Why 99designs.com is Awesome for Logo Creation

by Darryl Kraemer on February 11, 2010 in Branding with 15 Comments

So I have to say, that I’m really impressed with 99designs.com and what they created to help you crowdsource your logo design.

For my wife’s company, we used a local designer for her logo (which you can see here) and were really happy with the results. What did we pay for this you ask? $1500.

Fast forward a couple of years, and after attending a seminar I learned about 99designs.com. Now, I haven’t tried to crowdsource, or outsource anything yet, even though I’ve read the 4-hour Work Week and fundamentally know there are things that I do during the day I could pay someone to do to free up my time.

So, I decided to give it a go for a logo design for a Real Estate Investment Calculator that I’ve created, that I’m soon going to market online.

The screen grab that I included above is only a sampling of the 25+ designs that were submitted in the 7 days that my contest ran. 25+ designs in 7 days, from all over the world. Amazing. You leave feedback. They tweak their design. And the best part. You only pay the winner.

With a traditional designer, you may get 3-4 redo’s, and that’s it. Here, 25+ designs and as long as you are active in rating and providing feedback to the designers, they are more than happy to update their designs in the hopes of winning the prize.

Now you’re probably wondering how much this all cost. $1K? $2K? Even $3K maybe? Nope. $150. That’s it.

Check out the entries to my contest here, and you’ll probably agree they are high quality, especially for $150!

Give 99designs.com a try. I think you’ll be as happy as I am.

Related posts:

  1. 99designs.com – Posted My First Logo Contest
Darryl Kraemer
Darryl is a HealthCare IT professional by day, and a real estate investor and internet marketer by night. Darryl writes about technology and real estate.
Tagged: , , ,
  • http://99designs.com jaiken

    Nice Darryl!

    Thanks for sharing – glad you ave enjoyed the experience.

    Cheers,
    Jason Aiken
    99designs.com

  • http://darrylkraemer.com/ Darryl Kraemer

    My pleasure Jason. Really great service you have created!

  • http://www.fuaadh.com/ Mohammad Fuaadh

    Nice post but the logo you got done for 1.5k is unbelievable, you should've hired a good designer with a very good portfolio.

    Secondly you said the best part is you only pay the winner, that's actually the worst part, for designers. If you want to pay runner-ups then it will be great and it will encourage more designers to participate in the future in your contest.

    PS: I'm not against spec work like most professional designers are, if you have talent your work will surely get noticed.

    Regards

    Fuaadh

  • http://darrylkraemer.com/ Darryl Kraemer

    Hi Fuaadh,

    Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment. Appreciate you adding
    to the discussion.

    -DK

  • Bob

    Hi Darryl,

    Although 99designs is a good place for a designer to start it`s very bad for the design industry. As you said, you initially paid $1500 for the first logo and only a tenth of the price on 99designs. Ok, maybe the $1.5K mark was a little over the top but consider this: as a designer you have to spend, besides the usual as any other person, on design books that can run you up to $150 a piece, depending on the case maybe a graphic tablet ( $300-$600 ), training courses, accounts on popular design blogs and resources ( for self learning and self training ), a computer that needs to be pretty decent if you want to edit hi-res images and so on. So you see, 99designs is a place where a bunch of good and bad designers fight for $150. And the one who got paid is lucky but how about the others who worked … used their time and got nothing. That doesn`t mean they aren't good. Some very good designs never get picked as the winner. What could you do with $150 ? Some logos might take over a week to develop. If you work 4 weeks for 150$ each you get what, 600$. And when you think you spent so much on that design school and workshops, equipment, time … maybe you like 99designs for the low price but that doesn't mean its good for the others :)

    Just my 2 cents.
    Bob.

  • http://darrylkraemer.com/ Darryl Kraemer

    Hi Bob — thanks for your detailed response.

    As someone who has spent over $20K on a business school education, I totally understand the need to spend to educate yourself and equip yourself with the tools you need to succeed, whether that be business, or design work.

