Hatchwise Review PROS & CONS (2023) – Everything You Need To Know

From your brand logo to the graphics used throughout your website and communications, the designs you choose are often the first impression potential customers see when they discover your company.

You want to wow visitors from the first encounter to the last. This means that you want to choose designs that stand out and leave customers with a positive image of your brand as both creative and professional.

Choosing the right design agency to partner with your business is vital to get that perfect design to represent your brand and ensure that your company puts its best foot forward.

Most business owners must contend with how to find the right design agency without having to slog through a swamp of failed attempts with the “wrong” design agencies first.

In this article, I aim to provide a bit of guidance to help ease the way by sharing my personal experience working with the unique design contest site, Hatchwise.

I will share my thoughts on:

• The features and benefits that make Hatchwise a great choice
• The Hatchwise functions that could use some improvement
• How Hatchwise compares to other design contest platforms on the market

Hopefully, at the end of this Hatchwise review, you will have a solid idea of what Hatchwise is, how the platform works, and whether (or not) Hatchwise would be the best design contest site for your business or brand.

 

Hatchwise Review

There are several design contest platforms to choose from, offering a variety of styles and talents to assist brands and business owners create the logo and graphics they need to stand out from the crowd.

 

 

It is important to note that all design contest sites are not created equal. You will find design contest sites that focus on affordability, offering unlimited AI-created designs for a super low cost. While these designs are often very low cost, they are also fairly generic, and you may see other brands and businesses using logos and graphics very similar to yours.

On the other end of the spectrum, you will find boutique-style design contest platforms with teams of professional designers who will design custom logos and graphics for your brand at a fairly steep cost.

Hatchwise is a unique design contest platform that offers customers the best of both worlds. Hatchwise allows users to set the amount they want to spend, submit their design needs, and then choose their end design from an array of submissions created by talented designers competing for a monetary reward.

I will walk you through the Hatchwise user experience step by step in the next section. For right now, suffice it to say that the Hatchwise design competition format means that you get a variety of designs created by talented designers (not AI) for an amazing price.

Features:

• Your design is delivered in industry-standard file formats
• You have full legal rights of ownership to your final design
• Each design contest average 100+ unique design entries
• The Hatchwise “Design Court” proprietary system helps to eliminate the risk of plagiarism, and copyright violations
• You pay one low price for the chance to choose from hundreds of unique designs
• Launch your design contest, and choose your favorite design in just three easy steps

 

How Hatchwise Works?

The Hatchwise user experience is simple and fun once you get past the initial learning curve.

From the moment you land on the Hatchwise homepage, you are just three easy steps away from your completed designs.

Take a quick moment to read over the website landing page just to familiarize yourself with the feel of the site.

If you are looking for a logo design, you can simply click the Launch Your Contest button to move on to the first step of the process.

Are you looking for website design, custom icons, brochure design, header design, or other design projects? Simply scroll down to choose from any of the many design category thumbnail buttons at the bottom of the page, and Launch Your Contest for the appropriate design category page.

 

 

You should now find yourself on a new page featuring a creative project brief where you can fill in all the important details about who you are and what design you are looking for.

Be as thorough as possible here to ensure that your contest results in many solid design contenders that fit your needs.

You will also use this form to decide other important details like how much you want to spend and what sort of timeline you are working with.

The longer you can let the contest run, the more quality design entries you will have to choose from.

You are ready to go when you have completed all of the entries in your project brief and selected the prize budget and the timeline for your contest.

Click to launch your contest, and wait for the designs to start rolling in. Once your contest has ended, select your favorite design.

The creator of the winning design gets the prize money, and you get a fully licensed design ready for your use however you see fit.

 

Project Completion Timeframe

Hatchwise project contests generally run for 10 days. During these 10 days, you will want to ensure that you are active in the process by reviewing and providing feedback or making revision requests as the designs come in.

At the end of the 10-day contest, you will be expected to select a final design, and the prize money will be paid to the winning designer.

If you need a design right away, there is an option to run a short 48-hour contest for an additional $35 fee.

When you choose this option, you can select a design within 48 hours. However, you should be aware that you will likely have fewer total designs to choose from, and you will have fewer opportunities to fine-tune the designs through constructive feedback or revision requests.

