295 Reviews From Our Community
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Staff use racist and homophobic insults when dealing with disputes. Truly a disgraceful business
Upon doing a one to one project, the work was so bad it could have been done by a child. Had to laugh it was so bad otherwise the only option is to cry.
There is no way out then, even if the work is bad. You have to pay those disgusting sums of money for work that a toddler could do better.
A scam of a company with a disgusting attitude
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I had only a very rough idea for a business logo. Thus, I started a competition and received great ideas. I was astonished how many suggestions came in within a very short time.The discussions with the designers were easy and most of them could provide further ideas based on my suggestions. I ended up with 3 winner pictures.
Therefore, the pool of designers is great. Way of communication is easy and I had a lot of fun.
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This was the third design contest I have run. I am always pleased with the number of artists who wish to compete for a guaranteed prize. Since I can't draw the illustrations I need, myself, this is the next best thing!
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Getting a good design is the buyers job, as well as the designer's. Good art is not easy nor is it automatic. If you are new to composition and creativity admit it and with that awareness, you can find allies who can help, starting with the staff of 99designs. If you've created, made things you're happy with, then the design process will be fairly easy and straight forward. If not, then be ready for an enjoyable experience, as the staff at 99Designs and the amazing (and some not so amazing) Designers offer their ideas. Then you need to say what you think and want. That's the fun yet tricky part. Do you know what you want? Can you put it into words your Designers can use as feedback?
Welcome to Art and the world of graphic design. It's here, if you're ready and it works, it really works!! You'll get out of it what you put in, teamed with your designer.
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Time Clocks everywhere, pushing client down the conveyor line, not enough time to get anything done essentially no platform to communicate and exchange ideas
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very good experience with them, nothing bad to say, the pricing is a bit on the steep side but overall ok
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I had a great experience with 99designs and I loved running a contest because I received so many designs I would have never thought of. My contest was very successful and I'm very happy with my designer. I even continued to work with the same designer afterwards by doing the 1 on 1 project. I would highly recommend 99designs.
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We were surprised that so many wonderful designs were submitted by lots of artists. The biggest challenge was narrowing it down to a few finalists. We all LOVE our logo designed by Yoga in Bali. He knew what we wanted, was very easy to work with, quickly made changes as requested, provided many variations of colors and did am awesome job. I highly recommend him and would definitely use him and this company again..
I love the concept of 99 Designs and enjoyed working with them. My computer experience is limited but each time I had questions their awesome customer service rep Ally, was patient, kind and helpful. I have already recommended 99 Designs to quite a few people. Awesome company and concept!
Tip for consumers: Nothing to lose. If you do not like any of the designas submitted, your money will be refunded.
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A friend told me about 99designs when I inquired about her book cover. I decided to check them out as a possible source for my own cover. It was easy. Fill out the brief and wait for designs to come in. There is no payment until you commit to choosing. 99designs were respectful and accommodating when I asked for time extensions. The designers were patient and respectful. In the end, there were 4 designers I could have gone with but the commitment and willingness to continue working with me when it comes to print time was what stood out. I've already recommended 99designs to our writers group. One is already receiving her designs and is thrilled. It's refreshing to work with a company that is upfront with no hidden agenda. Excellent!
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We truly appreciate your feedback!
We thank you for trusting our Global Creative Platform and referring us to your colleagues! We're excited to work with them as well! We hope that not only were we able to help you find a design that you love but also had fun during the process.
Our team wishes you all the best and we hope to be able to work with you again!
- Jerlyn from 99designs
I quickly realized I needed to describe my design needs more specifically. I wanted a book cover for a "Riddle Bestiary". I didn't make it clear in my initial specification that the "beasts" in my bestiary were actual, not imaginary and/or mythical and they covered a wide spectrum of animals, e.g. invertebrates, insects, reptiles, mammals, birds, etc. with an emphasis on fun animal facts.
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Thank you for the feedback!
We're glad to hear that you were able to turn your design contest experience around by providing your designers with a more specific design brief. This is indeed important to give the designers the proper design direction in order to achieve a design that you'll love. Surely, future clients will find your tip useful to ensure their contest's success.
We appreciate the trust you put in our Global Creative Platform and we hope to work with you again soon! :)
- Jerlyn from 99designs
The great thing i found was that you were offered many various options, many different and others very similar, whoever, if you dont have any idea in the first place you discard the ones you clearly dont connect with and then focus on what catches your eye. Providing a brief that reflects some idea of look, feel,, values etc does narrow the designers creativity however that is part of the reason for a brief so you dont get a lot of options that dont hit the mark. Creativiy is subjective and having been through a process with corporate branding where you can spend considerable time and money and not achieve outcomes, the outcome is in the eye of the beholder. This experience was a positive one for me.
