The Crowd is Spring to Life
crowdSPRING was so confident that crowdsourcing was the way of the future that they used their own marketplace to design their website. The company posted a project and offered a $5000 prize asking creative people from around the world to contribute designs. in the end eighty individuals from dozens of countries submitted over 330 designs. “We couldn’t have asked for better proof of our model,…. we definitively proved the power of the crowdSPRING model,” said Ross Kimbarovsky, co-founder of crowdSPRING “We also showed that great creative talent exists in every corner of the world and comes from people you would never have guessed.” Marc Köhlbrugge, a new media student in The Netherlands, submitted the winning design during the competition, which ran for three weeks this spring. “I devoted all my free time to the project to make sure I would stand out from the crowd,” said Köhlbrugge “It worked”
crowdSPRING, is a online marketplace for creative services, and puts the power of crowdsourcing in the hands of individuals and businesses, giving them access to a largely untapped global pool of talent. CrowdSPRING is focused mainly on creating, Logos, Web designs and marketing materials. crowdSPRING allows buyers to post a creative project, and before you know it they have several different designs on their desk and they choose the one they like. On the flip side creative people use crowdSPING to get though the fount door, to prove that experience and title doesn’t make the best designer.
“When people buy art or music or movies, they see all the options available to them and then decide which they’d like to purchase. But the purchase of many other creative services has traditionally been a lot more risky,” said Mike Samson, co-founder of crowdSPRING “Buyers are asked to dig through portfolios, review past work and make a commitment before seeing the end product. crowdSPRING offers a better way. Buyers can now purchase the work they love at a price they set, without the risk.”
Risk is reduced on both sides because crowdSPRING guarantees that you (as a buyer) will get a minimum of 25 on any given project or you have the opportunity to back out of the deal. This makes it so that the creative people are not left at the mercy of the buyers with a lot of hard work going into a design and then a buyer pulling out. Instead a buyer must pay up front with the money being held in escrow waiting until a winner is chosen. In addition they use a rating and feedback method that shows how many projects they’ve posted (and completed), how many entries they’ve submitted, and what kind of feedback they’ve received. Best of all your intellectual property is protected by a free, customized written legal agreement for every transaction.
Hmmm perhaps I need crowdSPRING to help redesign CrowdsourceThis.com? What do you think?
May 21st, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Hi and thanks so much for writing your review about crowdSPRING. We absolutely encourage you to post a project on crowdSPRING. We’ve hosted a number of web design projects (ranging from $300 to $1,500 and in between) and a redesign of CrowdsourceThis.com would be a great project.
BTW - you seem to have an older screenshot with your review. If you look at our site, we launched with our brand new look (www.crowdspring.com), created by a graphic design student from the Netherlands.
Hope to see you on crowdSPRING.
Best,
Ross
June 7th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Very cool site! Actually also looking for something like this but then for coding… do you if something like that exists?
R
June 7th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
In days gone by I would have suggested Cambrian House, not any more.
I would think that your best bet is an outsourcing site rather than a crowdsourcing site. Check out http://www.odesk.com, http://www.elance.com
July 10th, 2008 at 9:30 am
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