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Designer FAQ


General
How does DesignBay work?
What are DesignBay's fees?

Open Brief Design Contest
What is an 'Open Brief Design Contest'?
How is the winning design selected?
Can I submit more than one design?
If I receive a place payment do I get a base payment too?
What is the base payment cap?
How will I know if I get a base payment?
What is a base payment?

Request for Quotes
What is a 'Request for Quotes'?
When do I start designing?
Does the lowest quote win?
How does a customer choose the winning quote?
Why can I only submit a quote and not a design?

Payment
How much will I get paid?
How do I get paid?
What is the payment currency?

Other
How will my designs be used?
What is an 'Unofficial' brief?
Do I get paid for 'Unofficial' briefs?
What is a Review and Improve Research brief?
How is my address used?
How are the rankings determined?
Looking to buy a design?
Visit our Business Frequently Asked Questions for information specific to you!
Popular Questions
Solution Graphics

General
How does DesignBay work?
DesignBay is a graphic design marketplace that gives creative people opportunities.  Businesses can post Open Brief Design Contests or Request Quotes for logo design, business card design, advertising artwork and website design.  Our web-based marketplace lets graphic designers (including studios, professional designers, work-from-home designers, student graphic designers and freelance designers) respond to these briefs, post quotes to win work and earn money.  Once a job is completed, the business pays the designer and DesignBay charges the designer a fee which is deducted automatically from that payment.

There are two ways to sell designs on DesignBay:
  1. Enter Open Brief Deisgn Contests; or
  2. Submit quotes to Request Quotes projects

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What are DesignBay's fees?
DesignBay charges designers a flat 10% fee of all payments they receive via DesignBay.  This fee is applied to any money you earn via DesignBay.
View DesignBay Fees for more information.

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Open Brief Design Contest
What is an 'Open Brief Design Contest'?
An open brief is a design project where the customers post a brief describing their needs and any designer is invited to submit their design.  Often multiple designers will respond to this brief.  Note that this type of brief is different to a Request Quote brief.

  1. Find an open brief
  2. Create your design and submit it via the website
  3. Get paid

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How is the winning design selected?
The customer selects the winning design.

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Can I submit more than one design?
Yes.  You are able to submit more than one design for the same brief.  However you are only eligible for one base payment per brief.  It is possible for a designer to be allocated more than one place payment for a particular brief if he/she has submitted more than one design.  Submitting more than one design, mathematically, will increase your chances of winning.

To submit a second design to a brief you need to visit the briefs page, select your brief and then select the "Submit your logo" or "Submit your design" button again.

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What is a minimum base payment?
A base payment is the minimum guaranteed amount paid to designers who submit for a particular design open brief job.  An open brief job will have a limited number of minimum base payments or may have no minimum base payments at all.  These minimum base payments can be reserved.

Minimum payments are only paid to designers once it has been determined that their submission meets DesignBay's Minimum Design Standards.  There is a maximum of one base payment per designer.  To protect businesses against poor quality submissions, DesignBay reserves the right not to pay the base payment to a particular designer. Back to top
If I receive a place payment do I get a minimum base payment too?
No.  A base payment is a minimum.  It is a safety net payment to make sure you get some payment for your effort (if you do not want to bid-for-free).  If you receive a place payment (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc) as listed in the brief then you cannot receive a base payment for that brief in addition to that payment.  Place payments are always higher than the minimum payment. Back to top
How will I know if I will get a base payment?
Before you submit a design for a brief, we will display on the brief page how many other designers have submitted already and whether or not this is under the base payment cap.  You can reserve a base payment by selecting Reserve a payment iconReserve a Payment option in the tools box on a brief.
After you submit we will tell you what number your submission was and whether you are eligible for a base payment.  However, after this we still need to check that your design meets our Minimum Design Standards.

We will notify by email to let you know if you will receive a base payment after the brief closing date.

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What is the base payment cap?

This is the maximum number of designers who will receive a base payment for a given brief.  If you submit a design after this you will not receive a base payment.  However, you are still eligible to win the place payments if you upload your submission before the brief closing date.

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Request Quotes Brief
What is a 'Request for Quotes'?
A request for quotes is a project where businesses post a brief to get quotes (an offer to complete the project for a particular fee) from various designers.  The business assesses these quotes and chooses one designer to complete the work.  Upon successfully completing the project, the designer receives all the money.  Submitting a quote costs nothing and if you win, you know how much you will get paid before you start designing. Here's how our service works for designers:
  1. Find a Request for Quotes project
  2. Submit a quote
  3. If you are selected, create your design and submit it on DesignBay
  4. Revise your work (if required)
  5. Get paid through PayPal
  6. Receive feedback

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When do I start designing?
You only start designing when you have been notified by DesignBay that you have been awarded the work.

