Covers matter a lot because you're competing for attention. But finding the right designer for your cover can be a daunting experience. Crowdspring puts the power of design in your hands. Designers from around the world will submit cover designs based on the criteria you provide, and you pick the one that best tells your story. Fast, risk-free, with a 100% money-back guarantee.
With every project you'll get:
Dozens of designs in 7 days or less
100% money back guarantee
Award winning customer support
Free legal contract protecting your intellectual property
Stop wasting your valuable time elsewhere. Over 210,000 talented creatives from 195 countries work on crowdspring.
Designs you'll love, guaranteed.
Beautiful cover designs that drive book sales. If you're not 100% happy with your magazine cover design project, we'll promptly refund all your money.
Award-winning customer support.
All the suport you need, when you need it. Our dedicated support team (99% customer satisfaction) is available by phone, email, and chat to ensure your success.
Protect your intellectual property.
Powerful intellectual property protections, made simple. Every project includes industry leading customized, dynamic legal contracts and policies that protect your intellectual property.
Interactive Q&A customized for cover art projects.
Flexible pricing for everyone.
Simple (takes just a few minutes) and proven process.
FAQs
Projects run for 7 days, but you can shorten them to as little as 1 day if you're in a hurry. Many entries come in the last few days of a project, and we encourage you to wait until the project ends before picking your favorite (tell us if you want to close the project early). You can extend your project for free, up to 7 more days if you need more time.
Cover art design packages start at $299, while projects with a single designer (1-to-1 projects) start at $200. All packages include the award to the designer and crowdspring's fee, a custom legal contract giving you full rights to the work you're buying, free focus groups, our award-winning customer support, tools and platform. You can select packages and features based on what you need and your budget. You will always know up front exactly what you'll pay, with no hidden costs and no surprises.
Absolutely! Every project on crowdspring is protected by a custom legal contract giving you full rights to the work you're buying. If you have multiple awards, you'll have separate contracts for each. Once the contract is signed and the creative is paid after you approve the final deliverables in your project, you can use the design (or name) any way you like. You can change it or alter it in any way – it's yours.
The non-winning work remains the property of the person who created that work. This means you may not use those other entries (or any portions of them) in any way. But we give you an easy way to add awards and make offers in your projects when you find more than one design (or name) you love.
"I loved working with crowdspring! It was so exciting to watch your project pick up steam as you gave feedback to the creatives. It felt very collaborative and you have so many creative people submitting ideas just for your project. Their system is organized, easy to use and understand. I am so happy with the results!"
Ali Hissey, Founder, Hissey Fit
2.Work with our über-talented designers
Multiple designers submit dozens of concepts.
Review, rate, and give feedback.
One price. Pick the design you love.
FAQs
You'll see dozens of designs from multiple designers. The more active you are in the project, the more designs you will get. We'll let you know every time a new design or comment comes in and invite you to give feedback. The more feedback you provide, the more designs you'll receive. Years of experience show us that projects with active clients will receive more than double the designs compared to projects with low client participation.
Absolutely! In fact, this is a key factor for success. Once the designs start rolling in, let the designers know what you think about their designs. You can score and give individual feedback. You can also update your brief if you want to address all participants in your project. They are happy to make changes and iterate on their designs.
When you score each entry (1 to 5 stars), your score and comments are private. Only you and the individual designer will see the star rating and comments on their design. Updates to your brief are public for all participants in the project.
Like more than one cover design? It happens all the time. You can start your project with multiple awards or add awards at any time during your project. You can also make offers on additional designs after your project has been awarded.
"In 10 years I have launched 17 projects on crowdspring and have always been impressed. Crowdspring brings 10 maybe even 100 times more creativity than simply working with a single random creative I could have found outside of crowdspring where I might only see a couple different concepts. And the price is very affordable."
Steven Krane, Entrepreneur & Investor
3.Pick the winning design and finalize the project.
Select the winner.
Make final adjustments.
Receive full rights to the work you purchased.
FAQs for step 3
You have seven days to select your favorite after the project closes. Sometimes, you might need an extra few days. Just let us know when that happens.
Before making the final decision, you may want to run a free focus group. All silver packages in design projects include one free focus group ($29 upgrade to unlimited). All other design packages include unlimited focus groups.
A focus group (also called a "poll") allows you to invite friends, customers, colleagues and anyone else to vote and comment on their favorite designs (you can assign weighted votes or let each vote count equally). Anyone is eligible to vote as long as they have the special voting URL we'll provide to you (they will not need to register an account). Your focus group can be public or private - you choose! You fully control whom you invite to each focus group and what designs are included in each focus group.
In design projects, you'll have a private area to complete the project with the designer you chose. If you have more than one award, you'll have a separate wrap-up with each designer. Each of you will sign the legal contract for the project (giving you full rights once the designer is paid).
