99designs

It literally changed my life for a better!

As a designer, being able to pick projects that I like, from clients from all around the world, that otherwise I would never had chance to meet, is absolutely amazing!

It all started several years ago while I was working in an advertising agency. A friend of mine have told me about 99designs and I decided to gave it a go. One by one, I've entered 15 contests with some visually amazing work, but with no single win.

After some time I tried to think of what I was doing wrong and changed my strategy. My new designs were not anything better than the previous ones, but were more client-centric.

Finally, I started winning contest. Today, my stats are: 67% finals (50% of that wins) On average, I'm winning every 3rd contest. All those wins also generated me a lot of 1-to-1 projects and long term collaborations with several clients that consider me as a reliable member of their teams, and I love working with them.

Of course, that personal success gave me wings to quit my daily job and start freelancing exclusively. Im getting enough of work from my regular clients, so lately I participate contest on 99designs only for fun.

P.S.

Im noticing a lot of reviews here that are totally unfair / wrongly addressed. 99design is open service, meaning anyone can create contest, and anyone can participate as a designer. In real life there are two types of people, of course there will be some not so great clients and some not so great designers on 99design too, but it's not fair to blame it on 99designs.

I'm sure that 99designs among other awesome things, makes real effort of increasing quality of designs by suspending accounts of low quality designers, and limiting number of contest that new designer can participate.

Terrible experience. The site lacks some of the important qualities of a "real contest" and you are completely at their (99Designs) mercy. I participated in many contests. I was selected as a finalist in six of them. Of the six two selected other winners (totally ok) and two selected me (that was awesome of course) but two never selected a winner at all... they just let the contest go stale. Then, out of the blue, with no warning after just a few months, I got an email stating that my account with them had been suspended. Just like that - they stated my designs did not meet their high standards. Well, first of all, what exactly are their standards? There is no documentation other than a single page that provides a few suggestions about how to make your design more favorable. Second, how could I have made it to the final round in six contests and how could I have received four star ratings and positive comments on my designs if the quality of my work was so poor. Lastly, so what if it wasn't Manhattan advertising pro quality. Why shouldn't I have the same opportunity to submit a design to a contest as any other person. Isn't it the very definition of "contest" to provide fair competition among people with varying skill and experience allowing the "best" to filter to the top? Interestingly they suspended my account (meaning I had zero access to it) while I had funds waiting to be transferred to me. My recommendation - avoid at all costs. Another thing to consider, something I found frustrating when I was working with them was that they advertise original designs but allow their participants to use stock images and clip art in their designs. Unfortunately these are the people that win the most contests. If you really want to do this type of design work, there are other crowd sourcing sites out there - or you could just start your own freelancing site and really exercise your creativity.

I'm a designer working full time in a graphic studio and doing occasional freelancing. I've been winning identity and packaging contest on this site since the month I signed up and those are my thoughts about it: A designer can make some money out of this site provided that she doesn't do much research beforehand and goes with first, obvious, mainstream ideas. Cliché is given applause. Too many dots to connect is not welcome.

I've won with designs that made my boss, an art director with a fine art degree and 25 years in the advertising go 'meh', and got eliminated after submitting great, creative designs made after hours of research and brainstorming. To have good work rejected and get paid for mediocre work is well, kind of disappointing.

Company owners who use this site instead of finding a designer in their area don't care for design much, really. They just want a pretty picture. There are exceptions among the contest holders, though. Companies just starting out and on a tight budget, who will very likely replace the place-holder identity from 99designs within a year, if they will survive that long. Then there are ones who don't know any better, but have time on their hands to guide designers (well, pixel pushers in that case) to a decent solution.

Design quality seems to be slightly better in the platinum category, but there are platinum users who do design below site's average and basic users who do better than platinum but just didn't sign up to platinum verification.

Another issue is the business model 99designs has that is hurting designers both on and off the site: every designer on 99designs works on speculation of getting paid, which basically means free work, unprotected with any agreement until (maybe) awarded, which means contest holders can save the propositions and cancel the contest, share the insights a designer has made in an attempt to sell her design in public comments and to promote/rate high on copycats. Faint chance of winning a contest a designer is really interested in, means having the urge to join mare contests, spending less time on each one. The result being lower quality work and giving the designer profession a bad name.

This site promises you a way to build your career and portfolio while making money. This couldn't be farther from the truth and in reality diminishes the profession and the creativity of a graphic designer. You put in countless hours into contests with minimal odds of you winning. Pretty straight forward but after a couple weeks of watching and submitting to contests I noticed a few thing that should drive every designer, amateur or experienced, away from this site.

1) Contests disappear regularly without warning. This mean all your work (while having low odds in the first place) was for not. For the contests that do stay up you can be contacted by the client to change this and that just to have them eliminate you completely.

2) There is little to protect your work. In open contests you are constantly subject to forgery by other designers. 99designs seem to have no issue with this. This is probably because once you submit a design it is theirs. There is no way to retract your work.

3) This is an homage to #1 but not only do designers copy your work but so do the clients. They can easily cancel a contest after designs are submitted and steal your design which is probably the reason so many contests disappear.

When I questioned 99designs about the above concerns my account was suspended due to "sub-standard work" and I was told to educate myself and return. I have over 4 years freelance work, a client base to back me up, and a degree. From the other reviews I have read this is a common occurrence when designers question their sketchy practices. It's their way to silence any negativity on their site to help them maintain a false positive image.

99designs is the equivalent of a 3rd world sweat shop or a pyramid scheme. They pump out all this hype of success and riches while in reality they pay chump change and steal your work. They profit off those that dont know better while putting minimal effort in themselves and silence anyone that remotely questions their ethics.

If you have any respect for your profession stay away. Build a portfolio and market yourself through Linkedin or other similar sites.

Easy to use. Brilliant designs submitted. Extremely satisfied with the whole process and final design.

Can't wait to use again.