Coversourcing – Design Contest & Great Case Study Opportunity?

Graphic Design

I don’t know how I have not run across this before today, but I just found the website for the book Crowdsourcing a book written by WIRED editor Jeff Howe. The winner of the contest of course is rewarded with 500 pounds, and has their work used as the cover of the book. I am not overly opposed to this contest due to the fact that they do not attempt to steal the rights of the entrants, or under compensate the winner (500 pounds is arguably an adequate rate).

At least in this circumstance, the idea of a design contest helps support the concept of the book. Because of this I partially find the contest to be a great case study. I feel that Mr. Howe and Random House should have every entry judged by a panel of design experts. They could then use the results to see what percentage of the submissions met the goals listed in the creative brief, which they considered professionally sound, and what percentage were not acceptable submissions.

This could serve to help discuss the ramifications of choosing the “crowdsourcing” route rather than traditional methods of content creation.

*Article image courtesy of crowdsourcing applicant yonialter

01/17
ADD A COMMENT
1 Comments
Share This Page:  Tweet this  //  Stumble It!  //  Del.icio.us  //  Float It!  //  Digg It!  //  Reddit

One Response to “Coversourcing – Design Contest & Great Case Study Opportunity?”

  1. James
    January 23rd, 2008 at 10:28 am

    Hi Zinni -

    Interesting idea. I think one of the effects of crowdsourcing is you can’t judge every entry - that’s why you have the crowd voting as well, but it should be possible to see how many fit the criteria - we haven’t had to reject many so far. If you’d like to contact me when the competition’s over, we could look over them then.

    James
    (Admin at coversourcing)

RECENT ARTICLES //

RECENT COMMENTS

  • Koocha: Thanks for that. Also, feel free to browse my new site http://koocha.com with lots of design stuff collected from Internet
  • Paul Gordon: Aaah, I love KickStarter projects. I’m hoping they come over to the UK very soon. Nick, the very best of luck with...
  • Firma Rehberi: thanks for this.
  • James Kemp: In the end, everything thing is designed. Plain things are still designed, but with usability in mind. The two bounce off...
  • Joshua: Being more of a graphic designer than a web designer, I think I can agree with the concept here. I do a lot of web layout mockups...
  • estudio web: Muy buen blog de diseño! great blog! thanks from Argentina.
  • theComplex: @Lisa – I have the same issue. And sometimes I get so caught up in how irritated I am at that client that the...
  • Daus: I don’t think there is “rules” in webdesign. It is just trend, and people (read: designer) often...
  • Web Design Australia: Forcing yourself to work on something when you’re stressed won’t give you the results that you want....
  • Benny: Great post and good tips! I also have this problem from time to time, having trouble finding that perfect ‘inspiratio...
  • Luci: Conventions and standards, in my mind, are different kettles of fish. Standards, like coding standards, I think exist for good...
  • Tom Hermans: Although I want a website to be visually appealing, and to stand out etc.. I also want it to be a handy instrument that is...
  • Vim: This list is always a good tip however its something that most designers already know, finding inspiration can be hard, but to get...
  • LA Woodarts Designer: An excellent reminder to step back sometimes. It’s amazing how often the business part blocks the creative....
  • Ben Rama: shouldnt it be as simple as if it works it works in an ideal world great post – thanks
View the Comment Line

RECENT INTERNSHIP LISTINGS

  • Temporarily Unavailable
Visit Creative Internships

TWITTER

Zinni on Twitter