Arcbazar Inc

Overall it went well. I was a first time user and there was a bit of a learning curve. You have to be able to post images, line drawings & pictures to the internet site, provide measurements and respond to competing architects. It is a competition and the top 3 designs get a monetary prize. At first, no one signed up for the competition that ran 5 weeks but in the end we had 10 architects from around the world designing my master bathroom remodel. There were many designs and elements that I never saw coming. I'll use Arcbazar again.

Our condo has an unusual floor plan for its living room/dining room space, and we have struggled for years to figure out a layout that was functional and looked nice. We tried at one point with a local designer, and didn't really like what he came up with. We were incredibly happy with arcbazar's designs! We offered a reward of $375 (which was what arcbazar recommended), plus the fee to arcbazar. We received 9 submissions, and I would say that 7 of them were really great. There were 3 or 4 layouts that would have all worked -- we ended up incorporating a few options together, and going with a design that we would have never come up with ourselves. It looks really great! It was also a fun and interesting process to see all the different versions of our apartment that could be possible. Although the service is somewhat pricey, I think that it was really worth it for us. We got what I believe to be better ideas through "crowd sourcing" the design than we would have from working with a single designer. Plus, a local designer would have cost more. Finally, we were prepared to buy new furniture if needed. However, we also gave the designers images of other furniture we had available in other rooms that could be incorporated. The design we chose ended up going with uses only existing pieces. So, I think that in the long run we saved a lot of money because we didn't end up buying anything new as we had anticipated. I like a lot of my old furniture much better in its new functional design! I would definitely use arcbazar again in the future.

Horrible experiences and cannot see any responsibility as a professional. I did. It even feel to send a feedback. This is my fourth restaurant designs, and I hoped I can find some talent from all over the world... Probably the way I provided the restaurant concept was wrong or the prize was too low. Anyway I will not use this service anymore or would not recommend to anyone.

The completed project features had great results and we were very excited to launch our project. We submitted a project to redesign our family room offering a prize a little higher than the recommended range for such a project by the website. The website was easy to use and communication worked great between designers and project owners. Unfortunately, while a number of people submitted interest only one person submitted to the contest. It was a design that we did not like, but felt like it would be unfair not to award a prize to based on effort. This website is a great idea and is executed very well; however, I will not use again until the community is large enough to ensure a larger number of responses.

Managed a design competition for a single family house.

Given great ideas that I will be using in redecorating my rooms.

Arcbazar is an open source design service which I used to obtain design ideas for my living room. I received thirteen designs from designers all over the world which contained many useful ideas and, in some cases, specific recommendations for furniture sources and color schemes. The winning design was from an Armenian interior designer. It was a very good value, because I received many high quality designs for one low fee. I would definitely use them again or recommend them to others.

It was easy, fun and I got a lot iof ideas from the 6 people that sent in their ideas for my backyard. Now I can take all the ideas that I got and make my backyard a real designer show case. It was woth every penny and it was great fun.

I had a tough time understanding the service procedures initially and wrote an earlier email about my problems, but once I got it, I was HOOKED. I absolutely loved this process and have recommended it a dozen times to other real estate developers and project managers. For my commercial building that needed a new facade, there were 22 designers from all over the world --only 3 from the US-- and 13 exceptional submissions. We had excellent means of posting our preferences and responding to their questions openly -- a first class program. My own local designers were stuck until they had these choices to consider, but now that we do, we are combining the best features into our final drawings, at considerable savings in time and frustration. For the residential project, 4 submissions came in from 9 who signed up -- expect only about half will follow through. In both projects we needed fresh ideas. Ironically, the firm that won first on one project came in second on the other... so I know which architect firm I want to pursue! I cannot say enough good things about Ana in the chat area of Arcbazar. Wow, responsive galore! She has answered immediately many times when I needed help. I wish there were services like this for all types of other services I need.

He didnt send me a quoutation

This was online so no one actually came to the house and the service turned out very well. It was back last June and I told them how much I wanted to spend a room and so we've got estimates all over the world. It was a very nice experience. There was much more interest than what we had anticipated. They recommended furniture that we could purchased close by.

Upon completing the drawings and the statements about the project, I found out that I needed to pay more money. The payment was to provide monetary awards to the top three prospective designers that I thought met the criteria I would submit. I abandoned the competition because this was not what I thought I purchased from reading the information.

I assigned a $1K award to the winner and had about 5 different designs submitted. Although I didn't use one in it's entirely, I was able to get enough ideas from 2 of them to come up with a final design which I then gave to my local architect. The customer service provided was excellent. "Ana" was on top of all of my questions. I would use this service again if needed.

