Friday, October 17, 2008

After lots of agonizing, I finally picked a logo. I received lots of great submissions from designers at crowdSPRING, but in the end I went with the idea that really conveyed what my site is all about: Navy families. It’s friendly, welcoming and very Web 2.0.

I’ll be showing it off for the first time this weekend at the Kitsap Military Fall Festival. The event is organized by the Silverdale Chamber of Commerce and draws hundreds of military families, as well as local businesses and service groups. I look forward to talking to more people about my project and enlisting their help in refining and testing some of the site’s features when they’re ready.

Thursday, October 02, 2008

I decided to try something a little different as I started to think about establishing a visual identity for my project. So I turned to crowdSPRING, an interactive marketplace for designers and buyers.

It works like this: A company or individual looking for a logo, Web site, stationary or other design concept submits the request, along with a price they’re willing to pay, a deadline and specifications about their needs. Designers—the site calls them creatives—submit their ideas. Then it gets interesting. Buyers and anyone else visiting the site can rate the entries. Buyers can also leave feedback and suggest changes. Creatives read and respond to the feedback, then update their designs. After the deadline passes, the buyer picks a winner and that winner gets paid.

I was intrigued by the idea of a social design process after a Twitter friend, marketing professional Kim Dushinski, posted a few tweets about her experience with crowdSPRING. You can see the logo she chose at MobileMarketingProfits.com and read her blog post about the experience.

With just a few days left before the self-imposed deadline on my logo project, I’d love to hear what you think about some of the entries. Go to my project page on crowdSPRING to rate the offerings or feel free to post your thoughts as comments here.