How does someone find a reputable designer?

After listening to a debate 'Is spec work evil?' (from SXSWi 09) a few weeks ago and one of the questions raised (and not really answered), was [paraphrased] 'How does someone looking for logo design services find a reputable designer without resorting to spec work competitions and the like'?

It's been playing on my mind since hearing that, and made me start to empathize with people who use the 'competition' model for sourcing graphic work. I mean, if you don't know a designer, and have limited contacts to find one, then where do you go?

Experiment: Role play a person looking for a new logo.

Since nobody wants to look stupid when researching an unknown field, the internet is the first obvious choice for research...

Method: Google knows all. Search 'Logo Designer Detroit' (12,900,000 results).

Findings: The 3 Adword results at the top of the page have portfolios with work not much better than the quality you would find on say 99designs, and none of the 3 look like they're actually in Detroit.

Of the 3 'google' provided options with the map, the first is a dog-ugly site playing terrible music & must have hired Yoda to write their copy. The second is a broken link. And the third doesn't even offer logo design services.

Of the first 10 organic results (the first page), we get 4 actual logo design studios, 3 directory listings (of which very few had links to websites), 1 web design (no logos) studio, and a handful of random article and job posting pages.

Of the 4 that provided logo design services, the quality is significantly poor with the exception of maybe 1, but the website isn't very helpful and seems to promote a list of printers more than his own work.

I had to go through 3 pages of results before I found a Detroit (or Metro) based Logo designer with a website that had details about the service & a portfolio that looked like it was actually designed by a professional designer (thankyou Mr Kaufman for putting me out of my misery).

Experiment Result

Without knowing where to look, you are likely to get bombarded by '$50 logo' sites well before you hit anybody with decent skills. With this kind of result, if you're looking for the most cost effective way to brand your business, and not knowing any better - spending $100 on a competition seems like a logical solution.

So how do we combat this?

To be honest, I dont thik I have an answer. Maybe some kind of 'logo designer directory' where clients could post their work and a review would be a solution, but then again it's open to abuse by both designers and a disgruntled client.

I'd love to know your thoughts and or solutions. Maybe together we can come up with a solution that will stand a combined chance against the weight of the poor competition.