On its landing page, ZillionDesigns boasts it has over 100,000 designers from over 200 different countries. It’s one of many design crowdsourcing sites. In this comprehensive review, you’ll get all the details about ZillionDesigns so you can decide if it’s the best fit for your design needs.
Design Service Reviews
My Honest Review of ZillionDesigns [Updated for 2024]
Table of Contents
ZillionDesigns Overview
On its landing page, ZillionDesigns boasts it has over 100,000 designers from over 200 different countries. It’s one of many design crowdsourcing sites. In this comprehensive review, you’ll get all the details about ZillionDesigns so you can decide if it’s the best fit for your design needs.
What is ZillionDesigns?
ZillionDesigns is a crowdsourcing website that allows clients to create a design contest. Freelance designers compete for prize money. The site covers web design, marketing materials, logos, and more.
How Does ZillionDesigns Work?
How it works
ZillionDesigns was designed to bring quality design work to low budget businesses such as start-ups and small businesses. With ZillionDesigns, you get a wide range of designs from several different designers. You write a creative brief on what you’re looking for and then pick the design you like best. Setting up a contest is relatively easy.
Step 1 – You select the design service. Or, you can select a complete branding package. ZillionDesigns has several different packages depending on your budget.
Step 2 – You set the prize amount for your contest. ZillionDesigns get a 20% processing fee of the prize money. You can also add on optional upgrades.
Step 3 – Next, you write a short creative brief on your company and your design needs.
Step 4 – Then, you give feedback and rate your designs.
Step 5 – Finally, you pick the winning design. Most contests run for 7 days, and you must pick the winner within this amount of time. You can expedite or extend your contest if needed.
ZillionDesigns’ Designs
You can choose from 6 main design categories.
The 6 Main Design Categories are as follows:
- Logo Design
- Graphic Design
- Website Design
- Banner / Display Ads
- Packaging Design
Other Design (includes t-shirt and signage design)
To Create A Contest:
- You select your design category.
- Select your prize money amount. The minimum required is $150. You will also be charged a 20% processing fee on top of the prize money. This is how ZillionDesigns makes its money.
- In a short brief, describe your design needs.
- Identify your target audience.
- If you have any files, you can upload them for the designers.
- Then, you enter your payment info and add on additional upgrades you might want.
- Last, you launch your contest.
- Logo
- Infographics
- Websites
- Landing Pages
- Apps
- Print Materials
- TShirts
- Social Media
- Illustrations
It is for All
How Much Is ZillionDesigns?
ZillionDesigns is unique in that you can set your own prize amount as long as it’s the minimum of $150. It stands to reason that the higher the prize money, the more designers will enter your contest. ZillionDesigns does not release the prize money until you are completely happy with your design. ZillionDesigns also offers 4 packages if you are just starting out and need several designs to build your brand image. You can also add upgrades for additional costs.
Dynamic Duo starts at $274 for logo and stationery designs
Wonderful Web Trio starts at $974 for logo, stationery, and complete web designs
Perfect Print Trio starts at $473 for logo, stationery, and brochure designs
Creative Quartet starts at $1173 for logo, stationery, complete web design, and brochure designs
You can also add on these upgrades:
Private ($15) – make your contest private so only registered ZillionDesign designer scan enter
Guaranteed ($15) – ensures you get tons of entries because you are guaranteeing you will pick a winner
Featured ($15) – features your contest at the top of the list
Expedited ($29) – shorten your contest from the typical week to as short as 3 days. You can also extend your contest to a max of 14 days.
Veiled ($15) – keeps designers from seeing the other designs in the contest
How Long Does ZillionDesigns Take?
Each contest lasts around a week, but they can be as short as 3 days or as long as 2 weeks. Once you create a contest, you can expect design entries within the first few hours. Remember that your prize package will determine how many entries you should expect. The higher you go, the more designers you will attract. Once designs start coming in, you can eliminate the ones you aren’t interested in and rate the remaining ones. After that, it’s up to you to work with the remaining designers to fine tune the final design. Once you have a design you love, you select that designer as the winner. This closes the contest, but it will be 3-5 days before you receive your finalized designs from the winning designer. The designer has to upload the source files and sign the copyrights over to you. Once you approve the design, the prize money is released.
