Sribu.com: A Mediator between Client and Designer
Some time ago, my brother joined a graphic design competition held by a local website. The website is Sribu.com. According to the profile, this website has an objective to form a community of designer through contests and design making. To be precise, this website acts as a mediator between client who needs design (contest holder) and designers.
The website has a unique concept with some similarity to GantiBaju.com but it is more to a design contest. GantiBaju.com is carrying out a contest and t-shirt selling while Sribu.com focus only on the contest. Sribu.com is closer to 99designs.com which has similar service.
On the main page of Sribu.com we find two options: contest holder and designer. The UX and UI aspect is interesting, simple, and user-friendly for a new visitor, both contest holder or designer.
I tried to explore this site at the first time as a client (contest holder). And yes, here, looking for designer are made easy for clients by giving many design contest needed for their company (e.g. Logo). Official information from the website facilitates those who need various interesting designs made by Sribu designer community.
After choosing the contest design category, clients are required to describe their needs of design clearly so the designers who join the contest can give design that really suits the client’s needs. Next, clients have to choose the prize (some amount of money) for the winner. There are some prize packages available: Bronze (Rp1.500.000), Silver (Rp.3.000.000), Gold (5.000.000) and Other (clients will fill the amount). The bigger the prize, the bigger chance for the contest holder to get many designs. 20% of the prize will be given to Sribu.com for marketing cost, web development and public relation event. It is a quite interesting business plan.
After choosing the package, click contest button and go directly to receipt page showing the amount of money to be paid by the client. The contest will be approved and execute after receiving the payment. The contest will be held for a week and the countdown timer will start after the contest is approved. When the contest is over, the client as the contest holder will decide the winner by marking on the design. There will be 95% refund to the client if there was no winner.
On the designer page we will find a set of procedure to join a design contest in Sribu.com. After clicking the procedure image, the participant will go directly to the contest page to see the details of the contest, join the discussion with the contest holder and other designers, and submit their design for the contest. They are allowed to send not more than five designs. When the contest is over, the client will announce the winner whose design will be taken.
Some of the designer still doubt that the rights of intellectual (Hak Kekayaan Intelektual /HAKI) of their ideas and work is not guaranteed during the open contest while the other are quite open. Even Sribu.com is just a mediator between client (contest holder) and designers, it could be an interesting facilities when it comes to this rights of intellectual issue. Maybe Sribu.com can provide support like tracking or blocking piracy on their website.