99designs

This was a great way to get multiple ideas and designs for many different designers. The process was easy and allowed for feedback and alterations. Overall quite satisfied with the finished product.

This is the second time I've had a highly successful, business-critical project done via 99designs. I'm super happy with the output. My only knock this time versus last time is that there weren't as many designers competing for my business this time. Not sure if that was an anomaly or what, but overall I'm really happy.

The quality was good, but not as stellar as I had hoped for. I chose amongst the options I had because I had already committed the money to the project. There is a wide range, but some of the submissions were not as good as the existing logo I already had. I liked that the designers were open to design tweaks I had suggested. Some designers definitely showed more creativity than others and some seemed to understand my business and the goal for my business better than others. All in all, it was satisfactory and I am glad I tried it.

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.

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.

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.

I was looking for a similar service when I stumbled upon their website and it's One of the things that that made me use their service. The website was quite the charmer.

As a client I cannot say I am amazed at the designers reviews because a lot of the comment could be justifiable. There are too many people out there who don't understand what leadership is and how to collaborate with people.

I can say that as a client I did the following and had an excellent experience;

Be ethical - if a designer comes up with a concept only work with them to improve. Don't take shortcuts and select a design that someone has copied. Put in the time and effort.

Be respectful - respect the designers, provide positive feedback, understand that there may be language barriers, understand that there are different time zones & possibly multiple contests running.

Be honest - designers are spending a lot of time & so are you (if you follow point 1) only work on value added tasks & designs.

I found this to be an excellent experience because there are so many designers with different backgrounds, genders & industries. This provides an extremely diverse range of designs to select from and work with for the best outcome.

Variety of designs.
Variety of designers
The contest should be blind by default.
Designers could be a bit more creative

99 Designs did an awesome job! I needed Interior book design that keeps readers engaged and when I contacted them, they were quick to reply and very knowledgeable too.The work is still in process and the design is almost ready but so far I am quite happy with their work!

Awesome platform if you're looking for any type of design work for your business. It allows you to run contests for particular designs you are after (web pages, logos etc.). Designers then come up with concepts that you can accept and work some more on it with them, until you get what you want, or you can decline designs that are not for you. There are 4 pricing tiers you can choose for contests and I used the 2nd tier. With that most of the designs I received I declined (13 maybe). There was maybe 4 designs that were decent and we could work with. However one of the first designs we received, took on our feedback and we new fairly early on that this was the designer and design we would be going with. So in the end it worked out really well. There is a money back guarantee during the first phase of the contest so if there's nothing you like you don't lose your money (so that's good). Anyway overall it was a good experience. Oh, they also have the option to work directly with designers for a fixed price (I haven't used that yet though).

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.

I saved 1000s by using them. I recommend using them instead of an expensive web designer. T

The turnaround time is quick.

I got a really top notch, excellent design, among many very good entries. I have tried cheaper design services in the past but got no good designs. I am disturbed to read the bad reviews from designers, as I do not wish to use a service that does not treat its designers well. As a customer, I was very happy with the results. I found some of the instructions confusing, as to timing, which is why I gave 4 instead of 5 stars. I would use 99designs again.

99Designs is a great interface to work through for reviewing entries during the contest. The idea of having designers all over the world submit their takes on your brief is such a great idea and results in a high end final product. It was an exciting few days as I rated designs and sent messages back and forth. Be careful of giving a design four or five stars too early on. What can happen is less innovative designers rip off a design that got 5 stars with their own take. This results in numerous submissions that are similar instead of continuing the variety of submissions. Message designers you like directly to work with them on edits versus always giving them 5 stars and then publicly messaging the comments. It was an action packed few days and I couldn't be happier with the ending design.

The designers we worked with were excellent and professional. I certainly don't know what the compensation structure was and other reviewers have commented on 99 Designs being opaque in this and other ways - which I would agree with.

The number of designs we received was close to the overall number that was promised (30-40) but these largely came from numerous versions from about 6-8 active designers, and about 6 others who submitted work that didn't make the first cut. 99 Designs definitely needs to be more clear about the process as you move through each stage and what rights you give up and when.

The designers for the most part that I worked with were not from the US. I'm guessing the compensation is way too low for US designers, and probably has an unacceptable amount of risk involved. (We gave the commission to one person, so twelve others did a design and got no money for their time or efforts I'm guessing). This meant that most of the time there was a steep time delay between responses. When we got to the very end, however, our designer was very prompt in responses and making the last tweaks we needed for our printer.

Ultimately, we were very pleased with the final product which gave us the look we were hoping for and were hugely impressed with the quality of the designs we received.

I was really floored by the spread of different designs I received, and was able to cut this down to a few quality pieces of work. The designers were great about quickly responding to refinement requests, and delivered a final cover design I'm very happy with.

To be honest, the bad reviews on this page almost made me stay away from 99designs.com

I decided to go through with a $499 contest anyway & trust their refund policy. I received a lot of nice designs & very good ideas (along with a bunch of bad ones, but you can just delete them with a click). I didn't get anything that I wanted to pay for. So I called them for a refund. It literally took about 30 seconds for them to process my refund. If they had issues with refunds in the past, they seem to be gone now.

I think if I ran a contest for anything other than this current project, I'd probably have a logo I love. If I took my favorite designs & went to the next round to refine them, I might of come up with something great too. I just didn't want to risk it.

I will definitely be back to run some contests for my other projects.

Very good experience with them, nothing bad to say, the pricing is a bit on the steep side but overall ok

Fortunately, I found 99designs. Their process is simple. The designers who responded to my project were quick to react. The final selection was really a hard one because I liked all the designs. I highly recommend using 99designs. Great job and keep it up!

It was a surprisingly positive experience to work with 99designs. We did that as a trail - to see how it would work - without any high expectations. But the outcome was much better than we expected. I think we now have a logo for our brand that suite our purpose.

Klaus Olsen, JobMatch Talent

99designs is a cool idea - put your graphic design project up for bid, get a bunch of submissions, give submitters feedback, and then choose the winner. The pros are: you get to set your price upfront and you get to choose from a number of ideas/designs. This can work well for an isolated project - there are some talented designers. Where 99designs runs into trouble is if complicated branding is needed or if the project is closely tied to other design projects that need to be coordinated.

So net net, I would use 99designs for a one-off logo or other simple design projects - you can get a great deal for your money (by California standards). However, if you have the budget and want something more complicated, it's most likely worth paying a traditional designer. And I have to add: good designers are under-valued assets.

Disclaimer, I haven't used the sites services yet. But, I really like the concept. You send out a design project to a bunch of graphics designers and specify the amount of money you're willing to spend on the project. Then, any designer who's willing to take on the project comes back to you with design proposals or drafts. You keep iterating with them until you end up with a logo, splashscreen, etc. that you like. In the end, you only have to pay the designer that created the winning design. Prices seems really reasonable, $200-$500 for a professional logo. Compared to what a "professional" design and brand management shops charge (thousands!), that's a great deal. Plus you get the benefit of picking the brains of multiple designers, without having to pay for the ones that you don't like.