chicago, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/11/2010 -- crowdSPRING, the world’s largest online marketplace for crowdsourced graphic design and writing services, won the prestigious Chicago Innovation Award at the ninth annual Awards ceremony held at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago on Monday, November 1.

The Chicago Innovation Awards honors ten of the most innovative new products and services brought to market in the Chicago region. Nominees can be high-tech, low-tech or no-tech; for-profit or not-for-profit; big products from large companies or small products from small companies. This year's winners were chosen from a pool of more than 300 nominees judged on the success of new products, services, business models or processes that uniquely satisfied unmet needs in the marketplace.

Accepting the award at the event, sponsored by Wrigley and Allstate among others, crowdSPRING co-founders Mike Samson and Ross Kimbarovsky, said, "We couldn’t be more proud for our little upstart startup to be recognized in the company of such Golliaths. Everyone who starts a company likes to think that they’re doing something innovative. It’s just nice to know that apparently we really are."

Samson and Kimbarovsky went on to note that this award comes at a particularly promising time for crowdSPRING. "Almost exactly two and a half years ago, crowdSPRING launched as a tiny company in a big city with high hopes and almost no following. But within the past year we’ve reached the tipping point, having topped 75,000 designers and writers in our community who have submitted over 1.3 million entries to more than 15,000 small businesses. To top this by being recognized as one of the City’s most innovative companies is truly amazing."

crowdSPRING, along with nine other winners, were profiled in the Chicago Sun-Times, and will be featured in an ad campaign on CTA trains and buses, recognized in other major Chicago media, invited to a private lunch with Mayor Richard M. Daley to discuss their innovation, given a free one-year membership to the Illinois Technology Association and invited to ring the opening NASDAQ bell in New York City on November 15 by TechAmerica.
For more information about crowdSPRING, visit http://www.crowdSPRING.com. For more information about the Chicago Innovative Awards and the other winners, log on to http://www.chicagoinnovationawards.com.

About crowdSPRING
crowdSPRING is an online marketplace for custom logo design, web design, graphic design, industrial design and writing services. Entrepreneurs and small businesses simply post what they need, when they need it and how much they want to pay. Once posted, over 72,000 creatives from 170+ countries around the world submit an average of 110 options for the buyer to choose from until they find “the one.” crowdSPRING is a privately held company based in Chicago. For more information, visit http://www.crowdspring.com. To learn more about the world of small business, startups, design, marketing and business strategy, follow crowdSPRING’s blog, their Twitter stream or their Facebook page.

About the Chicago Innovation Awards
Kuczmarski & Associates and prominent local journalist Dan Miller established the Chicago Innovation Awards in 2002 as an annual program to honor significant innovations introduced by Chicago-area companies. Each year, the Chicago Innovation Awards honor 10 winners who have introduced products or services that uniquely fill unmet needs, generate a competitive response in the marketplace, exceed market expectations and achieve financial success. For more information, visit http://www.chicagoinnovationawards.com.