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We're very happy to hear that your experience with your design contest was a pleasant one! It's great to know that our Global Creative Platform was able to provide you with various design options and ultimately found one that you love!
We also appreciate your tip for new clients in regards to providing a good design brief. Thank you for trusting us with your design need and we look forward to working with you again!
- Jerlyn from 99designs
It's truly amazing how much work designers put forth to earn your selection. Designers are surely freelance, global, and work with multiple companies, and like a favorite movie of mine, 'there can be only one' winner, which all makes their efforts all the more impressive.
For me, price/effort are well in balance, but to some of the negative reviewers I must say that, the end result is very much dependent on your guidance and own effort. It's the old computer term, 'garbage in = garbage out,' wherein in most cases, if you're not getting what you want, you're probably not giving the right direction or feedback/guidance throughout the process.
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We appreciate your thoughtful feedback!
99designs as a Global Creative Platform wants to make sure we give the chance for our designer community to be as diverse as possible and it is great that you recognize that. :) We also appreciate your insight on how to run the design contest as we agree that a contest, in order to be successful, needs to be a collaborative effort between the designers and their clients - feedback is a must!
We sure hope to be able to work with you again with your future design needs and we wish you all the best!
- Jerlyn from 99designs
Very easy process in setting up a contest for designers to bid on my word mark. After leaving a descriptive brief, I had designers coming in with very creative designs. I had only expected 30-40 designs, but in the end there were 109 designs. The last 50 were adjustments with 4 designers. Awarded two designers. Very happy with the results!
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Thank you for leaving us a feedback!
We're very excited to hear that your experience with our Global Creative Platform has been a pleasant one! It is our promise to help you find a design that you will love and we're glad to be able to do exactly that. It is also a great tip for new clients to make sure to provide a descriptive brief to ensure their contest's success.
We hope to see your logos in action and we hope to work with you again soon with your future design needs!
- Jerlyn from 99designs
This service is GROSSLY overpriced. The designers don't appear read to read anything about your business and submit substandard designs. To this end, I received lots of designs but 95% of them were garbage. The type of files received at the end, with the exception of the logo are not necessarily usable. To send PDF letterhead in the 21st Century is patently absurd. Who sends letterhead to the printer in 2018? Overall this was a complete waste of hundreds of dollars. If you're going to spend close to $1000, I recommend finding someone else for the job. I wish I had read actual reviews BEFORE I made the purchase. Shame on me! Dont waste your money!!!
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We appreciate your feedback!
We are so sorry to hear that your design contest did not work out for you. 99designs, as a Global Creative Platform, wants to make sure that our clients like you not only receive a design that you will love but with complete deliverables that you can use.
We'd love to discuss your concern with you further and help remedy the situation as best as we possibly can. Please do send us an email at - https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/requests/new and our Client Support Team will make sure that your concerns are heard and taken cared of.
- Jerlyn from 99designs
The process was easy. The designs were exactly what we were looking for. Even had too many to choose from, making our decision tough.
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Your feedback is highly appreciated!
Thank you for trusting our Global Creative Platform with your design need and it's great to hear that you were able to choose from a number of amazing designs from a great pool of talented designers! Glad to help you find the design that you love and we hope to be able to work with you again with you future design needs! :)
- Jerlyn from 99designs
This was one of the easiest things I have ever done. In 3 days I had the perfect logo for my company for way cheaper than if I had done it somewhere else! I highly recommend it!
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We are very excited to hear that you had a pleasant experience. Thank you for coming to 99designs for your design needs.
We hope to get to work with you again and wishing you all the best! :)
- Jerlyn from 99designs
I was pretty happy with the design I got and with the phone support from 99Design when I needed guidance dealing with my chosen designer.
I won't give a 5 stars because some of the designs submitted were pretty average and amateurish, no effort put in at all and some of them didn't understand the brief.
I have raised this with 99Design on my final review. Maybe they need to a better screening process for the designers
But overall I got a great design and working again through 99Design on a new project with my designer.
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Thank you for the feedback!
We certainly understand your concern with some of the designs you have received. We get that not all designers will best suit your needs which is why our designer support team is always on the lookout for designers, and make sure that they improve on their portfolio and design quality. Rest assured that we are working on this and we are still glad that you were able to find a design that ultimately suited your design need.
Thank you again for the feedback and we hope to get to work with you again soon!
- Jerlyn from 99designs
The process requires a good bit of work (not too much time in the grand scheme of things), but it's been well worth the investment. I'll very happily return for more design work. Thank you!
