DesignCrowd

DesignCrowd is an online crowdsourcing platform founded in 2008 by Alec Lynch and Adam Arbolino.^[1] DesignCrowd has 500,000+ graphic designers signed up, from 124 countries,^[2] who outsource or crowdsource logo, website, print and digital design to businesses around the world.

Company history

DesignCrowd was started in a garage in Sydney, Australia. Alec Lynch is the Chief Executive Officer of DesignCrowd and Adam Arbolino is the company's Chief Technology Officer. Chris McNamara is the Chief Operating Officer.^[1]

In late 2007, Alec Lynch and Adam Arbolino began working on the DesignCrowd idea and subsequently launched the platform in January 2008.^[3] Lynch has been recognised as a founder of the design crowdsourcing concept.^[4]

Investment and financial results

In 2009, DesignCrowd raised capital from a team of private angel investors in Australia, totalling A$300,000.^[5]

In 2011, the company received $3 million in investment from Starfish Ventures.^[6]

The company obtained a further $3 million from Starfish Ventures in 2013^[7] (a total of A$6.3 million^[8]), allowing it to expand significantly. Further business services were subsequently launched in the UK,^[9] Canada,^[10] Singapore, India, the Philippines^[11] and New Zealand,^[12] with additional offices opening in San Francisco and Manila.^[13][14]

In early 2015 the company closed a $6M Series B round led by new Australian venture capital firm AirTree Ventures with participation from existing investor Starfish Ventures.^[15][16][17]

On 20 December 2011, DesignCrowd acquired Brandstack,^[18] a stock logo template marketplace where users are able to buy and sell logo templates and domains. Following the acquisition, Brandstack's name was changed to "BrandCrowd."^[19] Alec Lynch is also the CEO of BrandCrowd. As of March 2013, BrandCrowd constitutes approximately five to ten per cent of the DesignCrowd revenue.^[20]

From 2010 to 2012, the company’s revenue grew by 500 per cent.^[20] Alec Lynch was also quoted as saying that crowdsourcing demand from small businesses doubled since 2012.^[20]

DesignCrowd states that its next goal is to become a leading crowdsourcing provider in the US market and expand its business from $10 million to $100 million. As of 2013, the US market represents approximately 40 per cent DesignCrowd sales.^[21]

In 2014, DesignCrowd announced that it had acquired community design contest website Worth1000 for an undisclosed amount.^[22]

In July 2014, DesignCrowd has reported an annual turnover of over $10 million.^[23]

In October 2015, DesignCrowd revealed it had passed $30 million in completed projects and the company was approaching $20 million in annual revenue.^[24] The company went on to announce in February 2016 that it now had more than 500,000 designers working on the platform.^[25] Lynch also said the company was experiencing 20 per cent growth in the British market, 19 per cent in the US and 18 per cent in the EU.^[26] Designer Anand Thangavel was recognized as the first person to earn more than $1million on through working on DesignCrowd in July, 2016.^[27]

Notable projects

DesignCrowd has completed crowdsourcing projects for the following brands: Amnesty International, ESPN,^[28] Sprite, the Sydney Morning Herald,^[29] HTC One,^[30] Microsoft Office,^[31] Panasonic,^[32] UNICEF,^[33] Harvard Business School,^[34] TimesSquare.com,^[35] former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd,^[36] Virgin HealthMiles^[37] and the Showtime TV series Dexter.^[38]

DesignCrowd is also known for hijacking news and trends with crowdsourcing design competitions. Noteworthy past competitions have been related to: "Kim Jong-un's hair style";^[39] the 2014 FIFA World Cup;^[40] the Yahoo! logo;^[41] the logo for Manchester United F.C.;^[42] and the 21st Century Fox logo.^[43]

In October 2015, DesignCrowd released a series of Photoshopped pictures of Donald Trump in horror movie scenes^[44] and politicians with man buns,^[45] with both receiving huge media attention. A series of images from DesignCrowd were posted in June 2016 showing United States Presidential candidates reimagined as Game of Thrones Characters.^[46]

Awards and achievements

• Finalist in the CeBIT Innovation Awards Australia, 2012^[47]
• Alec Lynch named Anthill's 30under30 Winner, 2012^[48]
• Alec Lynch named Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award winner, 2014 (Eastern Region - Category: Emerging)^[49]
• DesignCrowd ranked #22 in Deloitte's TechFast50 2014 rankings^[50]
• DesignCrowd wins Anthill's 'Big Kahuna' Award 2014^[51]
• DesignCrowd ranked #38 in Deloitte's TechFast50 2015 rankings^[52]
• DesignCrowd ranked #319 in Deloitte's 2015 Technology Fast 500 rankings^[53]

Criticisms

Although the convenience and access to many projects alleged by DesignCrowd's "CrowdSourcing 2.0^[54]" can appear attractive to potential clients and designers, some criticisms are only loosely addressed by such providers:

• Saturation of market results in too many available designers, lowering the compensation to the lowest common denominator of a worldwide pool of workers, resulting in a sort of "digital sweat shop" phenomenon.^[55]
• Work is usually done "on spec,"^[56] a line often improperly blurred with crowd-sourcing, where many designers submit work, but only one is selected; no compensation is provided to those not selected, or runners-up.
• There is no minimum payment for designers, resulting in a race-to-the-bottom minimum standard, often dubbed "right to work for less,"^[57] creating a very weak position for the rights of workers and almost no accountability other than unreasonable or non-existent standards.
• Usually nothing prevents the hiring job poster from accepting and paying for a job for a low amount, but viewing (and possibly using without permission) other submitted designs or design concepts, without paying for them.
• Almost no direct contact occurs between posted job clients and the designer before the job;^[58] although a passive system may seem attractive to minimize time spent on personal contact, it removes the key element of design of personal interaction (and creation of an accurate, personal design brief^[59]); although the client provides some intake information and may post research images or links, it is passive and therefore limited to the client's knowledge of what is needed.
• Many such crowd-sourcing or on-spec clearinghouses offer no guarantee of security of one's information, and many such companies are internationally-based, with little recourse for the designers or clients in the event of compromised data, or user agreements allow almost full indemnity to the company. Similarly, such companies often will let a designer place their account inactive, without allowing a designer to completely delete their account. Thus, it leaves artificial numbers of current users (with possibly inactive accounts), and/or a company could sell the information of an account indefinitely without enforcement of (possibly international) court order(s).^[60]

References

External links

• Company website