Arcbazar Inc

Overall it went well, but for first time users, I recommend doing your homework.  To be fair Arcbazar should really prepare and provide first time users with a TIP sheet.  For example:   To the first time user, it is unclear what is / is seen by all the individuals who are submitting the proposals (e.g. are wall questions -- and responses, seen by everyone or only by those who post)?  There were also some technical issues with the site (e.g. could not view the submittals once the competition was completed).    Also, the designers should be requested to submit their drawings in a limited number of file formats (most were ok, but some of the international designed used software that precluded me from seeing the file).  Bottom line ,though whenever I had a problem or question, I email Arcbazar and usually got a response that same day -- and in the end 18 designers submitted proposals.  So, it was worth it and I would use them again.

For me it went very well!  I was more than pleased.  I had a fairly large project, basically a whole house remodel, and they turned it around in less than four weeks.  I turned my lakefront house into something like a corporate retreat, high end stuff.
The devil is in the details.  I would suggest whatever project you are doing, whether small or large, go to Houzz.com and get pictures of what you like (they have millions of pictures).  I did that for every single room in my house, (16 of them). I gave them anywhere from 5 to 15 pictures for each room, and a small sentence of what I liked about it and what I did not like about it.

Speak with the Arcbazar staff prior to submission.  They have what they call "deliverables".  These are things like drawings to scale, interior eye level elevation drawings, exterior, electrical & mechanical (the latter would probably best be done by somebody local).
The more you can tell them, the better they know what you want.

Excellent, I received 7 different interior designs for a 5,000 sq ft interior atrium. All designs were unique and addressed the what was needed for the space. I can pick and choose any aspects of each design, or negotiate with the winning design for additional services. Cost was very reasonable for what I received. I would recommend using this service. Everything was done over the internet.

This was a great experience. This company delivered a quality product at an affordable price. Because its a competition, I received designs from multiple designers. I would describe the winning design as elegant, and almost all of the other designs offered al least one feature that is unique or interesting. I would recommend this company as the first stop when considering your design project.

My wife and I are about to complete the renovation of a home that needed some modifications to the front entry to improve the appearance of the home.  While my wife and I had developed a design for the changes (she has a degree in architecture and I am an engineer) we wanted to get another architect to take a look at it.  Through Angie's List we discovered Arcbazar and in December of 2011 purchased coupons for a Big Deal for "50% off your next home project design".  As it turns out the Big Deal as presented on Angie's List at that time was very misleading.  I wanted to offer a design award of $300 so I expected to buy three $100 coupons for $50 each costing me $150.  In fact I had to purchase six coupons at a total cost of $300 to provide for the $300 reward.  As a result of my complaints to Angie's List and Arcbazar, Arcbazar agreed to forego the usual 15% service fee.  The deals now offered on Angie's List are less misleading effectively providing for a fixed $25 service fee for most design projects.  The clients must fully fund the awards they wish to offer.
The crowdsourcing design service Arcbazar facilitates is quite ingenious.  In today's economy there are architects and designers less then fully employed who are eager for something creative to do.  There are also many design students and creative people who want to practice their skills on real world projects.  Arcbazar provides the vehicle to put clients together with these designers to develop numerous approaches to each design challenge.  While the size of the reward will determine the number and skill level of designers who sign up to compete I expect they participate more for the challenge of a competition and the opportunity to expand their design portfolio than they do for any award they may end up receiving.
My wife and I put a lot of work into defining our project, our goals and the deliverables.  I forget the exact numbers but we had many more designers sign up to compete than actually submitted designs.  Our competition was run over the 2011 Christmas holiday period which may have effected the response so Arcbazar agreed to extend the deadline for submittal.  Of the submittals received some were well thought out and fully developed, some were poor with a good idea here or there and some were not worth looking at.  In the end result we went with a design close to what we had initially developed but tweaked it based on some of ideas that were in the better submittals.
Because the responding designers are from all over the world and cannot make site visits the project definition the client provides is critical.  Even with a well defined project the most that should be expected is a conceptual design that can be further developed to a final design by the client, a local designer or the contractor.  In a rare case the process may introduce you to a designer local enough to develop the final design.
I may use this service again but nothing can replace the face-to-face interaction between the client and designer at the site of the project.  A good designer will see things, ask questions and develop ideas that cannot happen otherwise. Arcbazar should consider an option to limit participation to designers who are willing to make site visits.  While this would significantly limit the number of potential designers the quality of the end product could improve greatly.
Imdat, the founder of Arcbazar, and his associate Ana were very helpful and responsive in working through the process.  The service was very new when I used it and it had a few glitches.  I am sure over the last 1-1/2 years significant improvements have been made.

