My funds were distributed to all the designers without even being allowed to use one. I had expressed my concerns that designs were not useable. Expensive especially since I got nothing out of it. They locked all the designs as I was not able to chose a "winner". None were good enough to be useable at a company level.
Made the mistake of doing a one on one with designer. Who initially provided a great design (low res images). I requested the high res design, and the files in Illustrator, and $900 later I am STILL without my designs and 3 months behind schedule. The designer won't respond with even the font used so that I can have the design (that I already paid for!) recreated. Beware beware beware is all I can say about this.
POST NOTE: I followed up with the police in the city this artist came from (in Denmark) to file a fraud report - she is already known to police! I reported same to 99designs.com, and still waiting to see if they will pull her from their system - she has obviously done this before.
I needed help and happened upon 99 Designs and boy did I get lots of options for launching a new company, 77 design options from a number of designers. I love competition and I think it is great to see people challenged to be creative, strategic and committed to the customer experience from around the globe. The designers were polite, responsive and willing to try other options to please the customer and that reflect upon the company. Who what have thought that my design came from thousands of miles away! Its important to be engaged in the process and challenge the designs. Those that are motivated will work for you and the value was great.
This was my first time using a service like 99designs and it was such an enjoyable experience. The support I received from them was punctual, they were approachable, and demonstrated they care about the client. Walking with me throughout the whole process took off unnecessary stress and allowed me to focus on finding an AHMAZING design! I will be coming back.
The quality of designers was superb and the contest accessing several designers proved an exciting and productive process. I had 14 unique designs which was sufficient. The instruction for the overall process was a bit limp in spots, but the designer helped me through the stages... hence, the 4 stars, not 5.
They suspend accounts for more than a year without any explanation and they took the money from that account and never activate that account again. It was the worst experience ever in my designer career.
Hi Jovica,
Sorry to hear you did not have the best experience. We do not actually hire designers—it is free to sign up and our community consists of several hundred thousand designers from all over the world.
We do always pay the winning designer the prize amount, except in rare cases in which it breaches our copyright rules where we would have to allow the customer the option of choosing another design to legally protect them. You can read more about these rules here: https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/articles/204761075-What-are-the-rules-for-participating-on-99designs-
Once a designer has won a contest and the design transfer is complete, they are paid in credits, which they can exchange for cash by making a payout request to the payment provider of their choice: https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/articles/204108719-How-and-when-do-I-get-paid-
Our support team is happy to look into your account to see why you have not yet received payment for a won contest if you could let us know your username.
https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
- Jerlyn from 99designs
Mediocre work provided by logo designers. Highly unprofessional and rude 99Designs staff. They lure you with the promise of a full refund but they don't consider you wasted 4 or 5 days for NOTHING! Stay away. I started two project on this platform and both of them fail miserably. I have been in the business of web dev for 19 years. This 99Designs site rates among the lowest I have see in the industry. Case in point: When they cancel an order, if you try to go back to the page a message display read "NOTHING TO SEE HERE"... (keep moving I guess.). I find this message as arrogant as the support staffer who hanged up on me. BUYER BEWARE!
Hi Peter,
Thank you for the feedback, and I am sorry to hear you haven't had a good experience on 99designs so far. We would love to take a closer look at your account to see how we can help moving forward.
In regards to cancelled or refunded contests, once we issue a refund the designs and messages will be removed, and thus both clients and designers will no longer see the entries: https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/articles/204108729-100-Money-back-guarantee-For-real-. We do have a commitment to protect our designer community, and when we refund a contest the intellectual property of those designs still belong to the designer(s), and will no longer be visible.
If you’re up to it, we’d like to chat with you about your contest experience to see if there’s anything we can do to make the experience better for you in the future: https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
-Rosalie from 99designs
First time using 99designs and was nervous and skeptical. Paid the fee and a flood of designs came in each awesome and according to what I wanted. I paid for 30 designs (approx) and received over 60! The final design for my book cover was MORE than I thought I wanted. Definitely using them again. Dont be scared. If you do a contest and you don't find a design you like, you get a refund.
Wanting to write and deciding to publish is a daunting experience for any new author. When it came time to choose a cover I realised this might be a show stopper, being on a tight budget. I opened a competition and in came 99 designs! When you have this picture in your head and then you see it in colour in front of you down right to the smallest detail, it is a relief. Thank you 99 designs.
They recommend you the "guaranteed" add-on which apparently gets you more designers, but it only gets you more slackers which want a lottery ticket for the prize without putting in any effort.
You're way better off to look for a local designer and work with them on a design. It will cost you even less and you'll end with what you want and not the $#*! those so-called designers on that page will produce in their 5 minutes of contribution.
You have no control over their "designers" efforts and can't do anything about it. Not a place to look for quality.
You'll end up with $#*!.
