What guidelines should designers follow when submitting designs?

All designers must meet the requirements outlined within DesignCrowd's Quality Standards in order to submit to projects on DesignCrowd. Designers must limit the number of design concept submitted to a project to three, unless the customer explicitly requests more.

In addition to the Quality Standards, designers are expected to follow the Code of Conduct the following guidelines are based on past project analysis and customer feedback, which means following them will positively influence your chances of selection.

The Quality Team considers the submission of Placeholder images as cheating and will not tolerate this type of behaviour.

Designers are expected to:

• Carefully read the customer's design brief requirements
• Submit an original flat file design based on the contest brief.
• Submit a design within the deadline .
• Submit a design free from personal watermarks
• Not make use of artificial intelligence technology to create designs

Designers who submit a dummy design in lieu of submitting an actual design after the project has been closed are not competing fairly with other designers who have spent time and effort to work on the project.

Important: Watermarks on submissions are not permitted.

For further information and visual examples of do's and don'ts: Designer's Guide to Submitting to Design Contests.

Guideline On Use of Mock Ups

• Your first submission to a project brief must always start with a flat file design
• For flat file submissions, use a solid color background, white is standard and preferred.
• Mock ups are discouraged but can be submitted as a linked design to the original flat file submission.
• The description for mock-ups must clearly state the submission is for presentation purposes only.
• Read this FAQ on Mockup Guidelines and Examples.

Guidelines for Submitting Logo / General Graphic Designs

	Do upload preview files that are maximum 1200x1000 px of type *.PNG, *.JPG or *.JPEG. We accept 5 files up to 15MB. You can upload files that follow a 4:3 aspect ratio (ie. 600w x 450h / 1200w x 900h) to accommodate other design categories that require a bigger file (web design, brochure, etc). Do read the guide to file formats and deliverables so you provide your logo, web or graphic design in the appropriate format to the customer. Do ensure your design covers as much of the preview image as possible. Do use a white background (where possible). Do not submit more than 2 or 3 variations of the same design unless requested by the customer.
	Do not have multiple designs in a single file. Each variation should be submitted as a separate design. See submitting linked designs.
	Do not have too much white space around your design. This will cause issues when we display thumbnails of your design as it will be difficult to see details.
	Do not stretch your designs to fit the ratio - instead scale the image down for best results.
	Do not add borders around designs to the submission. These make your designs look out of place when displayed on our system and our automatic resizing functionality tends to have problems processing them. Adding background color and stylized backgrounds is fine (but be aware that some designs will be cropped down for viewing purposes).

Use of placeholder images or personal watermarks on design submissions is not permitted at any time.

View this blog post for further information and visual examples of do's and don'ts: Designer's Guide to Submitting to Design Contests.

Guidelines for Submitting Web / Brochure / Flyer Designs

	Do upload images that are 1200-1000 pixels wide (this allows customers to see details of your design when they view full size image). We will make sure the thumbnail that is generated is an aspect ratio of 4:3. Do try and make the website take up as much of the preview as possible and minimise white space around your designs. Do only have the main view of the website as the preview image you upload. You should upload each page as a separate design and link it to the main design. Do follow the guide to file formats and deliverables for your customer.
	Do not have too much white space around your design. Web designs that take up as much space as possible look much better when displayed on our site.
	Do not have multiple pages in a single submission. You should upload each page as a separate design and link it to the main design. See submitting linked designs. Do not submit more than 2 or 3 variations of the same design unless requested by the customer

DesignCrowd Tips

Check out DesignCrowd's logo and graphic design blog for tips to make you a better designer.

• Designer's Guide to Submitting to Design Contests.
• Designer's Guide to Quality Verification
• How Crowdsourced Design Projects Work (Infographic)
• Guide To The Professional Design Process in Six Steps
• How To Avoid Generic Logo Design
• How to Interpret and Respond To A Logo Design Brief
• How To Create a Logo (Infographic)