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Originally posted by DanB
Hopefully I won't come off sounding too dense here, just trying to understand from a designer's POV.
I'm curious what the "standard" business rule is for logo designers when they work for a client but fail to design anything the client accepts. Does the designer still get full payment? My designers did not charge me anything but I did give them a "appreciate your try" payment, which was purely my decision.
Even though I don't really need the logo for say two months, designers prefer some kind of deadline be set for these things. Would a deadline of two months be too long?
Of course I understand credibility is an issue, and perhaps if I could give the money to some "trusted" entity to hold for payout that would entice more designers.
If the pot was over $400+ US, would it still require a payout if no design was acceptable? I really do want to get a design out of this but it feels odd to agree to pay X amount of money for something sight unseen, not even knowing if any submission will trigger the "that's the one" feeling.
Seems like it would be worth the chance to take for what appears to be a rather small design task, as long as the participants could trust that they'd get paid and that a winner would be selected if an entry was acceptable. I guess this is the hardest part.
As for defining what I'm looking for, my problem is I can code like hell but can't draw a straight line if my life depended on it. I have zero creativity when it comes to these things, so I have to rely on others for this, but I know when I see something that I think is good.
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Different designers have different policies regarding whether or not they expect payment if the client doesn't like the work. Personally, I feel that in general, a designer should charge for work even if the client does not like the work, at least at a discount rate. The reasons being that a client can see the type of work that a designer typically does when looking at their portfolio and should already have a basic idea of what that designer can do. And also, designers have to make a living. If we spend 1, 2, 3 or several hours working on a design and don't get paid, that's taking money directly out of our pockets and we've spent time working on that client that could have been spent on other clients. A smaller payment for the time spend is a nice thing to do even for those that don't ask for it. I've had a couple of clients that just could not be satisfied (rare but it does happen) and both paid me a partial payment for the time spent.
A two month deadline is pretty long. People who see a 2 month deadline will tend to drag their feet, not thinking they need to enter right away, and they'll forget about it. If you bump the thread too often as a reminder, people will get annoyed. If you don't bump it often enough, people will forget about it and you'll get alot of rushed entries. Also, many designers who enter contests do so because they need money at that particular time, and if they see that their work won't get them any money right away, they will probably just skip the contest. 1-2 weeks is a good length for most contests. It allows time for designers to find time in their schedule to enter and to create nice entries, but it isn't long enough that designers lose interest or see it as an impossibly long time to wait to get paid.
If you can't think of exactly what you'd want, you could try to find some logos that you like the general style of, place them all on a page, and link to it in the contest thread. Be clear that you don't want copies of the logos, just that you like the general styles. It's very helpful to have a general idea of what a client likes (or doesn't like) so that the designer can get a feel for what might make the client happy.
Again, I personally wouldn't enter a contest where there was no guaranteed payout, but some people would. Just keep in mind that you're likely to have less entries and less to choose from if you don't guarantee a winner.
Here's a suggestion. Why don't you either offer a first prize, second prize and third prize, or offer $400 (for example) for the winning entry if you find something you really like, or $100 to the winning entry if you don't find anything you really like. You're likely to find something that you like a little, and you can always use the one you like BEST as the basis of a starting point for hiring another designer later.