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Thank you for the feedback! :)
We certainly understand that the process can be overwhelming for a first time contest holder but we're glad that you were able to grasp it and had fun with the process. Know that our Client Support team is always here to assist you with any troubles you may have with your contest should you decide to launch another one. We hope that you do as it was a pleasure to work with you. :)
Thank you for trusting us with your design need and wishing you all the best!
- Jerlyn from 99designs
Disgraceful outcome, didn't follow my brief, rushed any further edits, didn't listen, completed job not at all suitable for its purpose. Will have to rip up and start again. Complete waste of money
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We appreciate your feedback.
We sincerely apologize if your project with your designer did not work out as well as you hoped. We wish to learn more about your concern and would like to help remedy this for you as best as we can.
If you can please send us a direct email to- https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/requests/new, our Client Support team will be more than happy to help resolve this with you.
- Jerlyn from 99designs
These "contests" are ridiculous. Just a bunch of clowns sending mindless crap with tiny variations. The logo contest was $400 so we even increased the prize a couple hundred dollars and still received a bunch of junk even after revision notes.
I think the major problem is that most of the "contestants" dont speak or understand ENGLISH and we're not understanding our revision notes at all ...
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We're very sorry to hear that the results of your design contest was unsatisfactory. As a Global Creative Platform, we welcome all designers from different parts of the globe to join our community. We understand that this may cause for language barriers which is why we have a dedicated designer support team that can assist with this. We also made sure that there are different ways that a client can communicate with their designers, such as allowing them to leave annotations, drawing over designs and sending images for reference.
With this, we do appreciate the effort you put into the contest. Perhaps, you can try the 1:1 project instead where you can work with a designer of your choice at a negotiable rate -https://99designs.com/projects
- Jerlyn from 99designs
I decided to use 99designs after hearing about it on a tv fix up show? The designer used 99designs. I thought I would give it a try. I wasn't disappointed and obtained the results I was looking for. Artfeel was the winner of my design contest but many of the contestants were great to work with. My overall experience was fantastic.
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Thank you for this feedback!
We appreciate the trust you have given us with your design need. :) We're very happy that we got to help connect you with diverse group of designers and eventually found one that you can work with.
It was a pleasure to be able to work with you and we hope to see you again soon in the platform! :)
- Jerlyn from 99designs
I ordered a logo from them on 8/11/18. After I chose a logo, the designer sent it to me. Except that I couldn't use it at all; the file was compromised in some way. After a couple of attempts by the designer to fix this, he gave up and ignored my emails. I contacted 99designs directly to try and resolve the issue. At first, they promised to make it right, then, they also dropped the ball and stopped responding to me. I have a logo, but I can't use it anywhere on anything because it's blurry and one line of the text in it is too small to read. Bottom line? I wasted $338 on this inept, rip-off company. I'm now attempting to get my money back from Paypal except that I might not be able to do so. 99 Designs was smart enough to string me along until I could no longer request a refund. My next move is to obviously bad-mouth them everywhere I can. Maybe I can save someone else the agony I lived through with these incompetent "designers."
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We appreciate your feedback!
We do want to apologize if your experience with your design contest has not been a pleasant one. As a Global Creative Platform, it is our mission to help clients like you find a design that you will love. And while refund may no longer be an option, we'd be more than happy to provide you with the proper files for your winning design.
If you can please send us your concern at: https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/requests/new We'd be more than happy to address this for you. Rest assured that the entire team is here to help you receive the files/design that is worth what you paid for.
We will look forward to your message.
- Jerlyn from 99designs
I held a logo design contest and received over 70 entries from designers all over the world. It was great to have so many options and ended up with a logo that I absolutely love.
I'll definitely use this again for any future design needs.
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So excited to hear about your design contest experience! As a Global Creative Platform, it is our mission to connect clients like you with diverse group of designers to come up with a design that you will truly love. So happy to see it in fruition! We thank you for trusting in the designers' creativity and we look forward to working with you again. :)
- Jerlyn from 99designs
This site screwed me over as a designer. A few years ago I entered a contest and after multiple (and I DO mean multiple) revisions, emails, messages from the client (I'm telling you, I lost track of the time I had stuck into this logo - I mean, the guy was SO demanding, he had me nearly in tears a couple of times), I was told I was going to be chosen as the winner. The time came for the contest to end and lo and behold, I was not chosen as the winner. Ok, that was a waste of time, but no big deal, right? Wrong. Come to find out, the company used my logo anyway! They saved my design, created a vector version of it (something any designer could do) and used it. It was on their website, on their clothing. It was their whole identity! I contacted 99designs about this problem and they basically told me, "Suck it up buttercup. There's nothing we can do!" Never again will I work with 99designs.
