Looks like a cookie cutter template.
Why not just use a premium wordpress theme, or the like? Get your '$25,000' website for closer to $100.
How we made a $25,000 website for $3,000
31–40 of 62 posts
Re: How we made a $25,000 website for $3,000
#32Re: How we made a $25,000 website for $3,000
#33Woah, hold on. Their website is not worth $25,000. They would have gotten a bad deal if they paid $10k for it.
If they would have put the same amount of time finding a competent agency they may have ended up with a better site for at little as $5-6k.
Re: How we made a $25,000 website for $3,000
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Whose fault is it if a designer chooses to engage in a contest and they end up spending their time in a losing effort? We all have to compete but rather than disparage a business owner for being a good steward of their money could you instead present a valid argument for using a designer as opposed to a contest? Some good reasons why a designer, that might hypothetically cost 10x more than a contest, would be better…
A good designer would treat it as an actual design project rather than merely a "make it pretty" project. A good designer would step back and examine the actual business and functional problems and evaluate ways in which design could solve them. They'd work with the client to translate those problems and solutions into a visual and functional design. Rather, in this project, it sounds like this Andrew.Tweed (the OP)…
A good designer wouldn't participate.
Re: How we made a $25,000 website for $3,000
#35I have a big problem with this because it takes advantage of people who need the money, otherwise they wouldn't be participating in this kind of contest. It's one thing if you have ten participants and you pay the winner the equivalent of 10x the value of one site. But that's not happening here. If there are ten sites worth of work being done, only one site worth of pay is being spent. Let's make a comparison: Let's…
I think painting the people who partake in these 'contests' as victims is a bit hyperbolic ... they simply should know better. Maybe if designers redirected their efforts from pouring opprobrium on the people who follow natural human tendency of wanting good work done on the cheap to educating members of their profession on the dangers of partaking in spec work ... things might be different.
"Good judgement comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgement."
What I hear you saying is that we should respect these businesses for providing designers with an opportunity to exercise bad judgement. Someone's gotta teach the hard lessons, right?
Re: How we made a $25,000 website for $3,000
#36I have a big problem with this because it takes advantage of people who need the money, otherwise they wouldn't be participating in this kind of contest. It's one thing if you have ten participants and you pay the winner the equivalent of 10x the value of one site. But that's not happening here. If there are ten sites worth of work being done, only one site worth of pay is being spent. Let's make a comparison: Let's…
If they need the money, they should be looking for contract work or full-time work, not entering competitions. I'm for letting people try new methods of commerce and letting adults make their own decisions. Nobody was exploited here.
Where's the "new method of commerce" in "send us stuff for free and we'll pay one of you?"
Re: How we made a $25,000 website for $3,000
#37Would anyone care to explain the prevalence of comments from designers complaining about "spec work"? I had never heard this term applied in a derogatory manner before. Is the idea that because you are an "artist" you are somehow exempt from the economics of competitive pricing?
It's not about competitive pricing - it's about working for free.
Spec work involves doing a unit of bespoke work for a company, for the chance of payment. It's not fair - and there aren't many industries which operate this way. I totally abhor the concept.
Re: How we made a $25,000 website for $3,000
#38Looks like a cookie cutter template. Why not just use a premium wordpress theme, or the like? Get your '$25,000' website for closer to $100.
To back up my somewhat inflammatory comment, I'd like to add that a quick perusal of sites like http://www.freepsd.com/ or http://www.elegantthemes.com/ will back up the contention that it looks like a template you could get anywhere much more cheaply.
I'd bet that the crowdspring designer either based their work on a template from a site like this, or developed templates of their own that they reuse on project after project. It's the most efficient way to do spec work. It's what the business model rewards. Anyone doing time consuming original or creative work burns out quickly after investing hours in work they were never paid for.
Browsing websites like 99designs or crowdSPRING, it seems like all you see are three column layouts with slideshow. The most standout aspect of this one is that it's not blue. But since most of the clients on crowdsourcing websites seem to want the same design as everyone else, this model seems to work for all parties involved.
The only losers are the clients, who are overpaying for templates they could procure more cheaply elsewhere.
Re: How we made a $25,000 website for $3,000
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Whose fault is it if a designer chooses to engage in a contest and they end up spending their time in a losing effort? We all have to compete but rather than disparage a business owner for being a good steward of their money could you instead present a valid argument for using a designer as opposed to a contest? Some good reasons why a designer, that might hypothetically cost 10x more than a contest, would be better…
A good designer would treat it as an actual design project rather than merely a "make it pretty" project. A good designer would step back and examine the actual business and functional problems and evaluate ways in which design could solve them. They'd work with the client to translate those problems and solutions into a visual and functional design. Rather, in this project, it sounds like this Andrew.Tweed (the OP)…
The part that's so frustrating is that thomvest (and lots of other companies) is in the business of creating relationships and yet they don't understand how having a relationship with a designer/agency will benefit them.
Re: How we made a $25,000 website for $3,000
#40Can any designers here give us a clue on how much it would've taken them to make a design of about that quality? Naturally if you work no spec it's going to be better... but approximately?
We can't judge because we don't know the inputs. We don't know what the site looked like before and we don't know what the requirements were, what the company asked for. You can't extrapolate from a finished product.