Standard of Conduct for Creatives

Last Updated: June 23, 2025

When working on crowdspring, you must demonstrate respect for your colleagues, clients, and the general public. These standards were developed in collaboration with the crowdspring community. Violations can lead to account termination and forfeiture of awards.

Crowdspring may, in its sole discretion, issue warnings, remove entries, withhold or forfeit awards, or suspend/terminate accounts for any violation of these Standards. Serious breaches, such as fraud, harassment, or circumvention, can result in immediate termination without prior notice.

Creative's responsibility to clients

1.1 You must understand the client's requirements and appropriate design standards and do your very best at all times to comply with both. For example, if a client requires vector files, your final designs must be delivered in a vector format.

1.2 If you work on multiple projects, you must avoid conflicts of interest, such as submitting the same or similar designs simultaneously to multiple projects.

1.3 You must submit only high-quality, client-ready work and accept only projects you can complete on time. Missing deadlines, going silent, or delivering rushed/low-effort work is grounds for suspension, demotion, or permanent removal.

1.4 You must not accept instructions from clients if those instructions ask you to violate this code of conduct or another person's intellectual property rights (such as a request that you copy the elements of a design submitted by another creative).

1.5. When you work in projects protected by a Non-Disclosure agreement, you must treat all work for the client as confidential. You may not use designs from NDA-protected projects in your portfolios on crowdspring or elsewhere unless the client expressly permitted you to do so in writing, and you may not disclose information about those projects without the consent of the client.

1.6 You must not misuse private or public comment tools to undermine the reputation of a client. This community does not tolerate rude behavior or inappropriate comments. Private comments are private and must not be re-posted in public.

1.7 You must submit all project-related file exchanges through the crowdspring platform. If a client requests a phone, video, or chat conversation, summarize key points of the conversation (scope changes, deadlines, and approvals) in the project’s crowdspring message thread within 24 hours. (This protects both parties and allows crowdspring to assist if a dispute arises).

We do not permit any unsolicited contact to any client, creative, or staff member outside the platform, by email, phone, social media (e.g., Twitter, LinkedIn), or any other channel, for any project-related purpose, regardless of how you obtained their contact information. This includes soliciting direct payment, continuing work off-platform, or sending unsolicited or repeated messages. Violations are grounds for immediate account suspension and forfeiture of pending awards, without further notice.

1.8 You must treat non-public client briefs, files, and feedback as confidential. You may not repost, stream, or otherwise disclose them outside crowdspring without written permission from both the client and crowdspring.

1.9 If your submission includes any stock art, templates, or other third-party material, you must: (a) confirm you have a valid license; (b) clearly disclose the non-original element(s) at the time of submission; and (c) list any additional license fees. Misrepresentation is grounds for removal of the entry, forfeiture of awards, and account suspension.

2.0 You may not post, submit, or deliver any Work that contains design elements, imagery, text, or other content produced or materially altered by any artificial-intelligence system (including but not limited to generative models such as Midjourney, DALL-E, Firefly, or Stable Diffusion). “Materially altered” means the AI output is recognizable in the final work or provided with a creative foundation, even if subsequently edited by hand. Violation of this rule is grounds for immediate removal of the entry, forfeiture of up to 100% of pending awards, and account suspension or termination without further notice. Crowdspring may require you to supply native/source files or written attestations to verify compliance, and crowdspring’s determination of AI usage is final.

Creative's responsibility to other creatives and the public

2.1 You must support fair and open competition in all projects.

2.2 You must never attempt, directly or indirectly, to compete with another creative by wrongful means. This community does not tolerate concept copying, insulting or negative comments, or otherwise unprofessional behavior.

2.3 You must, at all times, whether in private or public communications, be professional, objective and constructive when commenting on the work of another creative and must never denigrate the work or reputation of another creative. This community does not tolerate rude behavior or inappropriate comments. Private messages are private and must not be posted in public forums.

2.4 You must not claim sole credit for a design which includes elements designed by other creatives. You must always disclose and identify your specific contribution to the design and whether portions of the design use elements created by someone else.

2.5 You must communicate truthfully in all situations and at all times.

2.6 You must not disrupt the crowdspring platform by flooding project comment areas, our support system, submitting duplicate entries, or sending an excessive volume of messages in a short period. Flooding is grounds for account suspension and forfeiture of pending awards.

2.7 You may maintain only one creative account and may not share, sell, or transfer it. Operating multiple accounts to avoid penalties or to submit additional entries is a serious violation and will result in a permanent ban. Opening a new account after a ban, or assisting someone else in doing so, will result in a permanent ban of all associated accounts.

Crowdspring may, in its sole discretion, issue warnings, remove entries, withhold or forfeit awards, or suspend/terminate accounts for any violation of these Standards. crowdspring is not required to provide advance notice before taking action.