    I see 99designs.com as a great way for a designer to gain experience, with instant feedback to improve their skills. The good designers will filter to the top, and $150 is the lowest range that you can pay for a logo design. There are some contests on there running for several thousand dollars.

    For me, it was the best way to get a logo created quickly, and cost effectively that looks good. Thanks again for joining in the conversation!

  • http://99designs.com jaiken

    Nice Darryl!

    Thanks for sharing – glad you ave enjoyed the experience.

    Cheers,
    Jason Aiken
    99designs.com

  • http://darrylkraemer.com/ Darryl Kraemer

    My pleasure Jason. Really great service you have created!

  • http://www.fuaadh.com/ Mohammad Fuaadh

    Nice post but the logo you got done for 1.5k is unbelievable, you should've hired a good designer with a very good portfolio.

    Secondly you said the best part is you only pay the winner, that's actually the worst part, for designers. If you want to pay runner-ups then it will be great and it will encourage more designers to participate in the future in your contest.

    PS: I'm not against spec work like most professional designers are, if you have talent your work will surely get noticed.

    Regards

    Fuaadh

  • http://darrylkraemer.com/ Darryl Kraemer

    Hi Fuaadh,

    Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment. Appreciate you adding
    to the discussion.

    -DK

  • Bob

    Hi Darryl,

    Although 99designs is a good place for a designer to start it`s very bad for the design industry. As you said, you initially paid $1500 for the first logo and only a tenth of the price on 99designs. Ok, maybe the $1.5K mark was a little over the top but consider this: as a designer you have to spend, besides the usual as any other person, on design books that can run you up to $150 a piece, depending on the case maybe a graphic tablet ( $300-$600 ), training courses, accounts on popular design blogs and resources ( for self learning and self training ), a computer that needs to be pretty decent if you want to edit hi-res images and so on. So you see, 99designs is a place where a bunch of good and bad designers fight for $150. And the one who got paid is lucky but how about the others who worked … used their time and got nothing. That doesn`t mean they aren't good. Some very good designs never get picked as the winner. What could you do with $150 ? Some logos might take over a week to develop. If you work 4 weeks for 150$ each you get what, 600$. And when you think you spent so much on that design school and workshops, equipment, time … maybe you like 99designs for the low price but that doesn't mean its good for the others :)

    Just my 2 cents.
    Bob.

  • http://darrylkraemer.com/ Darryl Kraemer

    Hi Bob — thanks for your detailed response.

    As someone who has spent over $20K on a business school education, I totally understand the need to spend to educate yourself and equip yourself with the tools you need to succeed, whether that be business, or design work.

    I see 99designs.com as a great way for a designer to gain experience, with instant feedback to improve their skills. The good designers will filter to the top, and $150 is the lowest range that you can pay for a logo design. There are some contests on there running for several thousand dollars.

    For me, it was the best way to get a logo created quickly, and cost effectively that looks good. Thanks again for joining in the conversation!

  • Dallas

    Design contests are horrible for the graphic design industry and this country. Half of the designers on that site are located out of the U.S. where the cost of living is completely different than it is here. Not to mention, I have seen many cases where the designs created on that site are completely stolen from design companies. So you run that risk by using the site as well.

    Think of it this way … If you owned a roofing business and a customer called you up and said, hey, I want you to re-roof my house (along with 10 other companies.) Whichever one we like best, I am willing to pay for. Is this fair? No. So why is it fair for graphic designers? I understand that you want to get something that you like. But where would this country be if every profession was turned into a contest?

  • http://www.companylogos.ws/99designs.html 99designs review

    These was amazing logos, it’s always be nice to see a well constructed website that considers light sources. Creating logo is very important for every company identity, you proving very good information about it in this post.

  • http://www.logodesignguru.com/A/Logo-design-Articles.asp logos

    Yes, really love when logos have a strong, clear symbol instead of all those text and type based logos around. An art director once told me one simple rule. 

←
→