Dog Tag Art’s unique originally designed pet ID tags are part of the crowdsourcing craze – a concept that encourages consumers or, in our case, artists, to play an active role in shaping a product. In fact, Dog Tag Art is the first company to crowdsource pet tags.
In his book, Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business (Crown Business, 2008),
Jeff Howe talks about college dropouts Jake Nickell and Jacob DeHart who, in 2000, started Threadless.com. They had a simple idea: Let people submit designs for cool t-shirts and have users vote on which designs were the best. “The winning designs started appearing on hit TV shows and on the backs of hip-hop artists,” says Howe. By 2006, Threadless.com had generated $17 million in revenue.
Now there are countless crowdsourced websites, and crowdsourcing has become one of the fastest growing ways of doing business on the Internet. We’re proud to have more and more artists working with us from around the U.S. and the world to create original dog tag designs. Here’s what some of our artists told us:
Holly Jean Mathews from Asheville, NC says “I really think that crowdsourced artwork is a wonderful way for artists to get their work out there. I can’t think of an easier way for me to make my art available.”
Si Clark, a freelancer who lives in London, has his work on a number of crowdsourced websites. “I use the income from these sites to fund my purchases of CDs and records. My actual income comes from my illustration/animation work,” says Si. “I think it’s a pretty good way to promote your work when starting off, as the hard work of making whatever it is you’re selling is done by someone else. You just have to do the design.”
Jennafer Bikas of Travelers Rest, SC says crowdsourced art “is a nice supplemental form of income. I think the idea of crowdsourcing is great. It opens up new windows for designers. I think it’s the wave of the future. I’m really excited to be part of it and I’ve had wonderful experiences. I love what I do and I love the fact that with crowdsourcing sites I can really create something off the wall or outside my usual realm of design.”
We now have hundreds of cool pet tag id designs on our site, thanks to wonderful artists like Holly Jean, Si, and Jennafer.
