99designs

The all concept, the details and the process of 99Designs is very well done and professional! However in the first drafts I got few designs of the logo and when I asked for adjustments I had to commit 100% that is fine, but that all depends on the designers you get! One of them was very willing and quick on doing revisions, others not really and one refused all together, instead giving me advise on what to do... At last I picked a logo and then purchased another design package that offers the business card, branding and facebook cover for an extra $250 and that was fine. However that was done quickly and not as nice! Most important for me was to get the original and editable files, instead I the files they sent me are all flattened out, not quite editable and for the fonts they just gave me the name, not the actual original. Even if that would be a separate charge I would be willing to pay for if but they should have give me that option and say that before... Maybe any other customer may be more lucky and get everything done super nice because the concept and the process are very nicely done!

So I got a silver contest for a brand design. Got 500+ designs. Much more than the promised 60. Many looked very much alike and contestants kept mimicking each other. Most did not follow the brief and ignored messages about things they should and shouldn't do. Many did not seem to speak proper English. It cost me much more time than expected, logo files are visually of good quality but require some tweaking before print after 7 days of revisions with a designer in a completely different timezone.

End result is nice, but the road there was tough, price paid was too high for what I got. Will not do this again for logo design. Fiverr is probably a better idea, will probably find someone with a style I like and ask them for something original in the future. Will contact 99designs staff about this though.

The designers are great, without a doubt.

But 99 Designs operates in a way that is a little bit shady, or at best is opaque. They start off telling you that you can expect 60+ designs when you actually get 2~3. They tell you Satisfaction Guaranteed but then to iterate designs you are forced to accept them and waive your refund rights. They operate with tight and strict timelines that they don't disclose in advance. At the very end they pop on you a contract you must sign and this contract wasn't disclosed at the start. It's all a bit shady.

The initial process was great, and I got over 50 design ideas for my new logo, several of which were really interesting and exciting. However, the later phases of the process were confusing and frustrating. One design in particular was "the one", but then the artist and the logo were withdrawn, so that was out the door. In the end, I settled on a logo that I like, but don't love. As an idea generation process, I think 99designs could be a great option to get input and creative ideas from designers from around the world, but getting to a final design that you really want may not be possible.

Hallo

I always sent email 99designs support but till now no response from 99designs:(
I want to request payout, there is an instruction to verify account, i do it to verify my account. And i try to uploaded my National-Government-ID / Driver's-License and my Photo... i try 3 times but always failed..."unfortunately your documents couldn't be processed "... what happened? Would 99designs to check it please...

The support is awesome but i belive they should be more transparent.
We pay 299$ for the logo. How much of it doesnt 99design take?

The 99D idea is bright. Many possibilities to promote your self as designer for the whole world. Good opportunities to improve yourself as a designer.
I dont like 2 things:
1. Millions of delineates spamming every contest with generic works.
2. Newcomers filter is missing.

For about $600.00 I ended up having 20+ offshore designers all generically copying the first two designs that I gave 4 or 5 stars. I had to get really specific (and directly message most of them) to get any of them to develop anything original.

There also seems to be a HUGE issue with fraud. Designs in my contest were constantly being withdrawn (or designers' account suspended mid-contest) because they were ripping off other designs as blatantly as possible and/or simply reposting designs verbatim. I did a little snooping and found that multiple entry level designers in my contest were taking designs from better designers (from within my contest) and posting them to their own profiles as samples, continuing the cycle of fraud into other design contests.

I'm savvy enough to catch this, but I worry for all the mom-and-pop shops out there who wouldn't think to thoroughly review designer profiles and catch the scammers.

There also seems to be no chat support on the site, which (again based on experience) is a clear indicator that they anticipate their customers being annoyed and don't want to deal with it, so it's easier to funnel everyone into generic support FAQs.

Ultimately, after a lot of legwork I was able to weed out the crappy designers and find a couple of good ones, but it was a messy process. This one time I used 99Designs will probably be the only time. I'll stick with real agency designs going forward, even if it costs a bit more.