You can continue to iterate and request changes in wrap-up to make sure the design is just right. Once you approve the proof files, the designer will create and send final files for your approval. Once you approve the final files, we pay the designer and you own full rights to the work.
For each project category, we'll recommend required file types and will ask the winning designer to provide you with appropriate final files. You can always request specific formats you or your printer require.
"I just finished my 2nd of 3 projects with crowdspring. The first was an incredible book cover. This new project was artwork for a wooded token. I have a 3rd project on going for the development of a logo for graphic for my wife's jewelry business. I'll summarize - Don't waste your time at other sites - just come to crowdspring.com. The experience, the talent and the result will only make your life easier."
Robert Dixon, Bob Dixon Consulting Services
I love the service and am very happy with the result.
I publish books through Amazon's CreateSpace. I used crowdspring to get a book cover designed by a great artist. I love the service and am very happy with the result.
Your magazine, brochure or pamphlet is about something, and the cover design should reinforce that theme. Pick an element that takes control and reflects that theme. Avoid including too many elements in your cover.
Think of your cover design like a billboard that you see on the highway. If the billboard has too many elements, you'll never be able to figure out what's being marketed. Billboards usually have a few words and are intended to quickly communicate to people driving 60 miles per hour. Make sure your cover does the same thing. What is the genre of your magazine? Is there a central story theme in the issue? Can you feel the tone through the cover?
Great cover design has always been necessary to attention and that remains true today.
Yes! Every photo, image and word you include in the cover should reinforce the message you're trying to communicate to the reader.
You should avoid white backgrounds. White backgrounds disappear on a page, especially when shown as a small thumbnail. Use a color, a texture, or a background illustration instead.
Colors are important because colors create emotional reactions. The colors you pick should be connected to the story and mood. For example, a magazine best suited for the beach should consider incorporating cool blues and jade greens to give a tranquil feeling. Dramatic covers should consider using black, bold red, and similarly dramatic colors to underscore the mood of the content.
The cover image will be reproduced on large monitors and mobile devices. In fact, when you’re searching on amazon, you see just a small thumbnail of the image. That makes it especially critical that the design is simple. Simple designs are more memorable and less confusing, especially when viewed on a smaller screen. Take the iPhone, for example (or any comparably sized phone), a typical magazine cover will be about 1/2 inch wide by 3/4 inches tall. That’s not a lot of space.
Yes, and in fact, this is very common. You might need more help with graphics and illustrations or the layout. You can easily start a private 1-to-1 project with your favorite designer.
We know that people have different budgets and we want to be sure that everyone gets a phenomenal cover design. You'll get a great design regardless of pricing package. Having said that, higher awards to tend to attract more experienced designers and so you'll have more high-quality designs from which to choose your favorite. And, of course, if you need some privacy in your projects, our higher priced packages offer private galleries, non-disclosure agreements, and more.
When you reduce the cover to a small thumbnail, can you read the title? Avoid using script fonts - those can be very difficult to read, especially when someone is seeing a thumbnail of your cover design.
Colors and a great image are critical to effective cover design, but you also need text and an effective font that matches the cover and the story. For example, if your audience is mostly women, you might prefer fonts that have more feminine flairs, such as scripted fonts. But don’t go overboard – some fonts are easier to read than others. There are thousands of fonts and not all of them are clean and readable on a small screen. Use a simple typeface and be sure you’re not using many typefaces on the cover. It’s OK to use two fonts on a cover, but more than two fonts will make the cover look busy and less readable.
Look for imagery that expresses the mood or overall tone of the magazine. You want to provide a context, not a literal image.
And remember to focus on one main image. It’s tempting for some authors to get carried away by trying to represent all the symbolism in their stories. But when it comes to magazine covers, less is definitely more. Remember that the cover will be typically seen as a small thumbnail or while the reader is walking by a retail shelf and you want your reader to understand what they’re seeing. You don’t want to confuse or overwhelm the reader with conflicting or busy imagery.
Good design is about balance. Pick one constant and tell it visually through the cover design.
You should know the dimensions for the cover, any printing requirements, and what information will need to go on the front and back covers. Every cover is different so think about what you'll want to have on yours.
Yes. If you have specific images in mind, please include them when you post your project. You can also ask designers to use stock images (which you may need to purchase directly from a third party when you select the winnng design). Designers will let you know whether you will need to do this, and the price, when they submit each design.
Crowdspring guarantees your satisfaction in cover design projects. There's NO fine-print. We are not happy until you are. People are so thrilled with the designs they receive on crowdspring that we are proud to stand behind the work and make you an unconditional promise.
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Chicago, Illinois
A team you can rely on.
Our award-winning dedicated customer support team has a 99% satisfaction rating, and can help by phone, mail and chat.
Ali Hissey, Founder, Hissey Fit
Steven Krane, Entrepreneur & Investor
Robert Dixon, Bob Dixon Consulting Services
