I am snobby about graphic design, I will admit this. I don't fool myself into thinking I am the best, by any means, but I know I'm good, and I believe in good graphic design. I believe good graphic design starts with conceptualization and research. To make a good logo or ad, you have to know about the company. What is important to the company? Where are they located? What are their clients like? What makes them distinctive from their competition? These are all questions I want answered before embarking on a project. I need to know about the company before I even get to the nitty gritty of colors, fonts and imagery preferences. I think this requires some kind of direct back and forth question and answer session, best done on the phone or in person. The check-out-your-work-and-leave-a-message option offered by crowdsourcing freelance websites is not the most efficient, especially given that each project comes with a time limitation.
Set aside the fact that these websites, and others, like Vistaprint, proliferate the illusion that graphic design is instantaneous. My main issue is that these websites pretty much shortchange everyone using them. In order to make any real money using these websites, designers have to spend a significant amount of time working on logo or design projects, and they still might not win any jobs. In fact, it's likely that they won't win one, since only one designer can win each bid, and there are dozens of designers working on each project. As a direct result of this lottery-style creative submission, dishonest designers and logo scavengers are taking advantage of unwitting clients and the mass-submission style of the websites, while the websites themselves take advantage of legitimate designers looking for work.
My experience was pretty much what I'd always expected, and it reminded me why I don't use these sites. In perusing the project I found one submission that was a direct use of stock-art, which is against the terms and conditions of the website we were using (yes, I actually read the terms and conditions). The discovery of the stock art submission made me pretty mad, but it was exactly what I had suspected I would find. In order to increase their chances of making money for the work they did, designers are using stock illustrations to mass produce logos quickly. Or, they are taking one logo design, changing the business name and trying to sell it to multiple vendors within the same industry, during the same time frame. In either case, the vendor is getting screwed out of legitimate, unique work. All these websites assure buyers that stock art won't be tolerated, but the problem is that they rely on users to police it, so, inevitably, people buy logos without realizing they are stock art, or worse, already in use by competitors.
Now, I know there are people out there who don't care how original their logos are. I was actually asked to use stock art on a logo project once. That's cool, as long as you know that's what you're getting. But these logo scavengers take a $10 icon sheet from istockphoto and slap each image together with an eye-catching font to make several instant logo options. All this subterfuge is to get a $200 graphic design bid on a logo that could have been created in Microsoft Word by someone with zero skills. This is absolutely reprehensible to me, especially if you're selling the same logo to multiple people. Especially when I, and other artists with integrity are busting our humps to create something original and unique.
The other issue that I take with these websites - and it's a biggie - is the issue of intellectual and creative property theft. All projects are available to be viewed by anyone on the internet, and no watermarks are added to the artwork. All you have to do to access someone else's design (and potentially rip it off) is right click, open in a new tab and save the image. This is a big problem for me, mostly because of the logo scavengers. If they're selling stock art, what is there to stop them from reselling my art? A shady client who doesn't want to pay for a logo could do the same thing.
Freelance graphic design is tricky enough without these websites and their pitfalls. When you do graphic design you are trying to pluck a vision out of someone else's head and turn it into a reality. Most of the time the client doesn't even know what the vision is, and won't until they see it. So it's mass chaos full of vague descriptions, psychic readings, and continuous edits, and if you're lucky, you actually get paid. If you're not lucky, the client gets disgusted that you just can't read their minds or tell them what they want and they huff off to go torture another creative. If you're not lucky you get a client who asks for a "proof" then screenshots it and uses it and never answers their phone or email again. Nonetheless, I would rather have this back and forth, exasperating, messy but direct contact than play craps with 25 other designers, half of whom may be stamping out re-heated, dime-a-dozen logos like they're working in a Twinkie factory.
This is not to say that there aren't good, reputable artists using these websites. There are. But in my own opinion, as a graphic designer, using these websites is tantamount to playing the lottery. Chances are you will spend time (and time = money) but you aren't going to win. As a client, these websites are the Wal-Mart of graphic design. Sure, you could find what you want there, and it will be cheap if you do, but it may not be what you expected, and it may be a knock-off, so let the buyer (and seller) beware.
