Is crowdsourcing filling a design “Gap”?

Submitted by GlimmerGuy on 11/04/2010 – 5:36 pmAdd comment

As most everyone knows, the Gap recently had an interesting experience with changing their logo, then changing it back. In the midst of the whole brouhaha was an interlude in which the company briefly tried to get the public to help redesign the logo via its Facebook fan page. The idea was quickly dropped (“This wasn’t the right project at the right time for crowdsourcing,” said a Gap executive), but not before causing a backlash in the professional design community.

Meanwhile, online design resource 99Designs jumped into the fray by announcing their global contest for a new Gap logo. More than 1,000 designers submitted 4,600 designs in five days. One of the winning designs is at right.

As crowdsourcing becomes a more viable way to get design input, it’s also becoming a lightning rod for controversy—revolving around questions of whether it's good business for companies to seek design solutions from less experienced sources, often at lower (or no) pay. Where do you stand on crowdsourcing? See our poll in the righthand sidebar to weigh in on the question: “Is it good business for companies to use crowd-sourced design?” Of course, there may be no simple “yes” or “no” answer to this question, so feel free to chime in with your more nuanced comments.

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