What is the general consensus in the HN community on the business model of 99designs especially in light of the protests against "spec" work from the design community at large. There's obviously a market for what they're doing but would your company consider using 99designs?
For designers: good for practice, bad for business
For businesses: good for unimportant stuff that needs a bit of design, bad for serious stuff
As a designer/business owner, I'm past the point of using this service and since my product is UX/design focused, I wouldn't dream of outsourcing design work in this way.
We actually used 99 designs with a lot of success. I think the best part of it was establishing relationships with a lot of different designers. We currently use 2-3 of them pretty consistently for a variety of different projects. A lot cheaper than a regular freelancer and they're able to meet our usual crazy demands.
Building apps for the iOS marketplace is "spec" work. I'm working for free until someone decides to purchase my app.
Bootstrapping a startup is "spec" work. No one is paying founders anything.
It's a choice to do "spec" work, no one is forcing someone to work for free. 99design is building an amazing marketplace for customers and professionals on a global level. This will change the way the restrictive nature of supply and demand in design.
EDIT: When I graduated from college, I worked for free. I bootstrapped a startup with my savings that failed to support me and then I worked for free at a development agency doing random projects. From that experience, network, and portfolio I now am living very well doing contracting work and personal side projects.
The last time I tried it the results weren't great. That in itself isn't a problem but most of them were plagiarized from other designs (from the web). It wasn't easy to track all of them down, so it is probably reasonable to assume that a lot of the designs are rip-offs, and most people don't notice.
99designs refunded anything that was paid, and apologised, and it felt like something that is so common they have a well oiled process for it.
Given the risk of this, and that it is up to you to find if it is a rip-off - I wouldn't use it ever for anything that may be seen publicly (I expect you as the "owner" would be responsible).
(this is ignoring designer objections, which are another topic).
I recently tried 99designs for a logo design attempt and wasn't happy with the results. I wouldn't use it again and wouldn't recommend it. The response wasn't great in quality or number of applicants. The main benefit I suppose is it got a variety of different perspectives, which was the main reason I tried it.
The general quality of the logos were poor. Like others have said, it's best for simple little jobs or logos that aren't that important and don't need too much creativity. Maybe some side project website you made and you just want a quick logo for $50 or something. Also, many of the designers were from Indonesia (I think) and there was a bit of a language barrier and difficulty communicating ideas.
[+] [-] calbear81|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gordonc|15 years ago|reply
For businesses: good for unimportant stuff that needs a bit of design, bad for serious stuff
As a designer/business owner, I'm past the point of using this service and since my product is UX/design focused, I wouldn't dream of outsourcing design work in this way.
[+] [-] benhebert|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mikx|15 years ago|reply
Bootstrapping a startup is "spec" work. No one is paying founders anything.
It's a choice to do "spec" work, no one is forcing someone to work for free. 99design is building an amazing marketplace for customers and professionals on a global level. This will change the way the restrictive nature of supply and demand in design.
EDIT: When I graduated from college, I worked for free. I bootstrapped a startup with my savings that failed to support me and then I worked for free at a development agency doing random projects. From that experience, network, and portfolio I now am living very well doing contracting work and personal side projects.
[+] [-] michaelneale|15 years ago|reply
99designs refunded anything that was paid, and apologised, and it felt like something that is so common they have a well oiled process for it.
Given the risk of this, and that it is up to you to find if it is a rip-off - I wouldn't use it ever for anything that may be seen publicly (I expect you as the "owner" would be responsible).
(this is ignoring designer objections, which are another topic).
[+] [-] arn|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ernestipark|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] suking|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] staunch|15 years ago|reply