Tips to Run A Successful Contest
To get the most out of ZillionDesigns, there are a few tips you will want to follow.
- Give details in your brief. When you create a contest, you will be asked to provide a creative brief about what you hope to see in your design(s). Be specific here and give examples of designs you like. You can insert URLs. The more info the designers have, the better job they will do.
- Choose the right design category. If you choose the wrong design category, you won’t get the designs you actually want. Interested designers search and filter the contest list by category. ZillionDesigns has 6 main categories, so you can select the one that best fits your needs. If you aren’t sure what category your design falls under or have a custom request, contact customer support.
- Stay on top of rating the designs. At least once a day, you should rate the existing contest entries. You can give them a thumbs up or down. Don’t hesitate to cut designs altogether if they don’t work at all. If you slack off, designers may get bored and quit. When they see you are rating designs and giving feedback, they’ll remain hopeful that they can win.
- Give constructive criticism. Once you’ve selected a few designs you like, give specific suggestions so the designers can make them even better. What do you not like? What do you love? What would you like to see more of? Get as specific as possible.
- If needed, add an upgrade. If you aren’t getting the quality of work or the number of entries you want, you can add on one of the optional upgrades. You can extend your contest or up the prize money, too.
ZillionDesigns Review
My “Expert” Opinion
ZillionDesigns allows small businesses and start-ups to get a wide selection of designs for reasonable prices. The best selling point is the ability to set your own prize amount. I also like that you can pick from four different packages if needed. For companies just getting started that need multiple designs, this may be the cheapest option. Other design crowdsourcing sites allow you to work with the same designer AFTER they win your initial contest. With ZillionDesign, you can put multiple designs all in the same contest.This allows for true continuity of your brand across different mediums. One drawback is that you have to pay extra to make your contest private.
PROS of ZillionDesigns
● The site is easy to use and creating a contest is just a few short steps.
● You have more upgrade choices than those available on some other sites.
● ZillionDesigns has a money-back guarantee. There are a few caveats, but ZillionDesings tries to set customers’ minds at ease.
● You can set your own prize amount.
● The prize money is not released until you approve the final design. ZillionDesigns makes certain that clients are satisfied.
● You can give direct feedback to designers so they can customize your design even more. This allows you to truly get what you want from the design process.
● The four package options allow brand new companies to get all their design needs in one contest.
CONS of ZillionDesigns
● Contests show up in Google search results and anyone can enter unless the client has paid for the optional upgrade to make the contest private. This could put a client’s personal info at risk. In my opinion, it would be better if all contests were considered private. Also, open contests are available to literally anyone. This increases the chances that clients may receive low quality designs from people with little to no graphic design experience.
● The minimum prize amount is $150. I think it could be lower for even more affordability especially if you only need one simple design.
● The majority of designers who enter a contest don’t get paid anything, because only one designer can win. This means a lot of designers are getting paid nothing for their work. Entering too many contests would be a waste of a designer’s time. However, designers know the risk when they enter a contest. Winning is not guaranteed, but it’s a great way to get some experience for designers just starting out.
● The client decides on the winning design. This has some positives to it, but it can also be a negative if the client doesn’t know what a good design looks like. They may like one design, but that doesn’t mean it will perform well for them.
● LogoTournament and other sites have contests with a built-in blind phase for each of their contests. ZillionDesigns only lets clients create a blind contest for an additional charge.
Alternatives to ZillionDesigns
There are several alternatives to ZillionDesigns.
- 99Designs
- Fiverr
- DesignBro
- DesignCrowd
- DesignHill
- Toptal
- Upwork
- LogoTournament
- CrowdSpring
- Kimp
- Design Pickle
- Design Evo
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