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Over 120,000 designers are part of DesignCrowd's designer community. When you sign up as a designer, you are committing to producing quality work in a professional manner - just like inside a traditional agency. To make it easier to submit high quality designs, we recently updated DesignCrowd’s Quality Standards to make them easy to understand. The gist of it? Submit original work in approved formats and contact us when you see an issue. Follow this golden rule and our marketplace will continue to thrive with you at the center of it!
The following guidelines outline our requirements for your design submissions including text, graphics, photos, designs and other artwork. As a designer, you must comply with these standards to be eligible to receive payment for your designs and we reckon that's pretty good motivation to do the right thing!
#1 Submit Original Work Your design must be entirely your own work. Do not copy another design. Don't cheat and copy an existing design. Think a bit more, work a little harder on that idea and you'll figure out the solution without needing to resort to being sneaky and copying other people's work. More no-nos: Never use stock images, clip-art or purchased vectors in a logo design, illustration design or icon design contest. If you want to use stock images in your design, you need to declare this when you submit the design. Just add it to the description field when you upload the content. You must also be able to demonstrate that you own the rights to any stock images used. Get caught for copying designs or using stock images without declaration and you'll be kicked off the site. There goes any chance to earn prize money, not to mention no more online portfolio. | 
Only submit original work
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#2 Submit Work in Approved Formats Final design files must be in the following formats: - Logo / graphic design: EPS and AI
- Web / Wordpress design: PSD
As a courtesy, we recommend you upload a PDF of your designs to accommodate clients who do not owne the Adobe Creative Suite. | 
Approved formats: EPS, AI, PSD |
#3 Final Designs Must Be High Quality Vectors All elements within your design file must be vector components. All vectors must be editable and scalable. There should be no raster elements. In addition: - All fonts should be converted to outlines
- Closed shapes should not contain any breaks or gaps in the outline of your vector
- Unnecessary shapes should be removed
Your design won't be accepted if the vector file does not adhere to these requirements. | 
Submit Designs As Scalable Vector Files |
#4 Create Nice Preview Images Make it easy for your clients to view the designs. For tips on selling design ideas, check out a recent post How to Win Design Contests. Preview images should be 1200px x 1000 px (300 dpi) and uploaded in .JPG format. | 
Preview Images |
#5 Do the Right Thing: Compliance Our criteria for a quality design: - Highly professional
- Meeting the brief
- Suitable for the purpose and target market
Check out the DesignCrowd User Agreement for details of your rights and responsibilities when using our service. If you flout the rules and do the wrong thing, there's a bunch of crappy (for you) things that might happen. We'll remove your designs, suspend your account and in some cases, deactivate it. We may also withhold, cancel or reverse payments to you where we believe your designs are in violation of these standards. | 
Don't be a rule breaker, be a rock star and
do the right thing! |
#6 See an issue? Contact DesignCrowd Our goal is to create the world's best marketplace for design and our designers are essential to that goal. If you join DesignCrowd, you're committing to a community defined by quality design. Be part of this vision and keep an eye out for designers doing the right thin - go make friends and praise if you see something you like. Equally, if you see designers breeching our quality standards, report the problem directly to us. | 
See an issue? Report it! |
Written by Jo Sabin on Friday, June 28, 2013
Jo Sabin is Head of Designer Community at DesignCrowd. She's led the company's public relations and social media programs since 2012. With more than ten years' experience working with Australian and international tech startups in the creative industries, Jo has been instrumental in meeting DesignCrowd's objectives in Australia and abroad. Get in touch via Twitter.
