http://www.signs101.com/forums/showpost.php?p=972352&postcount=38
These kids on those sites are newbies, need direction, so I got some ideas offered feedback and for example Jill's suggestions.
You aren't helping these newbies. You are taking advantage of them and cheapening what we do for a living. If you really wanted to do them a favor you would not participate on sites like that. Take the designer that "won" your contest for example: He or she has participated in 475 of these contests and has only won 84 of them. That is less than 18 percent. You want to know how many jobs I take on and get paid for my time and efforts? 100 percent of them. These designers need to be learning that. Not how to work for scraps.
SO That's hundreds of hours that this person has spent creating designs... unpaid for. just to win a few hundred dollars here or there? That's crap man. And even some of those contests that his or her design didn't win may have "inspired" the designer that did. Those ideas have value.
If they are newbies just learning and practicing on your company's image, they are also simultaneously hurting the industry they hope to one day call their profession.
And you certainly aren't winning in this case either. You bark out a few orders here or there so your design slaves will do exactly what you want (or what you think you want). But part of hiring a professional is also hiring their experiences, expertise and advice. The non creative person should not be in charge of the creativity, this is why you hire a professional designer.
Long story short. If you aren't a designer. Substitute your profession for this, and pretend trying to work in that environment where you do all the work upfront for a slim chance of getting paid. That would suck wouldn't it?
I have said on several treads I dont design, that I can't design, that I needed help. I also said I couldn't afford Dan.
You can, you just don't value what we all do for a living. You don't "afford" a design. You invest in one. A better design will help your business.
And don't give us that crap about needing help with your design... That was what people were trying to do, but since you weren't designing you were wasting everyone's time. You needed a focus group to help you judge your contest. This isn't a focus group.