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Thank you for brining this to our attention and we're really sorry to hear about your experience with the design contest. I want to assure you that we take matters like this seriously and our designer support team is always happy to help! Please feel free to contact them at: https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
We will look forward to your email!
- Jerlyn from 99designs
Great way to get a broad range of concepts resulting in a unique design. Great resource for small businesses who are on a budget. I also love that you can get a design in as little as 2-3 days if you are on a tight timeline.
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Thank you for your feedback! It's always a delight to hear that our Global Creative Platform was able to help small businesses find a design they love! We wish your business all the best and we hope to get to work with you again in the future. :)
- Jerlyn from 99designs
Customer Questions & Answers
Votes Thanks for voting!
Just give it a try. Express your rough ideas you might have, say what is unique about your company and be open for the questions which may come from the designers.
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Copyright and Trademark are done outside of this site, at the appropriate US Government agency with jurisdiction over these two actions. Look there, google it, I did. I had a ebook cover designed. I did find out, after I started, that I was obligated to pay more money for the images the designer used to make my design (stock photos, off the web) This added 50.00 to my design cost, which was then 250.00 overall, not bad as I'd budgeted 300.00 for a good, professionally designed cover. You work with your designers (many at first then 6 finalists). You'll find a range of abilities and experience. Many will be slow or even unresponsive, a few out of their depth, and a few will have skills that can produce a great cover. Find them, work closely with them, chose them as your finalists, then push them all to improve their designs. If you've chosen wisely (yeah, Indy) the designers will listen, alter their design and ask for more feedback. Its give and take, not give and you passively receive. The better you are at looking, saying what you like and don't like, the better image you'll get.
Votes Thanks for voting!
Hi Samuel, Thank you for your question. Drop us an email at support@99designs.com and someone will be glad to walk you through our process. We hope to hear from you soon! - 99designs
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They are not suspending anyone! If you stole logos from the internet and you post them in a contest, be sure you get your account banned! Mohamed and Prabir!
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Hi Q, Its ben so long I can't even remember - from memory I think 99 Design asked me to write review about their site not the individual designer.
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Hi Cecilia, We offer a 100% money-back guarantee within 60 days of payment on all contests. There are a few exclusions to this policy, which you can read about here: https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/articles/204108729
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ST. These are their OWN profiles, real designers don't take away monye like that.
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If you guarantee the prize or have already selected the winner, you will not be reimbursed. They only reimburse if you avoided these two actions. When you reject the designs, they will likely pressure you into accepting something, but do not do it. If you're not satisfied with the design, according to their rules you will get reimbursed. My problem is that after awarding the winner, the designer Alex_82 told me I owed more money for the images which I refused since the agreement with 99designs was for a set price. In the end, 99designs sided with the designer and I ended up with designs I did not want (they were off of free images) and of low quality. I also could do nothing with the design because I would have had to purchase additional software. For my money, I got nothing.
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According to 99design, they are supposed to refund your money as long as you do not guarantee the prize money, which was my error. I had enough good designs that I liked that I chose to do that with the intent on getting more designs. I did, but they were not as good. The issue with me was after I selected a design, the designer sent me emails saying I had to pay for the image, which was not noted in 99design literature (at least I never found it). I refused and 99design persuaded the designer to use free images. After selecting a design, I had to award the money to get the files. When I did so, the designer sent me files that were not editable nor could be used for a book cover. Long story short, 99design sided with the designer (they did not provide a reason) and I ended up with nothing for my money.
Votes Thanks for voting!
Hi Ernest, Thank you for the question! :) While we require payment to be done prior to launching your design contest,we do offer a 100% money-back guarantee, no questions asked. Simply call us before you decide to guarantee your contest or move yourself into the final round. More information can be found here: https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/articles/204108729 There are a few instances you will not be eligible for a refund: - Once you decide to continue working with up to 6 finalists, you waive your right to a refund -If you "guarantee" your contest when you launch (under Contest Options), you will not be eligible for a refund as well. Keep in mind this option has to be manually "ticked" - You must call within 60 days of launching your contest I hope this helps and if you have any further questions, please reach out to our Customer Support team at: https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/requests/new so we can respond to your inquiries at a more timely manner. Sincerely, Jerlyn from 99designs
About 99designs (from the business)

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Thank you for the feedback!
We're very excited to hear that your experience with your design contest has been a pleasant one! As a Global Creative Platform, we want to make sure that not only will you receive a design that you will love but also receive a top-notch client support service! I'll make sure to give your regards to Ally. :)
We wish you all the best and we look forward to working with you again.
- Jerlyn from 99designs