Design Crowd: How to Stand Out and Make Money on It?

Design Crowd is a popular crowdsourcing graphics site. Blog owners and entrepreneurs come to the site looking for logos, web design, and print materials for their brand, and designers submit ideas to compete for jobs. The winning design is selected, and the designer is paid.

If you submit a lot of designs that are selected as winners, you can make a fair amount of money from the site. (Each winning logo pays $200 or more.) However, the key is to have your designs consistently chosen as winners, which isn’t always guaranteed. There is a lot of competition on the site, so you must do what you can to stand out from the crowd.

Here are a few tips to stand out and make more money on Design Crowd:

Learn About the Company:

How can you create a brand identity if you don’t know enough about the company? Make it your mission to learn everything you can about the company before you begin your work. The things you learn about the company’s vision, culture, products and more can (and should) influence your design.

If you can’t find what you need on the company’s site or through an Internet search, send a direct message to the project poster to ask for specifics.

Learn About the Design:

Few companies want to get random pitches from designers and hope for the best. Most start out with an idea of what they’d like to see in their logo — either specific about color or design or just a feeling that they want to convey. Read the project posting thoroughly to get as many details about what is needed before you begin.

Again, if not enough information is shared on the project write-up, send a note to the original poster asking for the clarification you need.

Over Deliver:

Many designers who submit work on Design Crowd rush through their designs in an attempt to game the system: The more designs they submit and the less time they spend on them, the more money they have the potential to make. However, if you want to improve your odds of having your work accepted, and you want to cultivate a positive reputation for your work, you should spend a lot of time producing quality work.

Over-deliver on the quality of your work, and you will surely set yourself apart on the site and land more jobs.

Submit Multiple Design Crowd:

You aren’t limited in the number of designs that you can submit. If you want to improve your chances of winning the job, you can submit multiple designs that present different aesthetics or options. Of course, the more designs you submit, the lower your profit margin if you win the job (and even less if you don’t). Limit your options to 2 or 3 if you want to increase your odds but maintain profitability. (Everyone works at a different pace, so “profitability” may not even be possible for one design if you take a long time to produce a design.)

Design Crowd is a great way for aspiring and professional designers to make an income. However, there is a lot of competition on the site, and work is not always guaranteed. Follow these tips to improve your odds and get more work!

Have you submitted work through Design Crowd? Share your tips for winning jobs in the comments!