Laura Beckwith - Invention Journal 1

 People, cities and big corporations that have used crowd sourcing as a source for finding a design are: 

• Phoenix City (finding a new way to represent the city with the flag pole signs) 
• corporations using it to create an accurate range of information (using social media to get multiple different sources to put together a magazine) 
• "Crowdsourcing is a practice employed by many types of organizations that makes use of the internet to harness the time, energy, and talents of individuals who are otherwise unconnected to the organization. Hana Shepherd explores some of the many creative uses of crowdsourcing and discuss the issues the practice raises in terms of the nature and future of work." (Hana Shepard, http://ctx.sagepub.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/content/11/2/10) 
• DesignBay is a website specifically for crowd sourcing, along with other sites like 99designs, where companies can request lots of different ideas 
• Many designers argue that the over all quality of work is effected and it can make it much more difficult to create, good, honest, creative work. 
• "Crowdsourcing contests can be modeled as all-pay auctions because entrants must exert effort up-front to enter. Unlike all-pay auctions where a usual design objective would be to maximize revenue, in crowdsourcing contests, the principal only benefits from the submission with the highest quality." (Optimal Crowdsourcing Contests, Shuchi Chawla, Jason D. Hartline, Balasubramanian Sivan, Cornell University Library, http://arxiv.org/abs/1111.2893)  
• Websites like 99designs that hold these "design contests" vs. having a designer who is putting the proper time and effort, the likely hood of finding a good quality design that is well throughout out is not as likely as if a company were to find designers as James Archer, a local design would argue. 

As part of my research, I decided to ask some of the designers
 in Phoenix area their thoughts on the subject to see what they
may have seen in their work experience. 

If all the different views were represented, I believe this would be quite the heated dinner topic. Crowd sourcing in any field, but specifically in design, is one that is often overlooked. Yet it has so many different perspectives, sides and varying opinions. The designers who have gone to a university, trade school or just learned the trade themselves from a mentor or teaching themselves would generally argue that it is worth the money to hire a designer who will put the time, effort, thought and consideration into correctly presenting the company. 

Maybe someone who won a design contest would argue that through that process they learned more about a proper way to represent a company through trial and error. Through the experience they may have learned more about design than they had known before. Or maybe they were just trying to make some fast cash. 

For corporations and companies, it's an easy way to get fast, cheap results, multiple different designs, concepts, themes and ides that they would not have thought of on their own or that may not have come from one designer. They also are not stuck with one idea, if two or three ideas were presented that all were good but would be outstanding put together, there is no stopping them because designers have already submitted their work, handing over the rights. A big company might think that they are doing local designers a favor by letting them design their logo. The company wins no matter what, because they get a design for relatively cheap, it may not be what they hoped for, but they end up with an end result regardless. As for the numerous amount of designers that submit their work, they have no promise of pay, recognition or reward.