Looking for a Second Opinion? A Hundred?
There was quite a firestorm when I promoted utilizing crowdSPRING. Those in the design community who I respect so much though it was a bit hypocritical to appreciate crowdSPRING and other spec systems like 99designs, while advocating hiring design agencies as well.
I don’t believe it’s one or the other, I do appreciate both! I challenged a couple of the No! Spec supporters to come up with some advice:
- How do business startups get great design without the resources to pay for it?
- How do new designers get opportunities to get their name and work on the market (without doing free designs!)
There may be a third option, too. If your a business and can’t afford a great designer, perhaps you can get some opinions regarding your design or design concepts. That’s just what Concept Feedback has developed.
Concept Feedback is a bit of a mashup… somewhere between a social network for designers and a Digg-style application to vote for design concepts. Perhaps the most notable feature is that you do not have to post the concept publicly, you can control who has access to your concept. This could be useful for focus group style feedback!
Why did Andrew launch the site?
As a marketing director, Andrew Follett had launched many design concepts… carefully emailing them out to friends, family and colleagues, then detailing the feedback. The process took a lot of time and wasn’t very helpful. In January, Andrew approached a friend at
DevBridge about the idea. DevBridge decided to partner with Andrew and development began in March. Concept Feedback was launched in May.What are Andrew’s hopes for the future of the site?
Right now, Andrew is working on growing the number of users on the site and participating designers. As they continue to grow, they want to actually utilize Concept Feedback to continue enhancing and developing additional features into the site.
I think this is a great concept! As well, kudos to DevBridge on the development of the site!