Very well. I received many designs from architects all over the world.

Arcbazar was like the middle-man. I was real disappointed in the number of submissions of design. There was only 1 participant that submitted the design and it was totally useless.

The process was interesting and I would try them again. The process was brand new to me and we didn’t follow through with them due to permits issues. If I did it again, I would do it differently. But, I thought they had a very unique product and very interesting process. I have already recommended them to others. Their follow up was very good and they were very willing to help me through the program.

After a half day of struggling to get Angie's Deal coupons to discount the price, they reprogrammed their website and now the coupons are going through well. This is a much-needed service, and I really was frustrated that I couldn't order easily. Now, I got my first Launch launched and I'm eager to see how it goes. Meanwhile, I'm referring them favorably to others because they did fix the problem within a couple days and we are pleased with their responsiveness.

We ran a competition for 4 weeks. We offered $1200 in prize money (after the amount that went to arcbazar for hosting the competition). We had a total of 8 submissions after 16 designers signed up. Overall experience was great, they were very responsive to questions that we had, and the designs submitted were overall very good. I have seen some people mention that they weren't happy with the results because they couldn't get the plans built or permitted, or whatever. My advice, adjust your expectations. Our winning architect was willing to work with us after the fact, and I'm sure would have been happy to do what was necessary to get the plans to a permit ready state. That said, our purpose was to get a number of ideas that we would then turn over to a local architect. If I had hired an architect first, and then asked him/her to draw eight different designs with conceptual and dimensions, they would have been happy, and I would have spent every last dime I have for the renovation on architect fees. This worked exactly as we had hoped, if not better.

There were a number of responses to the posting, however, not a single submission was received from any prospective designer. Arcbarzar, itself was very responsive, so I'm not faulting them, they also gave helpful advice indicating that more money, a greater monetary reward was needed to get design submissions. They also promptly provided a refund when no submissions were forthcoming.

It went very well. 27 designers signed up and 20 submitted designs. The beauty of this process is that you get lots of ideas that you can pick and choose from. There were a few that has significant detail on materials, etc. that is also helpful. There were a few that were just not my taste which is ok since you are getting many submissions. I think I was very lucky to get as many as I did. I also think it helps if you include a lot of detail about what is important to you in the info that you submit. I am using mostly using ideas from 2 of the submissions to move forward with the remodel. I am also running a second competition now for a master bath and have 15 designers signed up after 2 weeks. 1 week to go!

I ended up getting a refund because they were not willing to post the project for the amount we paid even though the way the Big Deal was written sounded like it should have worked that way.

The thing about this site is that you have access to hundreds (thousands?) of designers, and you can review their portfolios ahead of time and ask people whose style you like to provide a concept (if they want). Also, many of the designers use some pretty sophisticated software. I was given almost photo-realistic renderings of proposed designs in most cases. This was instrumental for me - seeing it with mock furniture, decorations, etc., is much, much better than trying to visualize it in my mind or going by a rough sketch. Many of the artists also use 3D libraries of real furniture and provide you with sources to buy the pieces in case you want to implement the exact look they have designed. I reviewed 5-10 concepts, chose the one I liked the best, and was quite happy with it, all for less than the price a local designer would have charged. Using this site is simply a no-brainer for design projects which can be crowd-sourced.

The website is easy to use, and the online chat is very responsive. We offered about $400 for a design of a second floor balcony on a stucco house in N. California. The competition lasts 1 month with a deadline date. Eight designers signed up, only 5 completed the project. We had 2 designers from Nigeria, 2 USA 1 Albania. The designs were all nice jpeg images of what the house would look like after the designer's balcony was completed. Not all of the designers submitted what I would call plans with complete dimensions.Since the designers are not familiar with local building codes or perhaps even building codes in general, these designs cannot be used to get permits. So the best you can do is take the jpegs to a local designer or architect or engineer to get plans drawn that contractors can bid on, or that can be used for building permits. We liked some of the schemes, but franky we got better ideas looking at Houzz.com photos. This service did not work for us

This was my second experience with Arcbazar. Since my first competition they have made additional improvements to the process including a rating system to help you evaluate the submissions received from the designers. My second competition was just as successful as my first - I received so many great plans and ideas. It was also a fun and exciting process.

It went well. Arcbazar has created a clever business model leveraging the Internet. I have been through many designers and paid them far too much. The problem is that I did not like their style, but they did the work and i had to pay them.Arcbazar is a great improvement because you get several designers and their ideas for a modest fee. I wish I had discovered them at the front end of my project. But they were still valuable at the tail end. I had the benefit of 5 designers and I used ideas from a few of them. Next time I start a design project I will use their service.