 

The Revision Process

This is another great aspect of the Hatchwise crowdsourced design contest concept, revisions are baked right into the process.

After you launch your contest, you will begin to see design entries roll in. You can review each of the entries as they come in and provide constructive feedback regarding what you like and what you don’t like about each design.

If there is a design or two that you like but would like changed in some way, you can request that the designer make the revisions to the entry.

While designers are not required to make any revisions to their initial entries, most are more than willing to do so.

As a bonus, the constructive feedback you leave for each of the early entries is available for review by designers who submit later entries, so they can fine-tune their designs to fit your exact specifications.

 

 

You may request as many revisions as you like from as many designers as you like for the duration of the time that your contest remains open.

At the end of the contest, you select the finished design that you like best, and at that point, the transaction is finalized, and no more revisions can be requested.

 

Communication

Because Hatchwise is a crowdsourced design contest platform, communication is key to getting the type of results you want.

The Hatchwise design process is highly collaborative between the designers and the client. That means that you get out of it what you put into it.

Generally, the creatives on the Hatchwise platform are very open to communication. They are motivated to respond to revision requests quickly in a bid to be the chosen winner of the final prize money.

You will need to be a good communicator to ensure that you get the revisions you need within the 10-day timeframe.

The Hatchwise platform makes communication between designers and clients simple and easy during the contest so that you can get the exact design you need.

 

Pricing

Hatchwise offers a variety of different pricing options to suit every design budget. Users can launch a contest for as low as $99 for a 10-day contest with at least 30 design options to choose from.

 

 

In general, prize package costs range from $99 to $399, with the higher prize packages receiving far more entries from the most skilled designers.

Each prize package price gets you 1 final design. If you require additional versions of the final design, you can communicate with the winning designer to negotiate a price for additional work to be completed.

You can purchase other design entries from the same contest for $100 per additional design entry.

 

Hatchwise Pros & Cons

Now that we have walked through the Hatchwise design contest process, here is a glance reference of the advantages and disadvantages of using Hatchwise for your design needs.

PROS:

• Receive multiple unique design options to choose from
• Designers competing for the final prize money are highly motivated to put in their best effort every time
• Request multiple revisions from multiple designers
• Your constructive feedback on early entries helps to fine-tune later entries to your design contest
• You have the option to purchase “runner-up” designs after the contest ends
• Receive full legal ownership and all industry-standard files for the winning design and any additional designs that you choose to purchase
• Communicate directly with the designers to negotiate additional work

CONS:

• You do not have the ability to work with only one creative and receive one design concept. You will receive multiple submissions from many creatives.
• This is not a set-it-and-forget-it design option. You will need to be willing and able to communicate clearly and provide timely, constructive feedback to get the full value out of your design contest.

 

Hatchwise Review Verdict

Hatchwise offers a unique crowdsourced alternative to traditional design options. For those who have a broad idea of what they are looking for and are open to seeing several different creative takes on their overall vision, Hatchwise is a great way to access a plethora of new ideas you may have never dreamed up on your own.

The Hatchwise design contest concept is far more streamlined than the process found on other crowdsourcing platforms like Upwork, or Fiverr, so it is much easier to get the design you want without many complications.

On the flip side, if you already have a fairly specific design concept in mind and you are looking for someone to execute the design according to the exact specifications, you are likely to be frustrated by the free-form crowdsourced design process. For more exacting designs or strict specifications, you may find that platforms like Kimp, Flocksy, or Penji are a better choice.

It truly comes down to your own personal preferences and design expectations. Suppose you are open to a fresh spin on the traditional design experience, and you like the idea of getting a chance to check out many different creative options before making your final selection. In that case, you should give Hatchwise a try.

Hatchwise makes it easy to test the waters. There are no long-term commitments or membership requirements to lock you in, so go ahead and run one or two design contests to see if Hatchwise is the right choice for you. You never know, you might find the design you never knew you wanted.

 

 

AUTHOR BIO: Mercedes Holmes is a professional copywriter with a background in e-commerce, digital marketing, and technical writing.