The Pleasure and Pain of Crowdsourcing
Posted by: Jurgen Appelo on: 11 October, 2009
Only a few more days and our great new product (and business unit) will be crawling into its pre-alpha stage. Jeroen, me, and several great software developers at ISM have been working on it all summer, and we think (hope) you will be pleasantly surprised when you see it, when it is launched here.
We still have one major feature to implement though: a logo.
Staying true to our social/on-line nature I decided to let the logo be designed in the cloud (just like the logo of this blog three months earlier). In a period of just nine days no less than 331 logo designs, from many designers all over the world, were submitted on the CrowdSpring site, where we ran the contest. Compare that to the three different design proposals we would have received (from only one designer) when I had given the assignment to a regular design agency. And at the same price! (It’s a wonder such businesses still exist.)
Naturally, there’s a downside to everything. And in this case it was the problem of reviewing and responding to 331 logo designs. There were moments when even I thought that reviewing just three designs wasn’t such a bad idea after all…
Anyways, we’ve been able to narrow down our favorites to the following candidates:
And as you know, Jeroen and I fully believe in the merits of social networks. So feel free to tell us which one you like best, and decide with us what should be the face of our new product (and business unit).
5 Responses to "The Pleasure and Pain of Crowdsourcing"
11 October, 2009 at 22:33
Along the same lines as David, my critical requirements for my own logos are that:
1. They can be easily hand drawn/sketched ‘in the field’
2. They can be easily embroidered/printed on hats, t-shirts etc. (which means subtle gradients and close colours are out)
3. They can be recreated in ASCII art, although this is now a moot point as DOS or Terminal apps are not really on the ‘hot list’
Is it just me or does 240 look like two sperm swimming in formation…which leads to 41 that looks like two sperm WHALES swimming in formation…???
Seriously though, I am liking 329 and 88.
11 October, 2009 at 23:46
I like 303 the most. The different colors could be used for the different brands, the icon is simple to draw/remember and I like how the 3D look is subtle.
12 October, 2009 at 14:45
Hi there,
I also vote in twitter but here I found an interesting logo (in my opinion). Above all mentioned ahead about a good logo I’d like to add my personal values:
a fresh logo will ring a crazy bell into viewer mind to help them retain the good ready to be printed and stitched and so on image.
…and for me 148 ring a bell of an woody woodpecker with crazy eye that knock into your head.
I really fall for 148. what a great simple, clear and speaking design.
Jurgen Appelo
Jeroen van Eck
11 October, 2009 at 21:09
My thoughts:
- 322, 316: The logo’s are too ‘crowded’. They can’t be drawn by hand. You can’t use them in a favicon or something like that. When you print them in color, you have to use full-color. So, basically, too much drawbacks for real-life.
- 319: I like this one a lot
- 303: This one is also nice. The icons can be handy.
- 179, 88: Nice one, but the problem with this one is that the ‘t’ will be missed by the readers. So, when you use the logo separately, people will read socio-oco.
- 181, 157: see 322, 316