DesignContest is a crowdsourcing design marketplace that gives you the opportunity to set a “contest” for any kind of graphic design work. Freelance designers from all over the world will then submit entries for you to select a winner.
The company began operations way back 2003 and has its headquartered in Las Vegas, U.S. They’ve completed more than 13,000 contests to date, and have more than 260,000 professional designers using their platform.
In September 2020, the company released a ‘speed and services’ 2.0 upgrade with enhanced user experience, the option to hire any of its professionals 1-on-1, and they have strengthened their guarantees on design delivery and client satisfaction.
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About DesignContest
As with any crowdsourcing platform, Design Contest’s role is to help you connect with a large pool of freelancers. With something as subjective as design, this theoretically gives you the best chance of finding the one who can create something you love.
Again, you can now also hire any design 1-on-1.
If you’re not a native English speaker you can toggle their platform through German, French, Spanish, and Russian which is a nice touch.
How DesignContest Works
1. Create a Contest
You can get started by creating a contest for the type of design work you want to be created. The new 2.0 update makes this a breeze and the user experience is excellent. There are some boxes to fill out helping you to submit as much detail as needed for a brief for the designers.
2. Set a Prize Amount
Next, you need to set a prize amount for the work.
You can choose from their recommended prices, or set the price of your choosing (DesignContest have minimum bid amounts).
Keep in mind that the higher the prize, the higher quality designers, and more entries your contest will attract.
3. Receive and Review Entries
DesignContest says you’ll start receiving entries within hours of posting your contest. As entries are coming in, you can comment and score each entry. This will help you narrow down the entries to the ones you’re most interested in.
4. Choose Your Winner
Once you’ve settled on the best design and want to go forward with it, you can select it as the winner. The designer will then prepare all the source files and send them to you. The nice part for designers, which gets them to compete more easily, is that DesignContest awards second and third prize amounts.
DesignContest Services
You can post a contest for any kind of graphic design work. From logos and blog graphics to flyers, t-shirt designs, and mobile app design.
Design Contest has 35 design-related categories to choose from when submitting a contest. If you don’t see a category that describes your task, you can just post it under the generic “Graphic Design” category.
With a pool of more than 260,000 freelance designers hungry for work, I think it’s fair to say you’ll receive some entries for your contest.
Plans and Pricing
On DesignContest, you the ability to set your own budget for your design tasks. They do, however, have minimums.
To give you an idea of where DesignContest sits compared to other crowdsourcing marketplaces, here are some of their minimum starting prices for commonly requested tasks:
- Logo design – $295
- Infographic design – $195
- Website design – $595
- T-Shirt design – $195
- Landing page design – $295
If you set your price at their lowest bracket, they say you can expect at least 50 entries. That should give you enough concepts to choose from and pick your favorite.
DesignContest offers a 100% money-back guarantee. You can request your money back at any stage of the contest if for any reason you’re not satisfied with their service.
DesignContest Alternatives
While DesignContest is certainly a pioneer in this model of outsourcing graphic design projects, companies like 99Designs and DesignCrowd seem to have grown faster. (For example, 99designs surpassed 1 million designers on their platform several years ago.)
Pricing is similar across crowdsourcing platforms, so it may come down to which site gives you the best vibes and if they have any current promotions. Naturally, the more you can afford to pay, the better talent you’ll attract to your contest.
| Fiverr | Penji | 99designs | Design Pickle | Looka | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Customer Rating | |||||
| Established | 2010 | 2016 | 2008 | 2015 | 2016 |
| Minimum Cost | $5 | $399 per month | $299 | $399 per month | $20 |
| Type of Service | A la carte design | Unlimited Graphic Design | Crowdsourced design | Unlimited design | AI logo design |
| Best for | Fast, cheap designs | On-going design needs | Higher profile work | Ongoing design needs | Affordable DIY |
| Notes | 15-day money back guarantee. | 100% money-back guarantee | 14-day money back trial; 30% off first month w/ code VA30 | Don't pay until you love your logo | |
| Learn more | Learn More | Learn More | Learn More | Learn More | Learn More |
If you’re working on a tight budget, it might be worth looking on Fiverr for a designer you want to work with. You’ll find more affordable options, but it probably goes without saying–you often get what you pay for with graphics.
Your Turn
Have you worked with DesignContest? If so, please leave a review below to help others with their decision.
I am very new to the world of entrepreneurship. Designing graphics is not a strength of mine, but I was able to find this service to be more than capable of finding the right logo needed for my first startup.
It was good value considering there were many designs to pick from. The process was straight forward and I was able to work with my designer of choice on a second project.
Very nice service and I plan on using it again.
I have been loyal DC member for almost a decade. I do not think I have missed a day there, mostly for enjoying watching creative processes. 🙂
I love friendly, creative, fair and helpful atmosphere in the community forum and projects, so as with the staff. Their kind and reachable staff help gives a sense of security which is important both for designers and clients, at least it is for me. I appreciate how they handle or find solutions with the projects, various queries or eventual issues.
Another thing I love are their minimum fees and payment procedure.
I forgot to add that Designcontest.com helped me and couple of my clients to gain trust and to build a nice and professional relationships trough one-on-one projects.
I cannot say enough great things about this platform. Having been on other sites, it was SO easy to connect and work with the designers. The quality of designs and the level of communication was great.
After, I continued to use the winner over-and-over on other work. Nice site and easy to navigate.
I’m thumbs-up here!
Tried few of the design sites, but found DesignContest to be best suited for me. Communication with staff and designers was excellent, professional, and friendly. You picture how you want your design to look, and you got even better result at the end. And after end there is more, you can still work with designer you chose to be best for you, and trust me it’s a hard choice, there are so many brilliant designers on DesignContest. It was worth it without any doubts.
Great experience! I had many great designs to choose from. The site was easy to use and designers were responsive and extremely willing to make revisions. My contest had all levels of designers.
One thing I noticed, a low level designer might not be new to designing but just new to this contest site. So it is wise to not ignore low level designers.
It was very difficult to choose just one winner so I upgraded my contest to have 3 paid winners plus purchased a couple of designs using the 1-o—1 projects. My 3 winners created some outstanding designs!
The helpdesk actually helps. I had several questions about how to. They guided me through the process. After I chose my winners, they answered every question and talked to me like I was important to them. This company stands out above the crowd.