Design contests

But if the investor’s don’t bite, may I offer another suggestion?

If all you need is a designer’s touch on an existing product why not go on Coroflot, find a few student portfolios you like and offer one of them something like $500-1000 to whip up some concepts? That’s not a ton of money, but it would go a long way for a college student, (beer money) who would in turn work hard to please you specifically, rather than treating it like homework.

You get what you pay for, so I wouldn’t expect a miracle, but you will probably get a better result hiring one designer you like with real cash instead of fishing for free concepts from multiple designers.

Spec work sucks.

cdaisy, that sounds very reasonable. I really never intended to get anything for free. But I realize now that spec is common in this industry… and a touchy subject!

why not go on Coroflot, find a few student portfolios you like and offer one of them something like $500-1000 to whip up some concepts? You get what you pay for…

there’s an echo in here, here, here. … . .

students may come up with something impossible to produce, or not even have enough experience to address your real problems. I guarantee you that if you were to follow this approach and then later hire a real designer you’d be in a situation with more problems and a totally different scope, and not be able to deliver what you showed your investors…

my segue didn’t work, it’s all your Richard… …

Plan B: Go hire some professionals. Period.

This is another case of not involing a designer from the very start of the product development process. It usually neds up being a case of polishing a turd and using design as an illfitting afterthought. Having it tooled already means it is already at the point of no return. Any new design would likely require additional tooling. Hence my earlier point of getting into a situation where you end up paying more money to fix something that to simply just invest and do it right from the get go.

Design is much more than just doing a few styling sketches after something has been engineered. Designers really should be involved at the very beginning of a product’s creation. There are so many things a good industrial designer can contribute to the overall product definition that would save and make you money in the long run.

Stepitup: I just wanted to say thank you for sticking around Core77 and being open minded to the conversation. So many people in your position post here and when they dont hear the answer they where hoping for they get mad and storm off, usually screaming that we are elitist pricks. What i am taking from this conversation is that we as designers need to better convey to the masses that money spent on quality design is money well spent.

That’s no echo. I suggested he pay one student designer decent money instead of going for quantity.

It is rather arrogant to assume that his needs will not be met unless he spends a ton of money on a total re-design from a pro, especially when we have no idea what he really needs. That is basically what your post suggests, so I don’t know how that is an echo. There are plenty of “small” design jobs where someone needs a little push in the right direction, not a total rebuild. This might be the case, and a good student can handle that.

As if no one here has ever done some down and dirty side work while they where training to be a designer. Give me a break.

I’d just say this: I don’t think that students are incapable of having some good ideas. But good ideas are only valuable if you can separate them from the bad and execute. A student will likely not have the experience to do this, which is why in the real world they work under a more experienced professional as a junior until they can do it themselves. “A push in the right direction” may be all you need, but how do you know which direction that should be?

It seems clear that the OP doesn’t have much experience working with design (pretty indicative of the process not including design at the start). As such I would think you might be worse off chasing your tail trying to wade through design concepts from a student without the ability to filter them and keep in mind execution and other factors.

You’ll get what you pay for, but if funding is tight, there is no sense in throwing good money after bad. A pro will be worth the difference in what you pay them.

R