The team behind 99 Designs is also pretty active on Twitter (and are great with feedback, etc): http://twitter.com/99designs' href='http://twitter.com/99designs">http://twitter.com/99designs'>http://twitter.com/99designs">http://twitter.com/99designs They seem to really "get" the social media stuff as a company, which is always nice to see.
I've spent a ton of money there over the last year and have definitely noticed the same politics. Pretty interesting to see. Nonetheless, I've had nothing but success and great choices there.
Nice new logo, btw!
Good stuff, Scott. Every time I consider using 99 Designs for something, my wife reminds me that I spent $500 on Photoshop specifically because I know how to do logos myself and I'm just being lazy :D
As far as the color choice, I think I'd use the third one down, but darken the gray just a bit. Then use the all black version for places that you only have two-color printing of course.
heh, it takes a lot more than photoshop to make a great logo. Even if you're good at it, you might be able to come up with a few good designs, but there's nothing like a whole gang of people working on it.
Think of the hourly rate. Even if the designs each took 15 minutes on average, that's more than 50 hours of work I got for $400. What's your own time worth to you? I spent probably a couple of hours reviewing and providing feedback.
Never heard of the site but I might give them a try. What a great way to find a designer.
In terms of color you can always go the way of using different colors for different parts of the business.
I do like the blue. The way I look at it you probably will get sick of a neon color a lot faster than you would a standard.
I've dropped about $500 on 99designs over the last six months for 3 logos and a book cover design. Love the site. The work I've gotten is amazing. The trick is to be specific in your guidelines and then give great feedback to each design as it comes on board.
And also... you don't have to make your contest more than the minimum amount. Believe me, you get the same quality work from a higher payout to a minimum payout.
I love this logo Scott. Very cool.
Thanks Jim.
Very good point about the specific feedback. Active feedback is key as well -- I find that people will keep trying if encouraged with good feedback.
As for the cost, that may be true. We've experimented with $200, $300 and now $400 levels. I do think the higher prices did attract more attention. But that's not to say that we necessarily got twice as much or twice as better. I certainly wouldn't go higher for a logo. I do see some contests out there for $1000.
true, you might find a designer this way. sometimes though, it's a good idea to continue returning to the contest method - keep new folks working for you in a very efficient way. i've used designoutpost for the same thing 99designs does, get many graphic artists to compete for your logo business... always reminds me of those lending tree ads... when banks compete you win... when graphic artists compete you win.
(thought bubble... 99wives.com...)' href='http://99wives.com">99wives.com...)'>http://99wives.com">99wives.com...)
I've never used designoutpost, but will check it out. I've loved 99designs, and will use it again and again. (It was much better than cats)
As for 99wives -- WOW what an idea. If only I had thought that this "when wives compete" concept was a plausable idea 12 years ago, I'd have.... well.. I guess I wouldn't have done anything differently. (But I'd still have hope!)
Over the years i have used 99designs (when it was still just sitepoint contests) and had alot of fun over the years. Not only just entering myself but also starting contests for some of my own projects. I have however had a few bad experiences on both ends, alot of contests i put hard work in to because the holder sounded genuinely interested with my entries, only to be abandonned last minute. There is more good than bad though, its rare that that happens...and im sure the new 99designs has some features to avoid that happening too? I havent entered or held a contest for some time you see.
Nice logo for the MechMedia site...i like.
I conducted a logo contest recently, for lisariolo.com' href='http://lisariolo.com">lisariolo.com'>http://lisariolo.com">lisariolo.com, and was blown away by the whole process. My advice to Contest Holders is that you really spend a lot of time creating your Design Brief and actively provide feedback.
lisariolo.com' href='http://lisariolo.com">lisariolo.com'>http://lisariolo.com">lisariolo.com looks fantastic. Now if it were only filled up with content. ;)
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I have a strange thing for logo contests. I don't know if it's the idea of dozens of people working on something for you, hoping to win the business, or if it's the chance to see so many creative people at work, or that it is just just an amazing application for the web.
The process is that you post a specification and how much you're setting for the prize. Then people submit their designs, you give feedback, and they will generally refine the designs. It's a great process to go through, especially if you don't know exactly what you want.
We mostly use 99designs for our contests.
We just finished up a logo contest to rebrand our company, MechMedia, Inc. We've been in business for several years, I figured it was about time to get that up to snuff. Next up, the website which is not only horrific, it's way out of date.
You can see most of the 200+ entries (!) on 99 Designs. The contest ran for a week and ended early this week. It was a really difficult decision.
Here's the winning design. We still haven't settled on colors. What's your favorite?
For all it's goodness, there's also a strange subculture at work in these contests. Among the designers, there are friendships, competition, fighting, snipes, and outright accusations. After the winner was chosen, there were some sour grapes comments as well. Fortunately, not much of it seems to be directed at the contest holder. Hand that feeds, I guess.
Anyway, if you need a logo designed, for just a few hundred bucks you can have many designers cranking out dozens of designs.
Can't beat it.