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Does the lowest quote win?
It may win - but not necessarily.  It is up to the customer to select the winning designer.

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How does the customer choose the winning quote?
It is up to the customer.  Your portfolio, bid, pitch and conditions are shown to the customer and may all affect the outcome.  The number of quotes you are competing with may also affect whether or not you win. Customers may have different needs.  A customer looking to save money may select a cheaper or the cheapest quote.  A customer looking to find a designer they can use again and again may be looking for the highest quality designer, with the best portfolio and communication skills.

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Why can I only submit a quote and not a design?
This brief is aimed at helping the customer find one designer.  Some customers are not looking for multiple creative designs to choose from and they request quotes first.

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Payment
How much will I get paid?
The amount you get paid depends on:

  1. How well your design performs.  This will dictate whether or not you are selected for a place payment. 
  2. If your design meets our Minimum Design Standards.
  3. Whether your submission is eligible for a base payment.

The size of your base payment depends on:

  1. The base payment amount for that brief.  This is different for each brief and is specified in the brief details.
  2. How quickly you respond.  You must respond quick enough so you are within the base payment cap.  For example, if a brief has a base payment cap of 40 then only the first 40 submissions that comply with the Minimum Design Standards only will receive a base payment.
You will be notified how much you will be paid for a specific submission after the brief closing date.

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How do I get paid?
We will pay you via PayPal.  You will need a PayPal account which you can get for free at www.paypal.com.

To get paid you must submit designs to briefs that offer payment.  Your designs must meet our Minimum Design Standards.  To receive a base payment there must be base payments still available for that brief (see What is the base payment cap?).

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What is the payment currency?
The payment currency is US dollars (USD).  You will be able to convert this to your local currency in PayPal.  However, PayPal may charge you a fee for this.

You can also select to be paid in Australian dollars (AUD).  We will convert the USD amount to Australian dollars before transferring.  This will save money for Australian designers as it will prevent them incurring PayPal's conversion fee of 2.5%.

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Other Questions
How will my designs be used?
It depends on the brief.  For a Review and Improve Research brief, DesignBay may use your work, if selected, within surveys, research or articles (which may be shared with the company) or published with third parties.

For regular briefs your designs will be shown to the client.  If selected and purchased, the ownership of your design is transfered to DesignBay and then to the client.

Your designs can also be shown to other designers within the community to receive ratings from them.  You can specify whether or not you wish a submission to be shown to other designers or stored privately.  Designers will only be shown a thumbnail of your design and will not be given access to the vector files or source files.

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What is an 'Unofficial' brief?
An 'unofficial' brief is one that has not been approved or sanctioned by the company which is featured in the brief.  

These briefs are win-win: graphic designers get an opportunity to be creative, practice their skills and earn money; and the company featured may receive some new creative thinking and some publicity.

The responses to these briefs may be used in DesignBay research projects, or they may be marketed to the company after the brief has closed. 

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Do I get paid for 'Unofficial' briefs?
Yes.  The payment amounts for 'unofficial' briefs are legitimate.  These payments come directly from DesignBay - not the company featured in the brief.  Payments for logos or graphic designs submitted to these briefs are treated in the same way as payments for normal briefs.

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What is a Review and Improve Research brief?

The purpose of a Review and Improve Research brief is:

  1. To give DesignBay access to designs (often logos) it can use in research; and
  2. To give people opportunities to be creative (our mission)

DesignBay likes to do research.  We want to understand what makes a great design, a great logo and a great brand and we want to share this with designers and businesses.  We will use designs created in Review and Improve Research briefs within surveys, articles and studies.

Review and Improve Research briefs are paid for by DesignBay.  They are not endorsed or pre-approved by the target company.  The responses to the briefs and results from the research may be shared with the target company.

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How is my address used?
DesignBay keeps your address private and will not sell it to third parties.  Your country, state and city can be used in your profile - but you can keep this profile private if you want.

DesignBay requires your address to ensure accountability.  Designers who respond to briefs on DesignBay have a responsibility to abide by our Minimum Design Standards and our User Agreement.  It is important that DesignBay has a way of contacting designers and knowing where they are based if the Minimum Design Standards or User Agreement are breached.

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How are the rankings determined?
The rankings are calculated weekly and are based on:
  1. Your creativity - determined by client and peer ratings of your designs
  2. Your success - the percentage rate that you receive a place payment for briefs you enter and your total earnings
  3. Customer feedback - client testimonials and ratings of your communication, creativity and ability to meet the brief's requirements
  4. Customer service - whether or not you complete modifications, your speed to complete briefs, your speed of response to queries

The exact formula for the rankings is not published.

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