let’s shall not forget my collage http://www.coversourcing.co.uk/entries/168
suggesting a crowd is a diverse mix of humans after all. Each is an individual with his own private life and a face (not pins, not dots, not lego parts…).

Posted by yoni on 16/02/08, 8:14 pm

Looks like Vicky Simmons already has it in the bag!

Posted by Amit aka Amchu on 17/02/08, 1:36 pm

I disagree with the definition of crowdsourcing presented by this competition.

This competition is spec work — getting lots of designers to design something, with only a few getting compensated.

Crowdsourcing is when ‘the many’ can do a job better, faster, and more comprehensively than the ‘the few’.

Wikipedia is an example of crowdsourcing. Facebook being translated by members into multiple languages is an example of crowdsourcing.

This competition is not.

Posted by Kai on 17/02/08, 9:59 pm

Vicky sourced a crowd for a book about crowdsourcing. Give her the prize. Dur.

Posted by Ben Freeman on 18/02/08, 2:55 am

The cover should be clear to read and plaesing to the eye. I understand why Vicki Simmons chose that idea, but it is not something which will look good on the shelf, it is far too cluttered.
The lego heads is an attractive photo, and is a great metaphrical image for crowd sourcing. It is between that one and the Pins on board for me.

Posted by Hume on 19/02/08, 2:11 pm

Graphic design once again has it’s legs kicked out from under itself at the behest of demeaning, devaluing public competition. Perhaps we might leave the editing of Mr Howe’s book to the open, scrawling, dribbling masses intent on leaving a mark, no matter how stained with mediocrity. There is no individual amongst the masses romance here. We are becoming ever more tightly reigned in as a marketeers wet dream — proof being the smirking success of the publishers. A hat is tipped. A head is taken off.

A truly collaborative, humanist effort could have intelligently integrated all efforts.

I vote for seyehniai’s lego: the beastial consumer-group hydra.

Posted by canyoucrowdsourcecreativity? on 19/02/08, 3:23 pm

Good post canyoucrowdsourcecreativity.

I can’t agree with your choice of cover though.

The ‘lego’ cover is badly executed as is Vicky’s.

While I acknowledge they’re good ideas, neither of them display the requisite typographical finesse that any good cover design should possess.

In other words, the worthiest winner should be the entry that displays both a well conceived concept and a well executed solution.

Letting a cover win purely on concept alone would betray the importance of the aesthetic and communicative requirements of the brief.

In short, the cover must ‘work’ and not just be ‘clever’.

Posted by Matthew on 27/02/08, 3:10 pm

I couldn’t give a toss who ‘wins’.

Graphic design will still lose.

Posted by canyoucrowdsourcecreativity? on 28/02/08, 12:52 pm