14 Comments

I'm still unsure of the whole crowd sourcing concept. In theory I suppose i'm into but in practice It often seems just to be a crafty rebranding of spec work.
stephen mclaughlin
2009-11-18 12:42:37

I like it, it gives many different creative directions in one piece, where before it would have just been one persons one sided graphic design idea.

While it may not be the most aestetically pleasing, It does make it much more interesting, and makes you pay more attention to the detailing.
Thomas
2009-11-18 14:12:15

@Stephen, crowdsourcing is being given a bad name by certain spec work companies, but the concept is much wider and than that. Designer networks such as blur-Designs.net builds a community where designers get paid for all work they produce. Its a potentially exciting movement for designers, its just about finding the right model for it.
Frazer
2009-11-18 14:26:21

Good idea, questionable results

I think it is early days with this kind of stuff, the most important thing right now is to experiment with it.

I'm doing something in a similar vein over at flick for VISUAL LEXICON MAGAZINE: The Conception Issue
http://www.flickr.com/groups/visuallexiconconception/

Yes the entries can be a bit hit and miss but its a fun exercise. I'm not making a dime out of it, just helping a Greek Designers forum VCDC get their message out there

http://lexicon.vcdc.gr/conception/
James Bickerton
2009-11-18 14:29:54

Interesting process. I think if the source material had been more appealing the results could have been much better ...

I would hope that the contributors at least get a free copy of the magazine!
Todd
2009-11-18 15:07:14

rice and coffee... mmm tasty.
hesse
2009-11-18 15:23:22

thanks frazer, i will check that website out. Id love to find out about some other legitamite crowdsourcers
stephen mclaughlin
2009-11-18 15:30:08

I predicted crowdsourcing magazines a long time ago on my old blog. The whole concept of the magazine within a social network context is a bit silly since I would imagine that in the future articles need to be generated Wiki Style and the "magazine" needs to be viewed through an account for it to be useful that is to say a user's account helps filter articles into a hierarchy or you may end up with hundreds or articles that aren't really relevant. Articles will remain constantly active unlike in a traditional magazine which pretty much has a fixed linear life and the relevance of articles to users interests will change as the users browsing habits and history change. The only thing that will remain the same will be the magazines brand identity which will become more and more important in the future as this is what will attract contributors and browsers. You can read my old blog here
http://gregallan77.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!CE117A457337C4F7!218.entry
Gregory
2009-11-18 15:46:11

hmm dunno about the initial design so much - maybe end result would be improved with a better starting point? maybe if you're going to split something up into hundreds of pieces you should start with something quite simple and bold? I guess you would have to do this loads of times with different starting designs and see what works best to get perfect theory of crowd sourced design
hannah
2009-11-18 22:02:01

they do this in baby school, we didnt cry about how good an idea it was then. our results werent questionable either, the whole class liked it.
jandar
2009-11-19 10:38:47

This is already happening at BadFormat!

Articles are submitted through a blog site which encourages contribution and comments from its members.
The articles are then handed out to designers and illustrators to add visuals to them and after a final proof is sent to print.

Its focus is on social commentary and promoting projects that bring the internet into the real-world...

Based in Liverpool, BadFormat! is now on issue 4 having operated since April 2009
latest issue is here...

http://www.badformat.co.uk/badformatmagazine/bf4.pdf

http://www.badformat.co.uk
scottbadformat
2009-11-19 15:37:08

I think it's an improvement, I mean look how ugly it was to begin with...
Otherwise I like the concept of crowdsourcing, would love to see some examples of crowdsourced content in magazines as well!
Christel
2009-11-20 10:58:49

It was a neat idea - the big problem, I think, was that the original cover was just too abstract. On the final version, your brain has too much work to do, to work out what is going on. It'd be interesting to see this repeated, with a more conventional front cover image of a person, or some such.
Andrew Losowsky
2009-11-20 12:06:32

I encourage experimenting!
And I don't encourage unfounded criticism. (Christel)

It's not that hard to see how the results of an experiment like this can be improved. Afterwards.

So big ups for O.K. PARKING!
Aart
2009-11-23 13:21:30

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