Last Wednesday Crispin posted a job listing on Crowdspring calling for designers to submit logo ideas for Brammo’s new motorcycle, the Enertia. The winner receives $1000 (a pittance, from what we’ve heard), and the logo for their book. The contest ends today, but designers upset by the RFP have been using Crispin’s site against them to show their discontent. See image.

Here’s one designer’s explanation,

“Seriously, CP+B? I think not. You’ve entered the world of spec work and there’s no going back. You’ve lost any creative integrity and respect that you held within the design industry.

“Let me explain to CP+B why spec work and design contests (or the bullshit term ‘crowdsourcing’) is detrimental, not just to the design industry, but for your own clients. And I’ll keep it simple since you’re most likely distracted by all of the money that Brammo is paying you to do practically nothing. When participating in such nonsense, designers work for free in hopes of getting paid or winning a prize. It completely devalues our work (maybe some designers are finally realizing this?). It does clients a disservice in compromising quality of work by completely skipping the research and development stage.”

In the opening seconds of a video on beta.cpbgroup.com, Alex Bogusky notes that by design, his company’s site leaves the agency open to attack on their own ground. And the majority of Tweets landing on the page mention something about the shop lacking integrity.

And that’s the main question: does crowdsourcing this work diminish a designer’s value (given the low pay and high competition) or does crowdsourcing reflect a new way of doing business when talent is readily available?

More: “First on AgencySpy: VW Up For Grabs; Crispin Will Not Defend”