Crowdsourcing in Graphic Design

These are websites that relate graphic design directly to the 'Cult of the Amateur' and can in the process devalue the creative process.
Design on Click Design Crowd and 99 Design

These web sites highlight a process coined as crowdsourcing by Jeff Howe. It is the process whereby projects are outsourced to an online group. I believe that this process in dangerous for both the designer and the client. As Florian Schmidt suggests in Eye Magazine, it turns the designer into a slave, whereby there is no guarantee that payment will be made at the end of the design process.

Crowdsourcing is heralded as a breakthrough for enterprise, lowering the cost of production, but does this not cheapen the brand. Looking at the examples on these web pages, I get the feeling that there is a plethora of designs submitted, but that the designs don't have a chance to explore more deeply the client's requirements. They appear to be quite one dimensional, fulfilling the requirements of the brief and no more. Plus, I believe that the designs are becoming too dependent on digital media and forgetting the beauty of traditional media in graphic design.

Here is a video of Jeff Howe outlining the idea behind his book Crowdsourcing.

Jonathan