The designs themselves are mediocre and I also think this is a terrible idea. This is another example of how the design community is being undervalued. People will come to expect free (albeit mediocre) designs if we keep this up. Fairpixels' business model for "pay what you want" for designs is terrible and reinforces the idea that spec work is ok.
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@irvingtorresyc I feel like it comes down to supply and demand. How much does financial success in business correlate to design? How many designers are there? Generally when I see 'pay what you want' like in the music industry, it means that there are too many people that want to do something and not enough value being produced. Especially with a lot of front end engineers being more than sufficient at getting most standard design work done.
No disrespect to the designer world. A good designer is amazing to work with :).
@irvingtorresyc Smart business people understand and demand high quality designs and pay for it, and only high quality designers can produce it - just like hiring a composer vs generating some music with some loops and an novice pianist. It is a little different than hiring programmers of course because a mediocre programmer probably won't starve like a mediocre artist.
I don't think the designs or concepts were anything special either, though looking at them gave me an idea for something much better.
@blainehatab I can definitely see your point about supply and demand. No disrespect taken. I do however believe that there are better ways of dealing with this. When I started out as a designer I started with low rates and I made it known that I was building my portfolio but doing stuff for free is not ok. You wouldn't expect a new restaurant to give their food away for free to "build their portfolio" would you? Why should designers be expected to do this? I also think that this page was just set up as a publicity stunt so let's see if Fairpixels actually keeps their commitment of doing this weekly and giving away their extra "design proposals piling up on our hard drives".
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@irvingtorresyc I don't think the restaurant comparison is fair. If they have a restaurant then they have already put 100s of thousands of dollars on the line and can't continue unless they get revenue. It takes almost no money for a designer to start learning and practicing design. I'd say that the restaurant owner who made thousands of free meals before he/she started their their restaurant is the exact same thing as a designer using one of these sites and posting there work up for people to see.
I do like the idea, but I would rather call it a logo placeholder, neither logo, because as mentioned aboved, there is a uniqueness issue.
Giving the users option to buy the logo out and removing it from the catalogue might be a good solution.
@aramiggs I agree. The idea of removing purchased logos seems right on track - but then how do you get all the folks using that logo as a placeholder to... Stop using it as a placeholder.
As said above, non-exclusivity is a problem when it comes to logos. However, it would be really cool to see a marketplace for unused logos that weren't picked up by clients! You'd pay a fee to reserve the logo and have it removed from the site, albeit a much cheaper one than commissioning a logo made from scratch.
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@yoavanaki the concept you descsribe was the original idea behind BrandStack, which now operates as www.brandcrowd.com
It would have made a bit more sense to "claim" or "request" a logo, to make sure there is at least a match between the visual style and the service, plus to maintain some sort of uniqueness. Now there will be 100 shitty sites with the logo, transforming it more into an overused icon instead of recognizing the real work that went into producing it. my2c, good resource anyway :)
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Exactly what I've been needing. I have various projects with no logos or content going on, this is my new source for logos when one isn't provided by the client.
This is a great way to start off by not having to hire a designer or spend endless amount of time until you get your logo just right when you should be doing other things.
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I agree with not wanting to undermine the value of talented designers. However, I see the value in a free logo as a placeholder while in prototype stage. Being an artist I'm super critical of logos and want to pick the right one for my project, but at the beginning there's no money to pay a proper designer. I would rather have SOMETHING during this stage than nothing to show a working idea to investors and partners. Much like shunning LinkedIN accounts that don't have profile pictures...
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