We were definitely hesitant about using a service with architects we didn't necessarily know the credentials of, but we are so happy we used arcbazar!! We had 9 designers sign up and got 4 excellent designs for our space, which had several challenges to it. (Note that several designers signed up and submitted at the very last minute - we were nervous until the last few days that we weren't going to get any designs!)
One thing that's confusing is that they have the "chat now" feature active on the site 24/7, but there is only someone there to answer it sometimes. It would be better if they always took down that link when no one was there to answer the live chat and replaced it with an email or something saying "Live chat will be back at x o'clock EST" or something.
Also, it's good to get the contact information for your winning designs, since we didn't ask for the right deliverables to actually have a contractor build off our plans (we needed electric, wall thickness, things like that). 
But overall, we got exactly what we needed to get our basement renovation project going, and with more creativity, more quickly, and at a lower cost than if we had gone with a traditional architect - I call that a win any day!

It was an exciting experience. I uploaded (with help from the Arcbazar people) photos of my awful kitchen, along with what I wanted to accomplish and my style and color preferences. I got 15 participants who submitted designs. I chose the one that was best for me and that person was awarded the money. I got a bunch of ideas from all of the designs.

When searching for a local architect on Angie's List, I found arcbazar.com. Not something I expected to find on Angie's List but conducting due diligence convinced me to try the online crowdsourcing route. From the start the process was easy, clear and their staff was quite helpful in getting everything set up. For just $750.00, I received 14 porch designs from around the world! The process took just four weeks and was interactive...designers and I posted questions/measurements and more on a wall for sharing. At the end of the competition we ranked the 14 submissions and the top 3 split the prize. Where else can you receive multiple takes of architectural plans, spending just $750? Arcbazar.com does charge an administrative fee which is a percent of the prize money. All in our cost was $812.50. Now that we've selected the winner, we can deal directly with him regarding questions and additional information that may be required. Next - the building process! Already thinking about using arcbazar.com next for a landscaping project.

This is a great idea to use if your budget is limited and you have big ideas.  We were able to describe to architects our current  Row Home condition and what we wanted changed (submitted pictures, floor plans, and narrative on what we were looking for).  We posted our job for a month, which resulted in at least 15 different architects expressing an interest and had an actual total of 11 submissions by deadline.   As you would guess, it was easy to identify those who put in more thought and work than others when it came to the drawings and actually reflecting what we asked for.  For the price we paid, we were able to identify a first rate architect, which we may have never found.  We hope to do some follow-up work with the firm we ranked as number 1 as the plans provided were not detailed enough for permits and contracting work.  However, they are already familiar with the project and their office just so happens to be close by to our home.  Things really worked out well and I would not hesitate to use this vehicle again.

I signed up hoping to get some ideas for a new modern house we are building.
I submitted the following details:
A detailed program that we had developed under the guidance of an architect. This included a description of every room in the house, our expectation about their relationship to other rooms in the house, the square footage (approximate) of each room. 
I also include a professional survey of the lot, and about 30 pictures of the lot. I provided the actual address, so that architects could use online services to get aerial views of the lot and see it in relation to other houses around it.
About 46 architects signed up. 9 finished the competition. We had 2 truly stellar submissions, 3-4 very good submissions, and only 1 pseudo submission. 
Throughout the competition, there was an active "wall" that I responded to daily. I provided photographs when needed, a budget for the project when asked, and detailed photographs of other homes I liked to give architects a sense of my aesthetic.
We used this to get solid ideas about how to move forward on building our home. While we didn't hire an architect who worked on the project, we would have if we had not already selected a local architect. Two of the architects provided many many hours of work and advice on the project that have been instrumental in building our home.
You can use this to get detailed drawings. You can then continue to work with an architect to get construction documents and move to building. We used it for a slightly different purpose -- as a way of doing detailed programming and shortcutting the process of figuring out how to configure our house on the lot.
It was an enormously beneficial process, and well worth the $2500.
A few notes: we made our competition 8 weeks, and ended up extending it a week. Longer is better to enable architects to really work on the project. We offered $2500 as prize money -- it's well worth giving at least that much for a complex design question.

