom line is if CH provide feedback..read it! I'd say in our competition it was 50/50 as to who read the comments.
5. In understand why artists wait until the last few hours to submit, but one of the problems is this leaves very little time to try to guide artists to the perfect logo. Case in point, today I spent the last 3 hours of the competition typing detailed feedback as quickly as the entries were coming in. There simply was not enough time to provide feedback and get revisions in such a short period of time. A submission that came in the last 3 hours today ended up ranking #2, but maybe could have been #1 given more time. I know we could extend, but other deadlines preclude us from doing that.
6. I don't know if the LT servers are being hammered but we found times where the three progress loading squares would blink away for minutes before the entries would load. It was so slow at times we had to move on and come back later as it was taking too long to navigate the site.
7. I really like the drag and drop ranking system, but found it frequently misranked things. I would place them into a specific position and when I went to the home page they were in the wrong place.
8. A small programming issue, but when you submit a lot of text in your brief the line breaks are not being preserved. As a result it all flows into one long paragraph. Maybe the reason so many artists did not spend the time to read it. Also links to URLs have to be copied and pasted and you can't click on them. There are methods to prevent script attacks and also allow HTML links to be active. Any user forum software is a perfect example as they use special BB code to cleanse the link.
9. I would like to be able to upload information for the artists. In my case I put links to some PDFs on our server, but the ability to upload files would be better. In my case I uploaded a PDF featuring a whole list of logo designs we liked.
At the beginning it was looking like it was going to be a waste of money based on the early designs we were getting, but near the middle and end, some decent designs started to emerge. Overall pretty happy with the outcome, but thought I would pass along my feedback from a first time user.
Cheers,
Jeff
Logo Designer
Glad it all worked out Jeff, you have raised some good points from the designer point of view. I agree on both the explanations of a logo and following feedback rather than "flooding" the contest with a design that isn't anywhere near the mark. I think you have worked the system well looking at the designers you attracted and the amount of submissions you received... the reality is we are are looking for the good CH's as much as you are the designer so be sure to msg designers to remind them who you are if you use the service again as we prefer entering contests that are well run. Ranking all the logo's you think deserving of a ribbon is always a nice gesture that has good effects on future contests ;)
(I cant comment on the technical stuff as the site is lighting fast from the designer side, I find if I have some issue's CTRL F5 (pc) smooths out most of my glitches)
Regards,
A-M
(I cant comment on the technical stuff as the site is lighting fast from the designer side, I find if I have some issue's CTRL F5 (pc) smooths out most of my glitches)
Regards,
A-M
Client
I agree with point 2 about sharing and using feedback. It really is irritating to receive a design over and over that has an element that was identified immediately as unappealing or inappropriate.
Ditto the difficulty of dealing with a flood of designs in the last few days. perhaps I have mishandled this, but I have avoided asking designers to do a lot of reworking early in teh contest because as a first timer, I did not have a sense of how many good designs I might received and where that designer might fall in the final ranking. Now in the final three days, I am worried that if I get some strong designs in the final days, there will be inadequate time to do finetuning with anyone other than the number one designer.
therefore, although I really don't want to, I am considering extending the contest. I assume I can end the extension early just as with the standard length contest?
several times I have gotten a site under maintenance message, but after some time I hit refresh immediately and noticed that the site loaded right up. As a consequence, I missed a couple of days of ranking and ended up with a really big backlog that I felt I didn't really do justice to on ranking or feedback. What's the cause that apparently false message?
I also strongly agree with point 4 above. It becomes very difficult to look at the long string of ranked designs toward the end of the contest.
I also wish that it were possible to drag each designer's designs around within their page. would make it much easier to compare elements and comment on related designs.
Ditto the difficulty of dealing with a flood of designs in the last few days. perhaps I have mishandled this, but I have avoided asking designers to do a lot of reworking early in teh contest because as a first timer, I did not have a sense of how many good designs I might received and where that designer might fall in the final ranking. Now in the final three days, I am worried that if I get some strong designs in the final days, there will be inadequate time to do finetuning with anyone other than the number one designer.
therefore, although I really don't want to, I am considering extending the contest. I assume I can end the extension early just as with the standard length contest?
several times I have gotten a site under maintenance message, but after some time I hit refresh immediately and noticed that the site loaded right up. As a consequence, I missed a couple of days of ranking and ended up with a really big backlog that I felt I didn't really do justice to on ranking or feedback. What's the cause that apparently false message?
I also strongly agree with point 4 above. It becomes very difficult to look at the long string of ranked designs toward the end of the contest.
I also wish that it were possible to drag each designer's designs around within their page. would make it much easier to compare elements and comment on related designs.