99designsReviews 412

All the negative reviews here nearly scared me off, and honestly concerned I'll be taken as a shill given how good my experience was. After nearly writing off the idea tipped over the fence when a $25 off promotion was on, so I started a $299 contest ($274 with the money off), figured as the design studio quoted minimum $2,000 to develop the logo couldn't hurt to see what came in. Talked to a person named Veronica, and she assured me the money back offer is good if used within the time in the agreement- never had to try and exercise that. Anyhow on the first morning there were eight designs, two quite good. Rated them, and the refined designs improved more. The one hiccup I had was my designer used a stock photo as a model for a line-form, it was reviewed and 99designs was concerned, the designer overnight reworked the logo with one of my own photos as a model and it improved it even. The logo is as good as I could have hoped for, was done in three days, and overall excellent value and very pleased.

This is a buyer beware for anyone using 99Designs. I hosted a contest for a book cover and selected the $299 option for prize money. The process was easy and I received several good designs from which I awarded a winner. I immediately got a bill from the designer for $50 to purchase the stock image used. The design page stated the designer used stock images, but did not state I had to pay for them. The stock image cost $15 with $35 as a fee to the designer. Contacting 99design support, they told me I had to pay. I refused and they encouraged the designer to redo the design with free images. I selected one of the three options of lesser quality because I had no other choice. To get the files for the book cover, I had to award the money to the designer. When I downloaded the files, I found that I could not use or edit them without purchasing a software program costing $600. I asked for the files in a different format, yet the designer stopped working with me. 99designs have ignored my emails and messages for help.

Terrible experience. The site lacks some of the important qualities of a "real contest" and you are completely at their (99Designs) mercy. I participated in many contests. I was selected as a finalist in six of them. Of the six two selected other winners (totally ok) and two selected me (that was awesome of course) but two never selected a winner at all... they just let the contest go stale. Then, out of the blue, with no warning after just a few months, I got an email stating that my account with them had been suspended. Just like that - they stated my designs did not meet their high standards. Well, first of all, what exactly are their standards? There is no documentation other than a single page that provides a few suggestions about how to make your design more favorable. Second, how could I have made it to the final round in six contests and how could I have received four star ratings and positive comments on my designs if the quality of my work was so poor. Lastly, so what if it wasn't Manhattan advertising pro quality. Why shouldn't I have the same opportunity to submit a design to a contest as any other person. Isn't it the very definition of "contest" to provide fair competition among people with varying skill and experience allowing the "best" to filter to the top? Interestingly they suspended my account (meaning I had zero access to it) while I had funds waiting to be transferred to me. My recommendation - avoid at all costs. Another thing to consider, something I found frustrating when I was working with them was that they advertise original designs but allow their participants to use stock images and clip art in their designs. Unfortunately these are the people that win the most contests. If you really want to do this type of design work, there are other crowd sourcing sites out there - or you could just start your own freelancing site and really exercise your creativity.

Absolutely horrible! Yes, you will get at least 50 logo concepts by using 99designs logo service, but let me tell you something: 90% the designers submitted are plagiarized. SO if you want to waste hundreds or thousands of dollars for a logo that you will likely be sued for, go ahead.

Fortunately for me, I found a great custom logo company called VX Logos, www.vxlogos.com, which a friend recommended to me, and now have my dream logo!

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.

My experience:

1. Recommended by a business colleague
2. Ran a company logo contest for $599
3.131 entries
4. Selected 3 for final round
5. First round of emails stating: "$#*! You!" for not selecting their design
6. Selected final design
7. Second round of hate emails telling same as first round.
8. Paid winning designer
9. Third round of emails with losing designers pointing out the winning design was plagiarised (confirmed on TinyEye)
10. EMails to 99Designs asking for refund: replies received- none
11. Live chat inquiries responded to by 99Designs: none
12. Second round of emails to 99Designs support. Replies received: none

Utter, utter waste of time. Money

As a designer it was a total waste of my valuable time. I read their policy and rules and looked at their winning section and thought wow I would love to participate. I've been designing for top Ad agencies here in LA for many years. Things have gone little south so I figured I'll do freelance jobs here and there. 99designs really disappointed me today as I've spent many countless hours and days designing and to find out that the contest holder had already declared a winner. The deadline was not till another day. I was completely disappointed. I stayed up late last night to polish of the designs and I was going to upload first thing in the morning. Well that was a big surprise. I just wasted my entire week on these designs and remind you I was sick for two days... this was going to be my second contest entry. The first one I got eliminated without any word. The winner, in my professional opinion, the design was amateur.

What I noticed from the other design contest, the designers were starting to copy each others ideas. The same photographs were appearing from other designers and the designs become so similar. If you upload your designs earlier on, the other designers will copy your ideas and therefore your idea is not unique anymore. Its better to hold off until few hours before the competition is ending.

Designers out there this company is not for you, its better to meet people and try to get them as your clients! The old fashion way.

As a designer, first it was cool but then turned ugly, at some point you'll feel like the contest holder is your master and you're the slave LOL, i mean too many designers for 1 project and hundred of designs, you could spend hours on your concept and design then the contest holder can simply eliminate it quickly without a single word, or you can spend a lot of time on a concept then he suddenly come and change the whole idea, what a waste of time and designs! Conclusion: if you're a beginner or poor designer it could be useful for you otherwise forget it and try to find clients for you own.

We just ran our first 99Designs contest, and the results were wonderful. Before going to 99Designs, we spent a lot of money with two professional book design firms recommended by the Independent Book Publishers Association. The problem with a single design firm is you only get what is in their heads and you pay them whether they come up with anything useful or not. With 99Designs, we started at $299 and then after seeing that the designs were worthwhile, we guaranteed the prize and then extended the contest twice (which adds money to the prize each time). We received 129 entries from 25 designers. The end result was 4 great designs, any of which would have worked for us. We then used the POLL technology within 99Designs to poll some potential readers to help us pick the final design.

Please note that you have to guide the designers actively by giving feedback on what you do or don't like and what you are trying to accomplish, but I would definitely do this again.

BTW, I would take any negative comments that say they never heard back from 99Designs as completely bogus. We called them three times and emailed once during this process and they were always immediately responsive.

So I began my foray into 99 Designs. What a load of BS. I had a hand drawn horse and rider stolen - could PROVE it was mine with a layered. Pds and the "powers that be" determined it was acceptable for someone to take my horse and rider and use it in their own design?
That, my good people, is the reason you don't have better offerings on contests. Those of us who do our own work are tired of those who don't stealing and getting away with it.

99 Designs... MAJOR FAIL!