Just joined this company as a designer. My first two designs were rated 5 stars by the client then after the contest I was told I was suspended for poor design quality. Such BS. Don't waste your time as a designer or a client.
Hi Alice,
I'm sorry you had a negative experience on 99designs. We certainly did not mean to demean you in any way, shape or form, however, it must be understood that our platform has quality standards that we must adhere to and if those standards are not met, then we make the decision to delay contest participation on 99designs: https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/articles/204862935-What-are-99designs-quality-standards-
During this period of absence we encourage you to work on your designs skills. Your suspension is *not* permanent, please make note of this. You will be able to re-apply once we open the application period, so you have a chance to reinstate your account.
Best of luck - we hope to see you in the next application period. Feel free to contact our support team with any further questions: https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
-Rosalie from 99designs
The level of work does not always correspond to the promised standards. Often, designers make work of frankly garbage quality and you can't hide it. But at the same time, the selection criteria are simply unrealistic. Register and work IMPOSSIBLE! Don't waste your time!
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!
Whether you are a beginner level designer or a professional designer, 99designs offers you the ability to challenge yourself by competing in design contests. There is no better proving grounds to test your skills and find out how good you really are. If you find success, you'll develop a portfolio, meet great clients, and get follow up work. It's more than just contests though. 1-1 projects offers the ability to work one on one with clients and get paid. 99designs brings the clients and they find you on 99designs. If your a designer - get ahead of the crowd and join. If you are client and want to get professional work done, go to 99designs.com.
I enjoyed the whole contest. The hardest part was choosing a winner from over 30 designs and a dozen designers. It's a good value for the money, and well worth the tax deductible expenditure. I'll be using 99d for future projects.
DON'T DESIGN FOR THIS SITE!
I submitted a couple of designs and got good feedback from the client for one of them, the other was given 4 stars along with 3 other peoples efforts. This suggests the design was shortlisted seeing as they were the only designs even given ratings out of the 50 something. I then got suspended from the website before the competition was completed so my design have been removed. This is a joke. I've read some of the comments on here and people are being suspended for the quality of their work even though they have won competitions. Sort it out 99designs you cretins.
Hi Tom,
I'm sorry you had a negative experience on 99designs. We certainly did not mean to demean you in any way, shape or form, however, it must be understood that our platform has quality standards that we must adhere to and if those standards are not met, then we make the decision to delay contest participation on 99designs: https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/articles/204862935-What-are-99designs-quality-standards-
Your suspension is *not* permanent, please make note of this. You will be able to re-apply once we open the application period, so you have a chance to reinstate your account.
Best of luck - we hope to see you in the next application period. Feel free to contact our support team with any further questions: https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
-Rosalie from 99designs
Ive had this account for 6 months maybe submitted a dozen entries and all if a sudden i get suspended for lck of quality? Have you seen some of the crap people submit? Its a joke. The last contest i entered i was having. $#*! of a time cropping my logo so i withdrew it a couple times to get it right... i smell robots...
At first I was impressed with the concept. I work in the marketing world but didn't have the time or resources to work on this myself and we needed a professional logo for our real estate group. This seemed to be a great solution. We received a variety of designs-I'm sure some of the designers were original and the interaction with designers was good. Unfortunately a design popped up at the end of the second phase-we ran a poll and this new design rose to the top so we ran with it. I had to spoon feed most of the creative but ended up with the basics to work with.
I was disappointed to find the logo that won was not original at all-it was pulled and copied directly out of Adobe Cloud Library. I wish one of the designers that worked so hard to create something original for us had won. I guess we got what we paid for. So sorry for and to all the designers out there who produce quality work.
Hi Victoria,
I am sorry to hear about your experience on 99designs.
We do have a strict Designer Code of Conduct we expect all of our designers to adhere to (https://support.99designs.com/hc/en-us/articles/204761605-Guidelines-and-policies-at-99designs) and if a designer breaches this code, we will take action against their account.
It does look like you've been in touch with one of my colleagues, so I will have her reach out and follow-up with you as soon as possible!
-Rosalie from 99designs
I had big projects to complete and a ton of money to spend and I needed a company that had it together. From what I saw in the reviews, I was scared to take a chance on unprofessional losers. One of the designers from 99designs that got suspended, ran into him at Starbucks, showed me some of his work and we are investing in him. Sometimes it pays to go to the real designer and their studio.
Not recommended at All, when there is any issue with the designer they won't even care. And the reply from the head of customer care was very rude and not even even close to care.
It was something like we got our money and now you have to solve your problem
Overview
99designs has a rating of 2.1 stars from 412 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers dissatisfied with 99designs most frequently mention contest holder, graphic designer and current quality. 99designs ranks 490th among Graphic Design sites.
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Hi Cynthia,
We are very excited to hear that you had a pleasant experience. Thank you for coming to us for your design needs. We love your tips for other future customers as well!:)
- Jerlyn from 99designs