New design - Contest or individual

[Odd Fact]

I am looking for a new design. I can pick one designer and hire or run a contest and select a winner. Either way can. Any opinons on pros and cons?

[Scott]

I would always tend to go for a designer. You get what you want without a lot of hassle in between. However, you could run a contest to design a banner for the top, or some other feature.

[SoftWareRevue]

I think you're right. "Either one would work."

You would probably get more variety with a contest. But, if you know what you want, a single design team might work out better for you.

[Odd Fact]

Is it what I want or what the members want?

[TheDPQ]

Like members ever know what they want or need. The problem is everyone has different tastes and a different idea of what would 'best' or 'coolest'.

I think the trick is to give memebers something they like and something you think will work for your community for both new and old users a like. (Something that looks 'cool' gets old realllly fast sometimes.)

Do you have anything in mind for the design? Working with one a single designer would be a lot easier and faster. You can put together a little support group to get some (limited) user reaction.

Contests are good because you can see many different kinds of directions and layout. It opens up the doors for different talent and some people do really well when challeneges. The dark side to this is that it usually takes longer, and not everyone is interested in doing a contest.

[Odd Fact]

That opening or doots is what I like about content. On the other hand there are a few designers I have worked with before I could contact. The advantage there is you already have a communication established which can prevent some of the troubles working with an unknown.