[Tooley]

CS Design Contests could be offered up each week into a specific area of CrowdSpring. These would not be paid contests - purely for fun and inspiration. Each week a specific 'mock' company could be looking for a new logo / design and the winner (voted on by the community) could be featured in a block on the front page of the site.

I believe these fun contests could serve a few purposes.

1) Creative Exposure - hey, we all want our 15 minutes of fame.

2) Inspiration - sometimes knowing that a project is 'just for fun' lets you try new and crazy things that you might not have done previously.

3) Friendly Competition - We're all doing our best to 'wow' the project posters here. Wouldn't it be nice to try and 'wow' each other instead?

Just a suggestion.

[Ross]

Hey Tooley - an interesting idea for sure! We'll kick it around with the team.

Ross

[uzayelbisemyok]

this is why i m here for =) fun
i m in

[Tooley]

That's what I'm sayin'! :)

There isn't much of a community feeling here at the moment... especially seeing the creatives are constantly going up against each other for cash awards. I'd love to get my weekly submission critiqued by other designers and get thoughts and ideas flowing openly here at CS.

There are bound to be many, many new people here that are looking to better themselves, sell their work and learn from each other - and this could be a Crowd 'SpringBoard' to make it happen.

[Ross]

Originally Posted by Tooley

That's what I'm sayin'! :)

There isn't much of a community feeling here at the moment... especially seeing the creatives are constantly going up against each other for cash awards.

Hmm...I don't agree with that statement. We're pretty amazed ABOUT the community on crowdSPRING. In 100 days, we've seen it grow into a really strong and sharing community - we see this in projects, in the forums, in the blog, and in people's interactions with us and buyers. And while there are outliers (as there typically are), we've really been thrilled by the way people in the community have come together. Really.

Originally Posted by Tooley

I'd love to get my weekly submission critiqued by other designers and get thoughts and ideas flowing openly here at CS.

I think this is an excellent goal. One way that some people tell us they do this already is by reaching out via PM to other designers and asking for some constructive feedback on an entry or two.

Originally Posted by Tooley

There are bound to be many, many new people here that are looking to better themselves, sell their work and learn from each other - and this could be a Crowd 'SpringBoard' to make it happen.

The learning is already taking place - but there's plenty of room for more learning. Always.

Ross

[Jabraulter]

I think I like this idea. I was trying to come up with something more intelligent sounding to say, but that's really all I've got :)

[Ross]

So - let's build a little on Tooley's idea. What if instead of "mock" companies, we could approach legitimate needy charities around the world and offer to do some design work for them for free (a logo, a website, etc.)? There are many deserving charities around the world - I am sure that everyone in this community can name several. And we could accomplish both the educational purpose (and the fun!) of Tooley's suggestion while helping a charity with their creative needs.

Perhaps we could start a thread in the forum about worthy charities and pick from that list...

What does everyone think?

Ross

[Jabraulter]

Hey, awesome idea Professor Ross!!! I wonder if there is a startup site that helps new charities get started? How do you think we should approach this? It's such a great idea.

[squarelogo]

Great idea Ross.

[Ross]

Originally Posted by Jabraulter

Hey, awesome idea Professor Ross!!! I wonder if there is a startup site that helps new charities get started? How do you think we should approach this? It's such a great idea.

So - thinking out loud here - what if we jump started this with one charity (we can all suggest a bunch and we (crowdSPRING) will approach them. Thereafter, the winning designer (as selected by the CROWD - which would be the other participating designers) would recommend a charity of their choice. That way, while there won't be a monetary incentive to win such a project, it's a great way to do some good by helping your favorite charity. And because we have designers from 130+ countries working on crowdSPRING, this will truly help us to meaningfully work together to help people around the world.

Any thoughts about this? Is there a better way?

Ross