In the past I have written several blog entries about the power of Open Innovation. The most robust open innovation website out there is InnoCentive.
Yesterday I decided to try some open innovation for my own business – on a much smaller scale. As mentioned before, we are launching a new website with a new web-strategy. As part of this, we are returning to the “24/7 Innovation” brand.
And for this, I need a new logo. The logo above was the original logo from 2001.
I have had friends and professional designers provide their ideas, but with little luck. I could not explain what I wanted. I’m a “I’ll know it when I see it” kind of guy.
So I turned to an open innovation website called 99designs.com. There I was able to post my brief and within 12 hours I had over a dozen designs by different designers.
When the process is completed (in 6 days, 10 hours), I will ask for your vote on your favorite. Or you can chime in now by adding a comment with the number of your favorite logo. Click here to view the designs and the brief.
In the past, I used eLance.com for some design work. But there you select designers based on a portfolio and how much they charge, not the finished product. 99designs is a truer open innovation model in that you select based on the solution, not a bid.
Where in your business could you benefit from open innovation? What open innovation website do you use? I would love to catalogue a large list of good open innovation sites.