When I came up with the company name of recessionRebirth, I knew that the logo had to be striking and immediately clear. Getting it created wasn’t going to easy. Here’s the logo I had created and here’s how I created it:

The Logo…

How I Had It Created It…

When I was thinking about what logo would work for my new company I knew that it needed to communicate a few things:

• The Difficult Time That Small Businesses Are Experiencing Now…
• Hope That Things Will Change
• The Basic Premise of “Recession = Rebirth”

These are complex concepts. I had no idea how to communicate that visually. After all, I’m not a designer. I didn’t even know what to sketch for a mockup of what I wanted. But I did know where to look.

Crowdsourcing: The Future Of Creative Work?

For my other company, I’ve used crowdsourcing sites like 99Designs and Crowdspring.com to get everything from logos to websites designed. What is crowdsourcing?

Crowdsourcing is a new way of outsourcing: you post a project and then multiple artists respond with their concept of what you’re looking for. It’s being used every where from logo design to Pay-Per-Click Ad Management. Think of it as a casting call for creative material. You post what you want (logo, website design, pay-per-click ads) and a crowd of participants (designers, wordpress designers, ppc ad consultants) give you a whole bunch of creative options.

When you find the submission you like the best, you award the winning entry to its designer. They get paid and you get something great, hopefully.

My Crowdspring Story

I posted the job on crowdspring with the following description:

I’m launching recessionRebirth.com, a site where people can hire me to help their flagging business. The point of the site is to not only survive the recession but come out stronger and more profitable than before.

I also added under the “What We Need Is:” section:

I need a logo that communications the concept “Recession = Rebirth” I want it to be a combination of images and text. The images should be strong and show the scary nature of the recession and the excitement of rebirth. It should be simple and clear.

I setup the project to be worth $375.00 to the winning designer. After 7 days, I had 2 pages of great, good and not-so-great logos. Part of what’s great about crowdsourcing is that you give public feedback on each entry so that ostensibly, each additional submission comes closer to what you want.

By the time the contest finished, I had narrowed my choices down to three possible logos. I kept viewing them side-by-side and the logo you saw at the beginning of this post was what I went with. It’s probably the best logo I’ve ever used and I got it and the possibility of 97 others for $375.00.

Have you used crowdsourcing? Tell me about it.