A New Community of Graphic Designers - Mycroburst.com goes live!! « Graphic Design Blog - An Ultimate Resource for Graphic Designers

A New Community of Graphic Designers - Mycroburst.com goes live!!

25 Comments

Posted on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

Today, I announce the launch of a new logo design contest site but hopefully you won’t tag me a spec work supporter by the end of the post. There are two sides to every coin and I believe this subject to be a matter of perspective. If you are a well-established designer with number of projects lined up, then you surely don’t need to participate in such contests.

However, considering the striving graphic designers, crowd sourcing sites are a blessing for them. They get a platform to promote their work, improve their skills, communicate with peers, and win new clients. Cutting the long story short:

Main Advantages of Contest Sites:

•	It gives confidence and experience to the new talented graphic designers to move further into the design world.

•	Although, many designers leave from such sites without earning a dime but talented designers looking for the right exposure, can get a terrific start here.

•	It is a bitter fact that many big names of design industry are not capable designers but make good money as they have their name out in the market. Doing small projects or winning contests is all part of marketing yourself.

Main Disadvantages of Contest Sites:

•	Big designers, who are earning their living in design field, get insecure because of young designers doing work much cheaper.

•	These types of sites damage the reputation of career designers as they already have strong clients on list.

•	Client get to see all the entries for their project and instead of rewarding a designer, they do it themselves.

Anyhow, getting back to the topic….couple of months back, I mentioned a “New Warehouse for Graphic Designers” which was in beta version but now it is LIVE, finally. Yes….MycroBurst.com brings a genuine platform for designers to introduce their talent in the world of graphic design.

Launch or Submit: MycroBurst.com allows a client to come and set up a “contest” where designers can drop their designs and enter the contest. Presently, 2 contests are running live accepting entries from graphic designers all over the world. The good part is that the contest holders’ offer guaranteed prize money within the defined time of the contest.

Your turn to talk: For my readers, who strongly believe crowd sourcing to be a blemish on the design community, I want to remind them of designers in remote areas—even third world countries, where they have very few means to support their families. Always remember, “Me and My Work” should not be our tagline …it’s time to think for others too

Still, I am open for all kind of responses.

25 Appreciated Responses

sd-karte On October 14th, 2009 at 7:54 am

1

hey its great and so much supportive post.
I am impressed so much as previous.Thanks for the post.

DL On October 14th, 2009 at 9:33 am

2

Wow, it’s amazing how much this site has turned to promoting this sort of thing. RSS feed -> Remove.

Charlene On October 14th, 2009 at 12:36 pm

3

While I’m sure you have every intention to help young designers, I can’t agree with you that crowd sourcing is a good thing. The main reason is that while yes, I too had to find clients when I was starting out, by having to find them ‘the hard way’ I also picked up skills that I now use for negotiating and networking.

All crowd sourcing examples I have seen thus far are favor the buyer at the moment, and they fail to educate the young designers on what they should be charging (less than a seasoned pro, but not like $50 for a week’s work!), how they should be handling their clients, and how copyright works (does anyone want to be the next ‘Nike logo’ person?). Also, giving cash prizes for work to be commercially exploited is just not right - if you think the work is good enough for real work, why not pay real money for it then.

Buyers too need to be educated that crowd sourcing is not a cheap fix for their design needs, and that there are risks in working with new designers or worse, people with no design skills who simply have software.

I don’t mean to say that crowd sourcing is ‘evil’; however until these issues are resolved it will remain a negative aspect in my opinion.

wittejoe On October 14th, 2009 at 2:43 pm

4

Charlie- thanks for the mention, we appreciate it. The concept of crowdsourcing is fascinating to me. We were so amazed the the power, that we opted to launch our own site. We understand the controversy- especially with the inability to control trademark theft. However, this has always been a challenge, on any platform. We will do our best to control this.

What amazes me most, is that designers are willing to post their designs. But, the more i spoke to designers, we recognized that with sites like Mycroburst- all they have to do is design. No sales, no invoicing, no refunds, no quarelling over quality. Just design. And, clearly some of the designers are making money.

