STUDENT PROFILE 2: DANIELLE BLIXT

At the beginning of this current semester I decided to introduce CrowdSpring.com to my Art-32 Typography students. None of my students had used the site before, so it was a new and exciting entry into the design industry and the use of speculative design projects.

Daniel Blixt, a second-semester student in our design program here at Butte is currently enrolled in the Typography class. After designing and uploading the first project the class was introduced to, Danielle dived into CrowdSpring and has participated in almost 30 projects to date. Out of those 30 projects, Danielle has won two project awards, each worth $300. Danielle says she spends three to four hours a day working on CrowdSpring submissions.

Before attending Butte and entering into our design program, Danielle attended Purdue University and took several design classes, including 3D Design, an AutoCAD class, and a 2D design class. Last semester, Danielle took associate design instructor, Dylan Tellesen's Art 31 Intro to Graphic Design class here at Butte.

Danielle's educational goal is to finish up at Butte and then head Cal Poly and enter the schools design program to continue studying. Her design goal is to become a logo designer, and if the paying client's on CrowdSpring are any indication, she's already on her way.

WHAT IS CROWDSPRING?
CrowdSpring is Web site that offers clients the opportunity to add a project to the site (usually logos, identity, brochures, or Web page designs). The clients offer a fee for the projects based on what they want to pay. The minimum fee is $250, and most clients offer the $250-$300 for basic logos, though more $1,000 to $2,500 projects are beginning to appear on the site.

Once the project is uploaded, the client selects from the 25+ designs that have been uploaded and must choose a design, or CrowdSpring chooses for them. The clients place the funds they set as the fee into an escrow account, so that CrowdSpring can guarantee payment to a designer.

DESIGNING ON SPEC
Sites like CrowdSpring are popping up across the Internet, and they are garnering as much bad press as they are good press. The good press is that designers are making money and client's are getting decent and sometime really great designs for cheap prices.

The bad press is that one designer out of 30 or 100 makes money, but they all design a project, speculating that they might win (hence the term designing on "spec"). The bad press continues with the idea that clients are getting a project designed for very little money.

Many designers are against designing on spec because of the amount of work that goes into any design project, and the idea that a client doesn't have to pay for the work unless they like it. Designers also feel that sites like CrowdSpring can take away from the credibility of a designer's skills, and diminish the value of design, when design is opened up to amateur designers (such as students), who win design projects.

My take is that CrowdSpring and others like it open up a fantastic opportunity for upcoming designers and students to begin building portfolios and make some money from clients who would probably never hire a professional designer.

There is good and bad about these kinds of site, but seeing how excited my students get about the idea of being able to compete and possibly win a project, helps me to focus on the good that these sites can offer.

Let me know your thoughts about this subject.

-Daniel