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Hi all:

I'm about 3 days away from my contest close and I was hoping I could get feedback from designers (whether submitting to my contest or not), on how I have manged my side of the process. Every community has their usage nuances / etiquette etc. Here's what I'm trying to do:

1. Rank at least once a day
2. Post comments about each designer if not each actual design (I started posting general comments, then someone told me I could post directly to the design).
3. Give designers feedback after each iteration to try to make it better
4. Dump designs I'm not interested in into the trash box ASAP

What can I be doing better? I imagine I'll use LT again, so any advice is appreciated.

Cheers!
Matt (personal contest - wine related)

Good questions I would like to answers to as well

Oh Matt! So far you sound like a designer's dream contest holder (CH)! I'm suddenly disappointed that I haven't entered your contest, but it looks like you've got some great and fun entries to choose from.

If you haven't completed a contest before, you should know this: When the contest ends and you've received all the entries you're going to get, you enter the judging phase. During this phase, the #1 ranked designer can still upload changes, this way you can work with your favorite design to fine tune it even after submissions have stopped coming in. If you have more than one design that you like, you can rank design A as #1, receive changes, then rank design B as #1, receive changes, and so on. Of course, this is only if you need to.

As a designer, the only things (off the top of my head) that I would add to the to do list are:

1. Try to end the judging process and select a final design in a timely way. We all wait anxiously to earn our points (and our money!), and most of us are always ready to provide the final files in good time.
2. Once you've selected your winner, go ahead and rank the remaining designs -- at least a top 10 or top 20 -- and spread the love among different DESIGNERS (not just designs, and especially not just among slight variations of the same design). We earn points for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc., and ranking is important to us, even if it isn't important to you. Think of it as a consolation prize for designers who spent their valuable time working on your logo without the promise of payment.
3. Spread the word! I'm sure LogoTournament appreciates your business, and so do we. The more contests there are on the site, the better the odds for the growing number of designers here. So if you have a friend or colleague that needs a logo, send them here!

I think I speak on behalf of all the designers here when I say, thank you for being such a conscientious contest holder. Good luck on getting a great logo, and let us know when your next Wine & Wii party is. We'll bring the vino! (Just kidding. On the square.)

Regards.
Lindsey

nicely explained Lindsey :)

Lindsey:

Thanks...helps helps a lot! LT needs to explain these things to CH's up front. I had no idea how the ranking affected designers or even that I ha d a chance to work with the designer after the official close. I thought I had to take whatever the design i liked best at the close was.

Sounds like they've put great thought into the designer system, but they need to focus on the CH's a bit now.

Anyhow, advice taken.... and I appreciate you.

`Matt

Hi Mattha...it seems like a nicely run contest, thanks you:)
The only advice I can give, while it tells designers, "I'm not interested', so they no longer work on the concept, it would be nice to have some feedback as to why NOT INTERESTED.(was it the style? color?font?)......feedback is all nonranked designers will receive for working on their concepts for your contest;)

Salute:)

As another newbie to logotournament.com I wish I had a better idea of the process in advance. I have also tried to give feedback and continuously update rankings, What I failed to understand was that there was ANY opportunity to adjust the designs after the contest ended. Therefore, i have probably spent way too much time focusing on evolving a couple designs, at the expense of nurturing other designs and designers along. Reading this discussion has been incredibly helpful. Based on what I have learned here I will significantly change what I am doing (even though I only have 1 day left.) Thanks to all who contributed to this discussion. Super helpful.

This thread should be a sticky! I didn´t know CHs don´t know about all these things before they post a contest. OR AFTER.

Nat

im still pretty new to this site and this is the first contest i've participated in thats had a very active CH, makes it sooooo much easier for us as designers =)

Awwww.... big hugs all around! :)

Yeah, this probably should be sticky. It helped me and would help other CH's.

But even better would be to make these things obvious somehow to CH's during the process of creating a contest.

Everyone's invited to the Wine & Wii party!! (my contest logo)

Guys: One more question.... how many should I rank at the end? Do only #1 - #3 count??

~Matt

Hi Matt no It works on a sliding scale
Here is how the designer ranking and points calculated? So go wild if you choose
You can even unmark my logos you marked as not-interested and give them a ranking lol
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.

Another piece of good advice go and read the FAQ in the help section some good tips there.

wine and wii contest is over now, very well run by mattha, thanks for the speedy judging phase =)

I wonder if these contests are for real :/ I believe many CH rank the designers, not the designs. No feedback, huh. Hei... everybody needs to make their first step ! (esp. newbie). Fair contest, please!