What are the different statuses of a project?

A Design Contest will pass through a number of stages over the course of the project. On the platform, we refer to the stages (or phases) as 'statuses'.

The typical stages of a project are as follows:

1. Draft - Whilst a customer is writing the brief and the project has not yet been launched, it is in Draft phase. Draft projects are not launched and no payment has been made to DesignCrowd. These projects can be deleted by a customer at any time and are not visible to the designer community.
2. Open - Once a contest project has been paid for and launched, it is Open. Designers can submit their work to the Contest or one-on-one project. The Open phase of a project typically lasts from 2 - 14 days. Customers may request to extend the deadline further. Please check the project brief page to keep up to date on deadlines. Designers will receive messages and notifications from customers if they choose to extend the Open phase of their contest.
3. Deciding - Once the submission deadline on a project has passed, the project moves into Deciding status. In the Deciding phase, the contest holder should start identifying which design they would like to select as the final design to move into the Design Handover. The Deciding phase my last up to 14 days.
4. Design Handover - Upon selecting the winning design the project enters a Design Handover to work one-on-one with the designer for up to 7 days to refine the work, download the design files, and close the project. For more information see here. 
5. Closed - Once a design has gone through the Design Handover phase and the customer has approved the source files, the project is completed and DesignCrowd will make payment to the designer(s).

Note: There are some exceptions to this process. For instance, if a customer has not guaranteed their project, then they are able to get a refund. The status for these projects changes to Closed - Refunded status.