Is this for eveyone? No, of course not. some clients still want to shake hands, or want 1 company to be on the hook if they dont get what they want. But, man, this is fascinating, and we are proud to be a part of it.

Sincerely,

Joe

ksmit276 On October 14th, 2009 at 3:23 pm

5

As a new designer (graduating in December!!), this kind of site would not give me confidence - especially if I kept ‘loosing’, even if my design was just as good as someone else’s (or better) and it just wasn’t picked.

My biggest problem is this: “many designers leave from such sites without earning a dime.” Everyone deserves to get paid for their hard work, and it is an injustice for - and prejudice towards - designers to have to resort to this kind of work in order to somehow manage to ‘win’ enough money to buy groceries.

I don’t think contest sites are very good for the industry, or for graphic designers, simply because they are so terribly (and so often) abused, and they give non-designers the impression that “YES, a high-quality, industry-level logo can be made for $25!!”

I think big companies should show more support towards up-and-coming designers.

clippingimages On October 14th, 2009 at 8:10 pm

6

WoW, Great Community of Graphic Designers it seems. Thanks for sharing this nice post.

Nia Brown On October 14th, 2009 at 8:17 pm

7

I’m not a huge fan of “speck work” sites but I do like that their are other options for designers. There are a lot of us out there and sometimes these sites can give you that boost you need. Who am I to knock your hussle? Though it may not be my cup of tea certainly doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be yours. I checked the site out and I liked it! I’d like to see peers succeed their. Best of luck to all!!! Ox

JZ On October 15th, 2009 at 12:07 am

8

While respecting everyone’s opinion, I still feel that it’s a great platform for the entire designer’s community to interact with the clients directly with their creative skills. What I don’t understand is why such a concept no different from elance or working for a company. While working in a similar business, we had experiences where the client had asked for a REFUND even after the entire work has been delivered since the entire industry from A to Z offers a 100% money back guarantee. Don’t you think that’s also similar to this case, but because as an employee of a company it doesn’t hurt the individuals.

As far as the copyright issue is concerned, yes it is a serious issue and these sites are taking it seriously and working to create a working environment that helps prevent such issues. Because if they don’t, they will be losing more than the other ends (Designer and Contest Holder).

So in short, I think it’s a great initiative for all the young talent who has the creative skills but not a platform to show their abilities. Let them breed also.

Kyle Gile On October 15th, 2009 at 2:32 am

9

It’s a good idea. It’s been done before, though I feel the way MycroBurst has done it much more effectively and I believe it will have much more success than others.

I personally dislike contest type jobs, as I am possibly wasting my time working on something I may or may not get paid for. It’s just a risk many designers are willing to take, however I am not one of those designers to take that risk.

Nice article though!

Ana Miranda On October 15th, 2009 at 3:47 am

10

They’re still having some issues, though. I registered while they were still beta and now I can’t log in with my email and the password I chose.
Once I ask for a reminder of my password, I’m sent a blank email! The same happens with each new contest communication. Just a blank email, and it’s not white text on white background :((( I’ve checked.

They don’t have a help and contact us section, so I’m hoping my post here will help get my account and other people’s working

A New Community of Graphic Designers - Mycroburst.com goes live!! | Design2o On October 15th, 2009 at 4:41 am

11

[...] to promote their work, improve their skills, communicate with peers, and win new clients. Community of Graphic Designers Design You Trust sponsors: HeySmartGuy - The Smart Way to Run Your Business on the [...]

Crasty On October 15th, 2009 at 7:07 am

12

Very interesting and amusing subject. I read with great pleasure.

8womendream On October 16th, 2009 at 12:16 pm

13

I have participated in a few contest sites and have mixed feelings for them. As a new designer, I think it’s a great way to improve your skills and learn from other designers that you would normally wouldn’t be exposed to. Also, you can see what the majority of clients like. The down side of course is working for free. I’ll have to check out this new one!

