What is 99designs.com ?
99designs.com it`s a design contest website that hosts contests like: logo design contests,stationery / business cards contests,website design contests, banner design contests, twitter background design contests,etc. The most contests are Logos design contests and right behind are Website design contests. So, if you are interested to design logos, here is a very good place where you can find all kind of contests and requests.
Me on 99designs – logolitic
My oppinion about this site: I started making logos on this website from 2 years. Even with these many contests it`s somehow hard to win because there are entering many designers, many good designers that posts very nice logos or CH ( contest holders) just pick worse logos that they think beautiful or you find some CH that don`t really know what they want or they don`t give any feedback. Sure, there are many contests holders that don`t do that, but you don`t get them so often that you get the other ones. My stats there are: 596 contests entered and 10 won. A lot of logos done without winning contests on 99designs but I sold them out of there.You can also see my portfolio here: http://99designs.com/people/logolitic
Should you make an account and get ready to work ?
Yes, definetly! There are so many awesome designers that make gorgeous logos and everyday in any contest you enter you will learn something new, very useful and also you make friends from other countries. The best designers from 99designs are 2 romanians, like me, I`m romanian too. There nicknames are: ulahts and grade coming right behind them Terry Bogard,Mogeek,etc. Grade it`s the best designer in 3D logos designs, ulahts is neutral but mogeek is the best 2d logo designer. And he personally said that to make 2D logos, simple and clever designs it`s much harder than making a 3D logo design.
Advantages:
The first and the most important is that 99designs hosts contests that some of them are: prepaid and guarranted contests. No more contest holders that just create a contest and don`t pick a winner!
-Prepaid:
This is the standard contest model, where contest holders pre-pay their prize money to 99designs. 99designs then awards the prize to the winning designer at the end of the contest.
Contest holders have the option of withdrawing and refunding their prepaid contest if they don’t find a result they are happy with.
The standard contest length is 7 days, after which the contest holder has a further 7 days to award a prize or withdraw the contest.
-Guarranted:
Guaranteed contests are the safest bet for designers to enter, and receive the most designers and best quality work.
When a contest holder upgrades to a guaranteed contest, they formally guarantee a winner will be chosen and the prize money will be awarded. These contests have had the prize money prepaid to 99designs, who awards the prize to the winning designer at the end of the contest.
Guaranteed contests cannot be withdrawn and are non-refundable.
There are more types of contests:
-Popular:
A popular contest is any contest considered really active—by that, we mean the contest has received lots of entries, along with a healthy level of contest holder feedback, etc.
-Fast track:
Fast-tracked contests run for a shorter period of time, ranging between 1-3 days. These contests are run by contest holders who want results fast, and generally have a higher prize. Contest holders are expected to be very responsive with feedback in these contests.
Contest holders can purchase an upgrade during the launch process to create a fast-tracked contest.
Contests cannot be fast-tracked after launch.
-Extended:
Some contests require more time than normal. Extended contests are an upgrade selected after a contest has launched. These contests typically offer higher prize incentives for designers—depending on the number of days the contest is extended by.
Contests may be extended up to a maximum total of 14 days.
-Private:
Private contests are only visible to people logged-in to 99designs. Shortly after ending, they disappear from non-participants. They are also not included in the site search or feeds, and are hidden from search engines, such as Google.
Designs submitted to private contests may not be added to designer folios, and do not appear on designer profile pages unless negotiated otherwise.
Higher prize amounts are encouraged for private contests.
-Blind:
Blind contests promote creativity and fair competition by hiding each designers’ work from other designers until the contest has ended—only the contest holder can see all entries. As a result, blind contests attract the best designers and higher quality entries.
Once the contest has ended, all entries will be visible to everyone.
So, you should go and make an account and start working! Good luck designers: http://www.99Designs.com
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Very nice design portal
i´ll save on bookmarks, ty for share this!
excellent article – thank you!
I’ve been working on these sites (99designs, designbay, elance) for while now and to be honest i personally like Designbay.com the best. Not only do they promote participation payments but also each contest you win guaretees a payment. let me know what you think:
http://jobs.designbay.com/graphic-design-jobs.aspx
99Designs presents its positive side very well. But after having followed many contests over several months I came to the following conclusions: 1) more than half of the contests were “Refunded” which means that ALL of the designers wasted their time fully; 2) “Refunded” contests are often a result of the Contest Holder having found a design they like and then simply steal it and have their in-house grafix reproduce it; 3) CH has a “ringer” enter the contest – this would probably be an employee which would mean the winnings paid out go right back to where they came from.
99D is fraught with scammers and while they work hard at their “Guarantees” to the Contest Holders the designers are more often than not left holding the bag. I would applaud 99D if they were more committed to the Designer and more upfront about the negative elements of joining their contests. Without transparency I wouldn’t bother with them.
@Jabba: You’re right on the money…more transparency is needed. I just got a 99D newsletter bragging about all the money they paid out last month and the # of winners etc. but not a word about how many contests are locked and refunded. I just started following contests about 2 months ago. I’ve picked 100 so far and 85 of them were refunded!! I entered 3…2 of those were refunded and the one won went to a newbie in a Guaranteed contest…looked rather suspicious since the design was butt ugly.
I occasionally see designers with a win rate high enough to justify continuing but they are rare. 99D is clearly all about profit margins and the CH rules the game…this was a company started by designers who seem to feel little but contempt for designers.
@keegan I agree with you, I work on 99designs for about years and a lot of contests are unhealthy, with uninterested CH.
you should all try palkoo.com. New, Fresh and coming with new features soon!
@Aliana Rateanu thank you, good luck with it