I had never heard of this term “crowdsourcing” before until a colleague mentioned it to me a couple of months ago, which raised a lot of questions about the value placed on quality design. In the many years that I have been working as a designer, one of the biggest things that I have and will always pride myself on is my ability to produce high quality results for each and every client, giving them something more unique and trying to push the realms of design forward, rather than standing still or doing what has already been done. I follow a process, have personal relationships with my clients, and strive to give them the best possible results for their dollar. I have never been one to try to whip up something quickly and without following a specific process, just for an easy dollar. Nor have I done this for free.

Crowdsourcing is a means for people to attain a lot of design work for very little costs. From a designers-perspective, it feels wrong and cheap. If you are a neophyte at design or a recent grad student, it can offer a lot of good opportunities to gain experience and build your portfolio. That being said, it also teaches young designers that it is okay to work for free unless your designs are picked. It also works against the design process, and these newbys are learning bad examples of producing design. It means that as time goes on, the quality of design may not be so innovative as it once was. With technological advances, and things being more accessible to the masses, it makes it difficult for those of us ‘true’ designers to compete in this economy. The design-world is a funny one in that it is totally speculative – someone may say one design is amazing while someone else may think a totally different way. Who is to say who is right and who is wrong.

I believe that spec design is causing a shift in the population’s point of view about the value of good design vs. mediocre design. If you know anything about the design process, you will know that spec-design does not follow that process. It does not encourage breakthrough new design ideas or a community working for the betterment of the company, rather it pins designers against each other in order to win the prize (even if that prize is only a couple hundred dollars for hours and hours of time and energy). The demand for low-end design continues to increase due to the unfortunate downturn of the economy and more and more people who are actually quite talented and can afford to earn a decent living without taking this route are working for free out of desperation. But that raises a big question; Do you really think you are getting great results from a desperate designer? Do you really think these people care enough about you and your company to give you something amazing, or just something passable?

I have also found with crowdsourcing leads to other problems like design-poaching, which is where someone steals someone else’s creative design ideas and reformat’s them as their own. To a point, this type of thing has gone on for many years, but with spec-design it is quite literally right out in the open. One example that recently occurred to me was when I tried spec-design myself just as an experiment. I found a company willing to pay a bit more for a nice website, and opted into the contest. I found that the designs prior to mine were pretty poor and not very unique amongst themselves. When I posted my design, within about 8 hours, there were about 10 other submissions that pretty much took the work that I had created and reformatted it as their own. It feels unfair that someone else can take advantage of this space, and more-so that a designer would want to do this? But like I said, its about making money not making something amazing.

In the end, a lot of the general population can’t really tell the difference between mediocre and amazing design…in their minds it isn’t that big a leap. In a quality designer’s mind, it is astronomical. It also helps to create a population that will not be educated around good design and what that means, rather a way to exploit creative people for their resources. This leaves a designer with a few options. You can choose to take the low-road and attempt the spec-design path, or you can choose to deny it, ignore it, fight against it. A lot of world-renowned ‘design’ organizations like AIGA stand against spec-design. I think that there is still a community that desires quality and personal relationships for their business, and I can only hope, for those of us who are designers pushing the boundaries of what has been done into new plains, that we can continue to be valued and appreciated for our hard work and paid for it.

I want to ask you, would you go to work every day and spend hours and hours doing something, with only a slight chance of being paid for that work, as if in competition? It feels almost as low as sweatshop labor, and is this really something that the design community is supporting? I, for one, can not do what I do best knowing that it will be taken for granted.

I am so excited to announce that I have just created my first I-phone application design, which will soon venture into the infamous I-pod and I-pad products. It still blows my mind how quickly technology changes and updates itself over time, seemingly exponentially. The launch date of the application is still TBD (probably sometime in April), but I will keep tabs and announce it as soon as I find out. There will be more to come!

UPDATE: The applications have launched. They are called Lotto Assasin by Mobile Sandbox. You can find them on the iphone and ipad applications spaces under NEWS…as they are NEWS apps. Check out the designs on the gallery page.

Do you ever find that you need to hit the refresh button on yourself? Sometimes we can get caught up in the flow of our lives and our work, forgetting to reflect. I find that when I am most busy, I lose sight of the important “basics” especially in design. Design is ever-changing, especially on the web. It is nice to revert to something you haven’t done in awhile, just to change things up a bit. It also helps in the development of one’s craft, to apply different techniques to other mediums that we may not be as familiar with.

For some time now, I have been focused on a lot more print-based design work. It has been wonderful to escape the web-dominant world for a little while. My education and foundation was built in the print world. I have been forced to go back to the beginning, the basics of my design understanding for the past few months, and it has truly been an awakening experience. Venturing forward, I am approaching web design in a new way. I have been blessed to be able to have a break from what I’ve been doing, and now am ready to take the bull by its horns.

When you get caught up in everything, you can lose sight of what is important. In design, its always important to challenge yourself and what you know you can do. For me, its equally important to change things up. As a creative person, if you can keep yourself on your toes, you can achieve more rewarding results. Taking some steps backwards can help propel you into new terrain with your craft. I would recommend this to all!

How can designers survive in this economic downturn? With businesses collapsing left and right, very little money is being put forth to quality design as in the past. People are trying to solve their own problems, and worry about their own lives in a singular fashion. High risk is all around us and high pressure is making it difficult for people to try new things. It seems that time is not on our side.

While this may seem like the end-all-be-all, it is actually an opportunity for those true creative individuals who can follow an effective process for invention and innovation. Define the opportunity available and then develop the solution(s) to implement and fulfill it. This approach will allow you (the designer) and your client to see the benefits and reach their objectives. As a designer, we can create value through innovation. It is our job to help potential clients/businesses to see that value through their own practice/service/etc.

Define the Problem(s); Set Objectives; Create an Approach for the Solution; Research Everything; Develop through Visual Brainstorming; Think and Talk through your Options; Refine; Try On Your Creation; Test It; Publish It; Assess the Results; Refine Again. This is a very streamlined method to creating opportunity through design.