SAN MARCOS -- In the market for a fresh look and image, Cal State San Marcos is tapping into the power of the Internet to come up with a new logo.

Campus administrators recently decided to update the university's blue-and-white logo for its 20th anniversary next year. The new image will become the university's icon on its Web site, signs, letterhead and other printed materials.

Companies and other organizations typically hire professional graphic artists or use in-house talent to design their logos.

However, Cal State administrators sought the help of crowdSPRING, a Chicago-based Internet company that describes itself as an online marketplace for creative services.

The company's Web site allows anyone who needs design work done to post a request and set their own price for the job.

Graphic artists and other creative types from around the world then submit original ideas and receive feedback from the original poster as well as the Web-surfing public. All the images and feedback are displayed on the site, and the designers can tweak their submissions based on the comments they get, making the process a collaborative one.

CSUSM is offering $500 for the university's new logo.

"We decided to go with it because it was a way for not only campus staff, students and faculty to submit their own logo designs, but really an inexpensive way to get other designers to submit as well," CSUSM spokeswoman Margaret Lutz said Tuesday about crowdSPRING. "Weigh that ($500) against going with a professional (design) firm, which could cost thousands of dollars."

CSUSM's request went up on the site early this month and had yielded 40 proposed logos by Tuesday. Lutz said university administrators were pleased with what they were seeing so far.

Bethany Sirt, spokeswoman for crowdSPRING, said the company got its start about a year ago with just three employees.

Using the Internet to help with projects -- or "crowdsourcing," as the approach is known in Internet circles -- has been so phenomenally popular, though, that the company has grown to nine employees who have handled nearly 300,000 project notices to date, she said.

Nearly 26,000 people from 140 countries have submitted designs for one or more of those projects, Sirt said. Regular contributors include recent design school graduates looking to build portfolios, long-time professional graphic designers and illustrators, and stay-at-home moms who have never worked in the industry but are interested in it and want to supplement their families' incomes, she said.

"The person who made our logo is a janitor in Canada," Sirt said.

Besides getting to set their own price, posters on the company's Web site get quick turnaround times and an expanded pool of design talent, she added.

"It's just a very convenient way -- instead of having to sit a ton of designers down to interview with their portfolios and, based on their portfolios, trying to figure out if they're going to be able to help with your brand," she said.

People interested in participating in CSUSM's logo project have until Monday to do so. Lutz said CSUSM administrators will whittle the submissions to a few favorites in time for the university's annual convocation in August. The winning image will be unveiled by mid-October, she said.

Go to www.crowdspring.com/projects/graphic_design/logo/logo_california_state_university_san_marcos.

Contact staff writer Andrea Moss at 760-739-6654.