The Evolving Crowd Industry

In an earlier post, I explored the new “Crowd” industry, in particular CrowdSourcing.  That article generated good interest, so I’m following up with an additional aspect : “Crowd Design”.

CrowdDesign

Just like CrowdSourcing, CrowdDesign is the process where potential customers will post projects and list a “winning fee” for each.  Once posted, anyone can go to the “Crowd” site and submit their work for consideration.  The company/person who posted the job then selects the winning design.  If selected, then the posting fee is delivered to the winner.

Design Job – Examples

So what types of jobs might be available on a CrowdDesign site?
Below are some possibilities:

• Logo Design
• Web Design
• Flyers and Posters
• Business Card Designs
• Custom Microsoft Powerpoint Designs
• … and many more

CrowdDesign Sites

As you can imagine, with such a hot industry, there are a number of entries in the market. Below are some to get you started!

• Design Crowd :   This site has a good introduction video. Featured in Yahoo Finance, Mashable
• Crowd Spring:  featured in BusinessWeek and Entrepreneur Magazine
• 99Designs: featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes

Your own Research

• Good article on getting the most out of CrowdDesign (and sourcing in general)
  HOW TO: Get the Most From Crowdsourced Design Competitions – Mashable.com

And lest you think this is not big business …

• Crowd-Sourced Design Startup Chirply Raises $1.1 Million, Launches Redesign – TechCrunch.com
• Ex-Google executive unveils Upstart, a crowd-funding startup – Siliconvalley.com