Many people are touting the availability of cheap graphic design on spec-design sites, such as Crowd Spring. They love to talk about the way it uses global sourcing, and that anyone, even a grandma with free time, can win the design contests... but here are some things you should consider before going this rout.

1. The real pros have left these sites behind. This is for many reasons, like a designer is lucky if they win 1 out of a hundred competitions, and the good professional graphic designers don't have that kind of time to waste. Think about it, would you keep working at a place where you only get paid for 1 out of 100 jobs? How about 1 out of 10?
2. The average client does not know good design. Sorry, but the truth is, many people do not have a designers eye and do not know good design when they see it. You may not care, because surely you know good design, but when the good designers see bad designs winning the money over and over again, the good designers "give up." They can see the other good designs being posted and know who the real competition is, but when the client chooses the bad work of someone they do not even consider competition, they begin to see it all as a huge waste of time, and will not be contributing to your project.
3. Amateur designers make amateur mistakes. I frequently see winning designs that are going to cost the client plenty down the road because they chose the work of an amateur. Things like a winning envelope design that breaks postal regulations will cause the client to have to pay for another design and pay to have all the envelopes re-printed, not to mention the cost of all the failed mailings of this envelope that will point out the problem to the client when it's too late. Hiring a good, experienced designer may cost more up front, but will almost always save you money down the road.
4. The sites have been saturated by bad work and template designs. I used to see great work on these sites all the time, but now, it's almost all poor quality work or template designs. These designers are not producing work that is in the best interest of the client, they are simply saturating the clients with poor to mediocre work in the hope that this shotgun approach will win them some money... and they are usually right.

Let us know what you think.