Graphic and web design is a big thing nowadays. In the rising competition of brands and marketplaces, everyone wants to put their best foot forward on the internet. From website logos, company logos, infographics, and more, the likes of 99designs is a big hit. They serve as a marketplace for designers to sell their service to potential buyers. For this 99designs review, we will check if the platform is worth the hype.
Background of 99designs
99designs is a creative platform that caters to designers and buyers all over the world. Currently, they have already produced over 97 million designs for their clients. In fact, a new design is being made in every 2 seconds.
This platform is founded by Jennifer Kenyon and is now a large pool of freelance designers.
Unlike order-based design platforms, 99 designs has a design contest setup. As a buyer, you’re going to post what you’re looking for and the designers will send their work. It’s up to you to choose which one makes the cut. There’s also an option to work directly with a designer.
PROS
- Tons of designs to choose from
- Very affordable pricing
- Get designs for just about anything
- Available feature to integrate with their API as a seller
- Fast turnaround time
- No-fuss projects
CONS
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- Losing designers work for no pay
- Not the perfect place for those who want to build client relationship
How it works
In 99designs, buyers have two options to get their designs: run a contest or work with a designer directly.
For the design contest, you will submit a request for a design with complete specifications of what you need. After that, designers are free to submit their entries. Remember that a higher design rate will entice more designers to submit their work.
You can make design contests for just about any design – WordPress theme, blog logo, packaging design, and so on. After your deadline for the request lapse, you can now choose the design that you like from the pool of entries you received.
Take note that you’ll need to pay 99designs first in their escrow service. This is so their designers won’t be ripped off by shady buyers. Once you picked a design, its designer will receive the funds.
If you don’t like this setup, you can look up a designer and hire that person for your project. You can re-hire him or her in the future should you need more designs.
Basically, it’s like having a whole team of designers at your disposal.
Quality of work
When it comes to 99 designs projects, you’re guaranteed with quality. Since you can run contests, you have full control over the quality of design you’ll get.
Be it a small logo project or a large design for your product, you can find designers here that can equate every dollar with quality.
Turnaround time
Based on our experience, the turnaround time for 99designs logos and other projects are between 24 and 48 hours. After sending a brief of your needed design, outputs will usually come in within 24 hours.
A special link will be sent to you so you can view the output. It also makes it possible to have the design entries reviewed by your partners or colleagues.
Once you chose a design, you can request for necessary revisions. If you’re satisfied with the changes, you can now receive the design. The turnaround time also depends on how much revisions you’ll demand.
What you can avail
Like what we said, you can get almost all your design needs in this platform. From 99designs logo design to a large brand guide, all you need to do is to submit a brief.
Here are some of the design categories they currently offer:
Logo and brand identity pack. This includes business cards, logos, Facebook cover, and letterhead and envelope. This package starts at $599.
Logo and hosted website. This includes domain and hosting for 1 year plus logo and Jimdo website and editing tool. This also starts at $599.
Logo and business card. This is inclusive of business card and logo starting at $499.
Logo design. If you only need a single logo, design starts at $299
Logo and social media pack. This includes a Twitter header, logo, Facebook cover, and YouTube background for $399.
Video production. On-location shoots anywhere in the U.S., commercial-quality custom video, and professional filmmakers. This starts at $499.
Photography. For studio-quality photos and on-site shoots anywhere in the U.S., you’ll have to pay for $299.
Aside from these basic services, you can also avail clothing and merchandise, web and app design, business and advertising, art and illustration, and more designs.
99 designs cost
For the cost, I can say that you’ll get the worth of each dollar. Sure, it’s way expensive than what you can order from Fiverr but you’ll enjoy the service of professional designers.
The video, logo, and photography quality here are all commercial level. It’s like hiring a whole team of designers for the fraction of the cost. Besides, some of them are willing to do on-location shoots for a small price.
We can say that this is the perfect design source for small to large businesses that don’t want to maintain an in-house design team.
Also, 99designs designers are filtered to ensure that you’ll only get excellent quality of work all the time.
Is 99designs worth it?
Definitely! Our test drive proved that this platform is a very convenient way to outsource your design needs. Thanks to its contest setup, your design possibilities are limitless. You’ll get to choose from a pool of designs and only pay for the one that you like.
Also, the price ranges are flexible. If you don’t like the idea of working with different designers, you can invite one and collaborate for your projects.
Conclusion
We hope that this 99designs review helped you gauge if the platform is the right choice for your needs. 99designs is a marketplace of talented designers and artists. Although they have higher rates than other platforms, you’ll surely get what you paid for.