Arcbazar (www.arcbazar.com) is a web based design consultant service that allows you to submit both interior design, exterior design and whole house design request through its portal.  The service then broadcasts out your design project to a collection of design professionals from around the world.  You submit the project information and the amount of money you are willing to pay for the service.  The designers (anonymously) then see your specifications, ask questions about your project and submit designs all through the centralized portal.  You then rate the designs and the team at Arcbazar divides the money you have alloted to the top three designers.
We submitted an interior redesign of our large TV/Family room.  We wanted an update Florida them with flooring, furniture, built-in and wall covering recommendations.  A total of 15 designers from around the world signed up (United State, Italy, Croatia, Bosnia, Albania, etc.) with 6 submitting final redesigns of our space.
We allocated a total of $400 dollars and received 6 designs with a multitude of different options and themes.
All we provided were several photographs of the space, dimensions of the room, dimensions of windows and doors as well as an overall theme.
Very satisfied with the end product(s).  Highly recommended.

The results of the design competition were wonderful.  Thirty two designers from all over the world signed up and twelve ultimately submitted designs.  The professional level of the designs varied.  But the top 3 designs were exceptional.  And each of the twelve submitted designs presented a unique idea.  If I had taken my project to a local architect, I would have received a single design, and I would have wondered whether my architect was presenting good ideas.  With Arcbazar I had twelve designs to compare.  Design ideas from non-winning designs were available to me to incorporate into my winning design.  Also, the competition was really fun!  Every day during the competition I would log in to see if anything new was posted.  And when the competition ended, I was able to share all the designs with friends and family to get their feedback.  It was something of a leap of faith to pledge the competition prize money based on the hope of getting quality entries, but the leap paid off.  I pledged the amount recommended by Arcbazar.  In retrospect, I would pledge more (to attract more designs).  The experience was great.  My wife and I loved it.

Great service. Cheap and fast delivery.

I learnt about ArcBazar whilst reading an article online about crowd-sourcing. For those of you who don't know what ArcBazar is: it is a web site where you can sponsor a competition to design a space ( anything from a room to a whole building!). You describe what you want, choose what the prize money is and select a deadline when the competition ends. After the competition starts you will begin receiving submissions for your project.. Submissions usually include the 3D model file (Autocad, Archicad, Sketchup, etc), 3D renderings, elevations, photos and text describing the design. Most submissions are from designers and architects from Eastern Europe although people from all over the world compete. 
Most people don't hire a designer when renovating their homes. The reason? Cost! Most designers will charge you 15% of your total renovation cost. If you are spending thousands of dollars, this equates to quite a bit of money. I've hired designers before with mixed success so when found out about ArcBazar I thought I would give it a try.
We recently renovated our office and baby room and sponsored competitions on ArcBazar to design both rooms. We chose to put $700 down to sponsor  each competition. The web site fee is 15% so our total was $805 per competition. The more money you put, the more people are likely to participate in your competition and better people are likely to participate.
Wow were we impressed with what we got for our money! The office competition had 17 submissions and some submissions included 2 designs. In total about 25 designs were submitted for the office project alone! The designs were submitted by designers and architects from all over the world: Russia, Georgia, Bulgaria, UK, US, India, Greece, Serbia, Armenia, Romania, Moldova, Egypt and Bangladesh. Not all designs were great but many were awesome! More than half were very good. I was sold! This is certainly the way to go. No designer I ever hired came close to the quality of work that we got out of ArcBazar. In fact, almost every design submitted was better than any design I ever got from hiring local designers.
Once the competition is over, it is your turn to pick the winners. First, second and third place get paid (60%, 30%, 10%). Everybody else does not. At this point the web site will give you the option of contacting the winner directly. I did. We wanted to make some changes to the winning design  so we hired the winner to make those changes for us. That worked out really well too. We exchanged e-mails and described what we wanted changed. Payment was performed over Paypal. The bill? $50.
The baby room project was also a success. Some 15 submissions from 9 designers. The winning design: beautiful! Truly awesome! We are very very happy with it.
Will I use ArcBazar again? ABSOLUTELY! I won't even think twice about it? If I could go back in time, would  I had done something different? Yes. I would put more money down. I am not kidding. I actually feel BAD ONLY paying $420 for the winning design (60% of $700). The girl did a wonderful job and deserved to be paid more.
PS: Construction is now over and the rooms look great.

The price was good for Arcbazar Inc, but the communication was a bit difficult.

Everything went very well. We ended up with about 20 different plans from 7 different designers and only had to pay for 1. Arcbazar gives a suggested range for building plans but since I only wanted a floor plan I was skeptical since the price was on the low range. I was very suprised and pleased with the results.

