The great American chemist Linus Pauling once said, “The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.” Well, we decided to put that theory to test by using the crowdsourcing method to design the logo of sumHR, by holding a contest on LogoTournament.com. At stake was an amount of USD 250 and the privilege to design a logo for one of the best SaaS-based solutions for HRMS.
Our design brief to the contestants was simple – we told them we wanted the logo to communicate these things:
1. User-friendly, easy to use, and simple.
2. Save time, money, and efforts.
3. Automate, streamline, and manage processes.
We then explained them that sumHR was targeted towards HR professionals working in startups / SMEs as well as small business owners and entrepreneurs. The adopters of sumHR would be HR executives who traditionally use manual methods of storing and managing HR data (for example: spreadsheet applications like MS Excel). These users would also most likely be familiar with using other online tools like email, CRM, payroll software, etc.
To further enable the contestants to design better, we mentioned research that points out HR departments have a stronger female presence than male. The contestants were also informed that sumHR service is first being sold to companies in India and the US, and the platform would then cater to a global audience.
Though the contest started off slow, it quickly picked up momentum. We were continually going to LogoTournament.com and posting comments and interacting with the participants. Finally after just seven days and 141 logos, we chose the winner. Yep, you are right. The current logo that you see was the winning entry.
As a startup ourselves, we would recommend that crowdsourcing activities such as logo designing surely helps in getting better quality work at cheaper price.