1. What is ArcCrowd?
ArcCrowd is an online marketplace providing remodeling, interiors, new residential, commercial/public, design services by providing access to freelance graphic designers and design studios around the world. ArcCrowd is kind crowdsourcing platform for architectural design services. At ArcCrowd, you can launch an architectural design competition among designers worldwide. ArcCrowd gives designers the opportunity to unlock their design potential, and offer you multiple design solutions.
2. What is crowdsourcing?
Crowdsourcing is the act of "sourcing tasks that were traditionally performed by specific individuals to a group of people or community (crowd) through an open call." (Source: Wikipedia) Online crowdsourcing platforms, such as “Innocentive” in science or “Shpoonkle” in law -- among many others -- match service seekers with a community of service providers through a disruptive and innovative protocol. Crowdsourcing models offer competitive alternatives to traditional methods of service acquisition and allow smaller scale projects to make use of the fair competition process.
3. How does ArcCrowd work?
In a nutshell, you upload basic information regarding your project, e.g. rough dimensions, images, descriptions, duration and award. Designers can then review your competition, and decide whether to compete or not. If they do, they can work on your project until your deadline, and upload their design solutions to ArcCrowd. You evaluate all design submissions, and announce your top three design schemes. Afterwards, ArcCrowd distributes your award among your winners.
4. What are the benefits of launching a competition on ArcCrowd?
As a client you will benefit in two key ways: First, you will get more than one single design solution; and, second, you can get these design solutions at a dramatically lower price range compared to traditional design acquisition channels.
5. What kind of projects can I initiate for a competition?
You can initiate any type of small-to-medium scale architectural design competitions, e.g. a remodeling challenge for your kitchen, bathroom, attic, basement; a room addition to your home, a remodeling project of an entire apartment unit or family home. You can also launch competitions for new construction projects, such as new family homes, mixed-use buildings and complexes. You can also do interior design competitions for your home, small business, or office spaces; or even initiate landscape design projects for your backyard, front yard or other open areas and spaces.
6. How will designers create good design solutions without visiting my property in person?
Although there are many benefits of visiting a site in person, designers are trained to deal with contextual constraints of sites they have never visited. Designers have to deal with this all the time whenever they participate in international competitions. Not visiting a site does not necessarily lead to design solutions that are inferior, or vice versa.
7. Who are the designers?
Designers are young professionals in their early careers, architectural designers, interior designers and landscape designers from all around the globe.
8. Is my project too small?
No, there are no too small projects. We have done competitions for closets, staircases, fireplaces, etc.
9. Is my project too large?
No, we ran competitions for new residential, retail, and public projects.
10. Do you do construction work?
No, we do not do construction work or implement the design on the site.
11. Can I see samples?
Yes, please explore the Projects' Page to review completed projects.
12. Can architects themselves initiate competitions?
Yes. The ultimate client is always the owner/developer, but particularly for public or larger projects, they may wish for an on-staff or outside architect to assist them in overseeing the competition process. However, the involvement of an architect in initiating/evaluating the competition must be clearly disclosed; the client must be aware of the competition and authorize it; and work submitted in the competition must be properly attributed at all times, either as the work of a competition entrant during the period of anonymity, or by name once the winners are selected or identified. In no case is it allowed (or proper or ethical) for an architect to take credit for the work of another.
13. Will my name/address be disclosed once I launch a competition?
No. Privacy is of prime importance to us. Unless you disclose your location etc. yourself, your name/address will not be disclosed.
14. Can I hide my project after the competition? – I would like to keep my project private.
Your competition remains anonymous during the entire competition process, that is, no one will know your name, address or any other identifier unless you make it known. This is also true after the competition is over and your results are shown on our Past Competitions pages. Once your competition is complete and you submitted your rankings, you will see Show/Hide toggles on your project list at your homepage on ArcCrowd. You can show/hide any or all sections of the competition, such as project brief, before images, project board (Wall), analytics page etc.
15. How do I decide on the award amount for a competition?
Depending on the type and scale of your project your award may vary. During your project upload the system will suggest you an award based on the type, scale, complexity, deliverables and duration of your competition -- this is only a suggestion, and you are free to award your own amount.
16. When do I pay for my competition?
You pay upfront before the competition starts. At the end of your project upload, you are asked to make your payment, and you can pay by any major credit card or paypal account. Once your payment has been processed, your competition is automatically online and viewable by designers. All designers get notified via email about your project launch.
17. How long does a competition take? What is the best duration for my project?
You will have to decide on the timeline. Your choice will depend on the size of your project and the time commitment you have. You can have short competitions for conceptual ideas lasting for about 3 days to a week, or longer competitions lasting up to 12 weeks.
18. If I start a project do I have to launch it?
No, you can start a draft and save your project, and then work on it until you are ready to launch it.
19. Can I communicate with designers during the competition?
Yes, you will have a dedicated wall where designers will ask you questions about your project. These questions can be about specific details: dimensions, asking further material, etc.; or general questions about lifestyle, preferences, etc. You should reply the questions promptly. All questions/answers in the wall are public. You can also post any text/images on your project wall, whenever your post anything on your wall designers who signed-up for your project will automatically get notified.