Summary

• Arcbazar is for people who want to see a variety of ideas, and approach their project with an open mind.
• Part of why Arcbazar is so affordable is because you, as the client, need to do some of the heavy lifting yourself, such as measurements, photos, and writing up summaries. 

Overall, I got fantastic results.
That doesn't mean every design was fantastic--far from it.  It means, that overall, the end result was that I chose one really good idea that met my design needs, fit in my budget, and was ready to use.
This was my second time hiring Arcbazar.  The first time was for a landscaping project. 
As a second-time user, I can suggest a few things to make sure that you make very good use of your Arcbazar project:

How to get more than your money's worth from Arcbazar:
Offer a reasonable monetary prize. 
Just because the system will let you set up a $50 prize doesn't mean that any designers will actually compete or that any of the submissions will be any good.  These are real designers, most of them young and newly established.  For the most part, they're clever and eager and they GET to choose whether or not they want to submit a project for your competition.  If you put up peanuts for prize money, then perhaps only the most desperate will submit a half-baked idea; you will be unhappy.  Arcbazar makes a suggestion for your project about how much prize money would be appropriate.  Definitely follow their advice.  And if you feel like the suggestion is unreasonable, then call up Arcbazar and talk the issue out with them.  They're responsive and helpful--use them as a resource.
I have found that I have gotten more than my money's worth both times.

Do your homework!
One of the things that you pay an in-person designer to do is to complete all the careful measuring of the area, all the synthesizing of design ideas, all the research into local building codes about what is or is not allowed in your area.  You will not get this with Arcbazar.  Just for reference, I spent three hours carefully measuring every nook and cranny of my upstairs before I submitted a hand-drawn plan on graph paper.  Three hours to do three rooms.  But you know what?  I got awesome results from people who were able to plug in my numbers into their architectural drawing programs--all ten of my submissions would have been workable.
I also included a link to my hometown's building code website and asked the designers to make sure that all the window and door sizes were appropriate.  Every designer sent code-appropriate drawings.
The more time you spend gathering good photos, writing up good summaries, preparing accurate drawings, the better your results will be.  Do not skip this important step. 
I was also surprised by what an important process it was for my husband and me to go through together.  In answering all of the questions, I learned a lot about what he was looking for in a successful design--things that I didn't know even though we'd shopped together and talked about ideas for almost a year.  The questions that Arcbazar asks you to answer are a great opportunity to really refine your vision.  Definitely take the opportunity to get your ideas spelled out--even if it's just a list of things you don't like.

Be clear
Like all relationships, communication is key.  This is as true on Arcbazar as it is with a local designer.  Be explicit about what you like--I like porcelain but hate granite.  I didn't expect someone to ask me how I felt, I spelled it out in my design considerations.  I spent at least an hour crafting my design competition specifications--what I needed vs. what I would like, what kind of deliverables I needed (elevations vs. birds-eye).  I also uploaded many photos of the existing situation for designers to get a strong sense of what the place felt like even though they were in Romania or Indonesia.  (My first place designer was from the U.S., but the close 2nd place winner was from China, and the great 3rd place option was from Romania).

Keep in touch
Use the message board!  Yes, about a third of the designers may have mediocre English, but it's nearly always clear what people want, and if it's not clear then ask for clarification..  Don't fall into the trap that thinking that poor English means the person isn't smart or talented.  Hardly.  And if you don't think that you can get over that then you may want to reconsider whether Arcbazar is for you.  The message board is also a place to post ideas about a new tub or a cool window that you just saw on Pinterest or in Better Homes and Gardens.  Add a link or snap a picture of the magazine and upload it to the message board.  The designers will see it and have a better idea of what you want.

Location, location, location
While I never gave designers my exact address, I was explicit about what neighborhood I lived it.  Nearly all the designers checked out Google Maps to see what my neighborhood looked like to get a sense of the place.  Location should always inform good design.  Be clear about where you live and what your local style is.

Pinterest or Houzz is your friend
A big part of getting good results is giving good explanations about what you like.  Maybe you can't explain what you like in words--as a  non-designer, I struggle with that myself.  Use pictures instead--it's easy, free, and fun.
Use a digital scrapbook to collect ideas about what you like.  This can be especially powerful given that not everyone speaks perfect English.  Share the link to your Pinterest/Houzz designs so that designers can really see "Oh, she's a huge fan of farm house tables."  I saw elements of my design books show up in nearly all my design submissions--whether it was details on the built-in cabinetry or a particular color of tile.
Be prepared that you'll only receive HALF as many designs (or less) than the number of designers who sign up
On my project, I think I had 16 people sign up and received 10 designs.  On the surface, I thought, "What a bummer!" But then I remembered the number of times I've waiting for a plumber to never show up or for a contractor to deliver a bid that never arrives or for a roofer to return my call five weeks later.  People are human.  You will definitely have more sign-ups than designs--just like every other trade out there.  Brace yourself for this eventuality.