Petr Lysak On October 19th, 2009 at 7:11 am

14

Cool, but have seen this idea before so many times; is this any better?

Steve Douglas On October 20th, 2009 at 7:36 pm

15

I’ve been asking on Twitter with no response, so I guess I’ll ask here. Does MycroBurst have anything to do with Logo Design Guru? And while we’re at it, does this blog. I’m writing an article on the online logo game, and I’d love an answer.

STRAIGHTALK On October 21st, 2009 at 8:48 am

16

actually I liked the concept, but will it work..?

Jeremy On October 21st, 2009 at 1:40 pm

17

has anyone used this yet?

Xaby On October 23rd, 2009 at 10:33 am

18

well i read from techcrunch that istockphoto is doing something similar and istockphoto, being one of the largest stock image provider, can surely do a better job. i rather wait out for istock.

r4 On November 5th, 2009 at 4:14 am

19

Thank you so much guys. You are working so hard on securing this platform for us. We are hungry for more.

Rabzon On November 25th, 2009 at 7:41 am

20

Hi,

Mycroburst appears fake to me;
I participated in 3 competitions, all 3 were won by same guy and the best part was the winner actually copied elements from designs earlier submitted, changed its color scheme and viola, contest holder says’s “yes this is the one I was looking for”

On another contest, the prize money was kept as $99 ‘guaranteed’; since prize money was low not many participants submitted their designs, So I thought I could actually verify if this really is true, hence submitted an really good design… 2 hour later guaranteed was gone and next day contest was locked

This is nothing but brain drain, these clients who claim their company is well established and want logo don’t even have an website, this mycroburst web owner is probably collecting these logo’s and selling them elsewhere, since majority of participants appear to be students, they fairly come up with very good designs, as these are not copyrighted its really easy for the website owner to sell them elsewhere..

Regards

DesignerObserver On November 30th, 2009 at 10:29 am

21

Steve…yes, MycroBurst site belongs to the company that runs Logo Design Guru and Logo Blog Org. It is amazing how companies like these who actually ruined the online logo design market (with their agressive pricing schemes) is now stepping into the crowd sourcing game. Guess the online logo waters have been over fished. So now to move on to another area and deplete that too.!!! Ugghhh!!

The wondrously wacky world of online logo design | Snippets | The Logo Factor Design Blog On March 30th, 2010 at 7:38 am

22

[...] contest. As the resident spec work ‘fly in the ointment’ I did what I usually do. Ask the question. To date, no answer (though between you and me, I didn’t really expect one). Now, a few [...]

Iggie On October 10th, 2010 at 2:15 pm

23

Hi, Everyone!

I’m a graphic designer from the Philippines and was just wondering if anyone here knows if “Mycroburst” is fake or not. If anyone has any info about Mycroburst please let me know as I’m worried I got scammed. I recently won a logo contest from Mycroburst and it has been two weeks and have not been paid the price money at all….Any info would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Iggie

Charlie B. Johnson On October 17th, 2010 at 11:36 pm

24

Hey Iggie,

Mycroburst, being the main sponsor of my blog is surely not fake. However, I have forwarded your payment issue to them. I hope it will be resolved soon.

Thanks

John On April 15th, 2011 at 1:35 am

25

Mycroburst is the dodgy one of the lot. The majority of designers there are kids and wannabes from 3rd world countries where US $100 prize money is the equivalent to a weeks wages. Designs are constantly recycled, re-used and ripped off and there seems to be little to no quality control. As a designer I would stay away from this site, however the allure of being better than most people there may be too much to resist. In my spare time I try my luck on 99designs - I don’t know about you but I like to keep busy, and when I’m not working on client work I set myself imaginary clients and briefs, so what better way to spend this spare time constructively and get payed for it at the same time. I am currently winning 1 in every 3 contests that I participate in and have met many long term clients which I do work for outside of the site. I feel that the general quality on 99designs is far greater, however it still attracts the negative aspects of crowd-sourcing, it’s just a lot easier to pick out the good from the bad.