Fotolia buys cheap on-spec logo site Wilogo.com

Fotolia has bought 'crowdsourcing' logo design site Wilogo.com, in a similar way to when iStock launched a similar service in 2009 and quickly felt the ire of the design community. iStock quietly shuttered the service last year, and I'm not sure it ever formally launched.

The site posts briefs and specifications from clients, and offers designers a chance to design a logo 'on-spec' for free. The client picks his favourites and a round of changes ensue. The winning design gets some of the £295 the site changes. Everyone else gets nothing for the time and effort they put in.

According to Fotolia, both L'Oréal and Danone have used Wilogo's services. If that's true, shame on them.

I hope Wilogo.com goes the way of iStock's service. As with all on-spec logo sites, it's a bad deal for everyone. The only way designers can make any money out of it is to create huge stock sheets of logo templates that they can quickly, mildly tweak for every job that comes in – and clients generally end up with something that bears only passing resemblance to what their brand's about. And overall it cheapens what creatives do.