Design Marketplaces: Do You Get What You Pay for?

Particularly for small and medium sized businesses, it’s probably not affordable or efficient to employ their own in-house design team. Even partnering with a design agency may be prohibitively expensive. That’s why many companies are looking to tap into the design talent available in the freelancer community.

However, trying to engage a freelance designer directly can be hit-or-miss. Some compare it to online dating: you pick a prospective partner based on a limited description and then just hope it’s a good match. That can mean losing time and money (often a lot more than the cost of dinner for two) on doomed 'relationships.'

One solution that has emerged to try to reduce those risks is the design marketplace.

At their broadest, design marketplaces are simply platforms that connect clients with designers. Different marketplaces have slightly different offers and business models, but most primarily use “design contests” to make that connection: a business posts details of what it wants designed – be it a logo, brand identity or promotional material – in response to which the freelance designers on the platform submit their proposed designs. The business then picks its favorite from those submitted, and the winning designer gets paid a pre-set price (while the client gets the copyright of the design).

But do such marketplaces really solve the challenges businesses face in using agencies or approaching freelancers directly? Do they offer true value for money? And if not, is there another, better way?

In this post, we’ll take a look at some of the pros and cons of design marketplaces for businesses (how well they serve designers’ interests is a quite separate discussion) and run the rule over some of the more popular services available.

The Pros and Cons of Design Marketplaces

The Upsides

• Choice and variety – A primary reason why businesses are drawn to marketplaces is because, in response to simple specifications about their business, they can get back dozens (sometimes even 100+) of different designs to choose from.
  What’s more, as those designs will come from multiple designers, the business also benefits from different designers’ personal styles and interpretations of the brief (Some savvy businesses even use marketplaces as a ‘testing ground’, getting lots of ideas and then instructing a professional agency).
  And because designers aren’t obliged to submit a design those designs that are submitted should, in principle at least, come from designers who are genuinely engaged by the brief.
• Price – Particularly for small businesses, marketplaces provide a more affordable alternative to, say, engaging an agency. They typically offer a simple, fixed price which (again, in principle,) should mean no nasty surprises further down the line.
  If the business doesn’t like a particular design, it did not cost them anything. And many marketplaces offer refunds if clients aren’t happy with any of the submissions they get.
• Peace of mind – As well as money back guarantees, marketplaces typically offer certain levels of protection as well. All designers, before joining a contest, would have agreed to comply with any confidentiality duties, and that the business will own the copyright in any winning design.
• Speed – Marketplaces are a good way to get lots of ideas in a hurry. Within 24 hours, a contest could have received dozens of submissions, and with designers often located all over the world, designs can be submitted any time, day or night. So if it’s just about getting lots of design ideas and getting them fast, marketplaces may be worth a look.

The Downsides

• Too much of a good thing?– There is such a thing as too much choice. Particularly for businesses unfamiliar with branding, or without a fully-defined sense of what they are looking for, receiving hundreds of designs can be overwhelming. It takes time simply to review, let alone choose between or think how you’d improve, all those (often very similar looking) designs.
• The Legwork. This highlights another, bigger downside of marketplaces: that they can shift much of the burden to the customer. That’s true both for defining their requirements in the first place (which can be difficult for businesses that don’t speak fluent ‘design’) and for quality control over the final product.
  That burden can increase when a business’ creative need has more than one element. Some businesses will simply want a new logo, and nothing else, but most real-world design requirements don’t involve just one such defined task. Rather, they might involve say writing copy, or producing a website, as well as designing a brand. As a design contest typically only covers one element, the business will have to spend time and money seeking out freelancers for the other elements separately.
• Hidden Costs – While most design marketplaces offer a clear (and often low) fixed price, costs can soon add up. Some of the services advertised may only be available on more expensive higher-tier packages, or there may be further charges at later stages of the process, that can come as a nasty surprise to any business that hasn’t read the small print.
• Quality Concerns – The principal concern raised about design contest however, is a quality one, and it’s something that stems from the business model itself, rather than any given provider.
  Think about it. Designers only get paid if their design wins, and they could be competing against hundreds of other designers. The risk therefore is that, given the low chance of being paid, designers are unwilling to invest a lot of time in their design, meaning an inferior end product (or at worst – mere copies of existing designs). In those circumstances, a contest may end up being no more productive than buying a super-low cost, off-the-shelf design from a ‘logo shop’ or similar.
  The contest payment model also means that top designers would actually tend to avoid such contests, while others use marketplaces primarily as ‘training grounds’, a way to experiment with different ideas and build experience early in their careers.
  Finally, there is limited opportunity for the business to engage with designers before receiving initial designs, meaning little scope for brainstorming ideas or discuss the business’ brand values as would typically be possible on a more 1:1 basis. Unless the brief is very clear, a business may also end up with lots of ideas back that are way off the mark – even though it doesn’t have to pay for them, added together, there’s still a significant time cost simply in reviewing and rejecting them.

As we mentioned, some marketplaces do offer also offer non-contest services, typically involving a more direct relationship with a particular individual. You won’t get the different perspectives and interpretations that you would get from a design contest, and you may pay a bit more and put in more effort up front. But it does mean a greater chance to engage directly with designers, and may mean you end up with a higher quality product.

10 of the Most Popular Design Marketplaces

With new design platforms springing up at a rapid rate, it can be difficult to work out what they all offer, at what price, and which, if any, would work for you. So we’ve run the rule over some of the more popular platforms around.