20. How do designers see my project?
We announce the project to our designers through email notifications and Facebook posts, and list your project on the website. Every designer can see the details of your project, e.g. description, images, price, timeline, etc.
21. What kind of information should I provide?
You should describe the current space and what you wish done. You should provide images and measurements, e.g. sketches, blueprints when possible, etc.
22. I don’t have blueprints, what should I do?
For most projects designers need to know basic dimensions, e.g. sketching out your space on a piece of paper would be fine. For larger scale projects, which entail removing load-bearing walls etc., many clients can find a copy of their home blueprint in their town hall. Otherwise, in those cases you may need to conduct a survey for your property first.
23. How do I create a successful competition?
We advise the following: a) keep the description short and clear. Many designers are foreigner and will only participate if they fully understand what the client wants; b) make sure you describe exactly what you want (style, colors, ideas, etc.). You are welcome to add pictures of spaces you like, for inspiration; c0 provide good pictures and measurements. Designers need a clear understanding of the space; d) set a fair award for the project.
24. I don’t know what kind of documents I should ask for?
The system adds a list of deliverables for you automatically. However, if you need any specific document, you can add that through a list you will find at your upload page. Extra documents may increase the suggested award. You can also remove documents - the less documents you ask for the more attractive your competition may get for designers. Therefore, we urge clients to only ask for documents they know they need, and if they are not sure, to leave the default documents asked by the system.
25. I have an interior design project; can I ask for details?
You can ask what you need to implement the design, e.g. furniture list, where to buy items, price of items; color scheme; where to place specific items you may already have. You need to specify your needs in your project brief.
26. Should I give a budget?
It's good to give a budget but not necessary. However, if you have any particular budget amount in mind definitely put it in your project brief, so that designers make proposals accordingly.
27. I don’t want to disclose the location of the project?
For most projects you don’t need to disclose your address; but if designers need to take into consideration climatic conditions of the region, view angles etc. please give approximate location.
28. Can I limit the number of designers who participate in my competition?
By default, we do not limit the number of designers. However, if you prefer to limit your competition to a certain number of participants, we can do this and explicitly mention it in the project brief.
29. If I have problems in taking basic measurements for my project upload, can ArcCrowd assist me?
Yes, we will be more than happy to assist you in your competition upload. Once you save your project on ArcCrowd, please get in touch with us to finalize and launch your competition entry.
30. I have a complicated project, I need an entire floor design and also my back deck and maybe the front yard landscape. Should I run one competition or divide it into smaller projects?
It depends on your specific needs, e.g. a landscape/front yard may be run as a different project, even because the designer pool that tends to sign-up for landscape oriented projects is different from the architects that specialize in remodeling. A deck may be included in the home remodel project if you would like a blended design. If the design is independent of the inside of the house, it can be run as an independent project.
31. I am still confused about what I need to do, and what I can do after.
We are happy to put you in contact with one of our staff, who can help you with more detailed information about your design question. Please get email support@arccrowd.com
32. I just launched my competition and few designers signed-up so far should I be concerned?
No, this is quite common, designers usually sign-up towards the end of the project timeline, and most probably will submit their entries in the last hours/minutes of your project deadline.
33. Can I invite particular designers to my competition?
Yes, you can invite any designer (whose projects you may have seen on ArcCrowd), or whom you know personally outside of ArcCrowd. Also, please notice that once you launch your competition, all designers on ArcCrowd will get a notification email. By inviting a particular designer, you simply are sending an additional invitation email to the particular designer(s) you like, and want to participate in your competition.
34. There are too many submissions, can you help to rank the projects?
If you get a large number of design submissions and you are overwhelmed, we are more than happy to guide you through the decision making process.
35. How many submissions will I get?
The average number of entries is about 5-10 submissions per competition. The number will depend on the type of your project and the award you set.
36. What type of documents will I get from designers?
Depending on the type of competition you will get dimensioned plans, sections, elevations, and perspective views. Some designers may also submit additional views, animations and other 3D work.
37. What is the quality of submissions, and are they detailed enough to guide myself, or hand over to a contractor to implement?
As in any crowdsourcing initiative you will most probably receive a range of design solutions. However, all submissions have to adhere to certain architectural standards and conform to the deliverables list outlined in your project description. If you state your needs well in advance, you will be able to hand-over submissions to your local contractor.
38. Can I keep working with the architectural designer that I pick after the challenge? Will s/he be there to help me implement the design?
After the competition has been completed, we ask clients and designers whether they would like to connect, and if both parties are interested we are more than happy to introduce them to each other. Some of our designers continued successfully working with clients after the competition was over.
39. How will my award be distributed?
The 1st prize winner you select will get 100% of your award money.
40. I had 20 designers signed-up but only 9 submitted in the end, is this normal?
Although getting 9 submissions is quite fantastic, it is quite usual to get less designers submitting than signing up. From our history so far, on average 25-50% of signed-up designers submit in the end.
41. What if I like my design but I need small changes?
Designers are usually happy to do small tweaks to their design. However, larger changes may require continuing working further with the designer outside ArcCrowd.
42. What if I need more detailed drawings?
You may decide to continue working with your winning designer. We are happy to make a warm introduction, but we are not involved with the process beyond the competition.
