• Out Of Control
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• Sociopaths vs People Pleasers

Hi Sage,

We vote for Revolutionary! ;)

99designs creates a lot of opportunity for designers...we have paid out over $500,000 in the last 30 days alone.

Check out these two designer profiles and nice email we received from one of the designers in the community.

http://bit.ly/vCBUX

http://bit.ly/16sqNt

http://bit.ly/rWYXw

Cheers,
Jason Aiken
99designs.com

Posted by: Jason Aiken on October 8, 2009

This will work out about as well as other sites that do similar things. (There are already sites out there like getafreelancer where buyers have contractors bid on work ebay style). People who are not all that good/experienced will offer the cheapest pricing. The buyers will get exactly what they pay for.

The designers who are any good will continue to name their own price and people who want quality work done will seek them out.

Posted by: Meredith on October 8, 2009

The "World is Flat" strikes again. For all you over priced sore losers in the western world please check out Thomas L. Friedman's great book. Just remeber, if you standard of living is to high for the job you do, you can always move to India and compete online with them, right?

Posted by: Joseph Magnotti on October 9, 2009

I tried 99designs as you suggested. At first it seamed nice...I won the very first contest I entered...rock on!, right?
Well not so much. After doing designs for 99 Designs over the past few weeks I have had this experience:
You submit a design with no guarantee of payment (ok so im not going to put "my all" into the design) The people get you to do all this work revising your submission, "Can you change this colour, change this font" (Still no payment) Then they can decide not to award anyone the design and they get their money back! What a scam! Erin Gordon Got me to work on their logo and provide 3 different revisions, and she got 2 other designers in the same contest to do the same. Erin lets the contest close then after almost a week she decides not to award the contest to anyone and gets her money back. Thats Lawyers for you I guess, scamming the little guys trying to make a buck. I have no recourse to go after them even if they do use the logo I created for them. I do NOT recommend designer use this site. For the people looking for designs, well you may have a large advantage over your designers using 99designs but its not really a good reflection of what is available to you in the design community. Paying bargain prices get you bargain designs. You all know that ... garbage in ... garbage out!

Posted by: Keith Glover on October 9, 2009

Revolutionary - we used 99designs to come up with the log for our new project AffiliateBencharks and were thrilled with the results.

Posted by: Chris Kramer on October 12, 2009

There are businesses that don't need the full service design company to accomplish their objectives so the high fee is excessive and a wasteful. 99 designs can meet their needs and fits the price/value point.

That said some objectives need the full service design group and in theses cases the benefits and needs justify the cost.

I see these types of services as a useful addition to the mix of offerings available. It is up to the individual design business to position themselves as they deem appropriate.

Good discussion. I like the World if Flat reference.

Posted by: Christian Valiulis on October 13, 2009

I will say, it's extremely "market driven." If people don't like the design at any point in the game, the designer is out. That's brutal. But on the other hand, people do clearly win these contests. I awarded a winner to my contest... and I was extremely happy with the results.

I think this is right for a certain kind of site. Will Pepsi, Coke or any other major company use this service... in general, probably not. But will non-profits, small businesses and companies with small marketing budgets, sure.

The market is the jungle. It is completely driven by natural selection. There is no place for relationships, feelings or anything other than efficiency. That's incredibly painful for me to realize. But I think it's true.

Posted by: Sage Lewis on October 20, 2009