Part of this flaw is with Arcbazar itself--in order to post on the message board, a designer needs to sign up for your project.  What if a designer wants to ask some questions on the message board about your budget or about your design needs, and then realizes that your project and his/her skills aren't a good fit?  Reasonably, you won't get a design from that person.

We had 18 designers from around the world sign up to provide a design for our master bathroom.  Several of the designers asked questions throughout the project and it is important to be able to give them measurements and photos whenever possible.  The design competition ran for about 3 weeks and in the end, we received submissions from 7 designers.  There was a range in what the designers provided.  Some gave very detailed suggestions about specific hardware and lighting to purchase.  Others were less detailed about the specifics but they gave a nice, rendering of how the remodeled room could look.  The designer that I chose as the winner was the one who stuck most closely to the instructions I had provided.  There were a couple that didn't pay as close attention as I would have liked to my project instructions.  In the end, I think this was a worthwhile endeavor as I now have seven nice designs and I can select certain elements from each to incorporate into the finished product.

I had ideas for remodeling my master bathroom and had received a couple of contractor quotes. Before flipping the switch, I wanted to obtain other ideas, or at least validate my design concept. So, I posted a two week competition on arcbazar. I had 10 designers sign up and 5 submitted plans. I received scaled drawings, as well as 3D perspective images on the bathroom. I could not have been happier. Ultimately, with my complicated space, my original design was validated, but I also received a bonus in that the designer to whom I gave the award had designed my WC with a pocket door and shelves. I never would have come up with that thought.
I will definitely use arcbazar again in future for any design, including interior decorating, landscaping etc.

Overall it was a waste of money.  I had 6 designers sign up. Three submitted plans, but only one of them followed directions.  However the terms require if 3 or more sign up you need to pay out the entire "prize".  For the same price you could hire any local designer to consult for an hour or two, which is really the extent of what all these designers have done.  They basically make recommendations without any form of real communication.  There is a message board to post comments back and forth with the designers.  The flaw is if they don't speak English, how much communication can you really do.  It also requires the designer to be willing to communicate with you in the first place and in my experience some did but most didn't.  Most designers also submit at the last minute before the close of the posting. Therefore there is no time to question choices, request adjustments, or make clarifications.  So what you end up is a bunch of pretty pictures that are no better than a generic plan you could have Googled for free.  The plans of some of the postings look impressive, but they don't work in the real world.  Not enough information is provided to truly execute most of them.  My recommendation would be to save your money, hire a local designer to consult, and call it a day. 

It was okay.  The owner was very good and helpful.  We didn't get much response the first time but he extended the program and he kicked in some money himself so there was a better response the second time around.  We got response from Georgia, India as well as US designers.  It was an interesting approach but it's varies in terms of the level of response. 

Great website and very easy to use and helpful steps all through the process. For my basement remodeling project I received 11 great designs for my project from a total of 18 who had registered interest in my project. It's like getting 11architects to work on your project but paying for one! Afetr you submit your entry, upload some information and photos you then chose the length of time you want your competition to run over and then answer any questions that are posted by the entrants. Then at the end of the project you sit back, review all the designs, and chose who the winners. Great service and will be using again for future projects.

Overall it went really well.  I was very detailed about what I wanted, gave very detailed measurements and pictures of all sides of my house, I recommend being as detailed as possible when working this way and if the designers have questions answering them as soon as possible as simply as possible.
I would recommend this to any one.  We have not yet designed if we will pursue the second story.  But the design we did pick we like very much.
My only criticism, I would hope that in the future only designers that intend to deliver designs sign up.

Arcbazar is a way of crowdsourcing architecture, landscaping, and interior design projects. I posted my project (with a lot of useful phone coaching from Ana) and waited. I got six designers registered as working on my project, but only three actually posted designs in the end, which was mildly disappointing. But of those designs, two had significant components of interest to me, and all three were relatively professionally done. I think the designers at Arcbazar are mostly students or young professionals trying to make a name for themselves, so I didn't expect that much from them, but I got decent work, and I've used some aspects of both of the top two designs in my final implementation. I would use Arcbazar again for minor architectural or design work.

Very good; I love the creativity.