Business
We Used 99designs For Logos: Here’s Our Review
What is it like to use 99designs? We’re going to go through the process of creating a design contest from start to finish to show you what the entire experience is like, so you can decide for yourself if 99designs is for you. For this 99designs review, we’re going to follow all instructions given and document each step of our journey for you to see below.
For this test project, we’re going to submit a contest for Owner’s Mag logo to see if 99designs can interpret a better logo for us. Chances of me getting this approved and having the CEO change the logo is practically 0, but this will be a fun project that everyone in our office can contribute feedback to.
1. Creating our design project
We went ahead and searched “Logo” and went through the process of creating the logo project. When selecting the business category, surprisingly there’s nothing related to digital publication, news, or publisher there. We went ahead and chose “Internet” as our category.
2. Choosing a name
Now it’s time to name our project. We’re going to call this one “Owner’s Mag Logo Design”. Not sure if I’ll ever get the approval to change the logo, but it’ll be a fun project that everyone at the office can give inputs on.
3. Types of logo
Logos come in all different shapes, themes, and types. They can be just a word logo, icons, abstract, or something unique with a mascot. Here’s where you can tell the 99designers what type of logo you want.
4. Choosing a style
I like this section a lot. Sometimes it’s difficult to actually describe what you want. Here, you can browse through a long list of logo designs that cover a wide spectrum of styling. Select the ones that best fit your taste and it’ll give the 99designers a better idea of what you want.
I went ahead and chose a few text-focused logo, since Owner’s Mag is a text-only logo. The selected examples in the screenshot above aren’t the ones I chose.
5. Brand Style Meter
I’ll be honest, this section is a bit weird for me. On this page, 99design asked me to explain the style I want using different sliding scales. There’s more than the 3 listed in the image above. I personally had a hard time deciding if Owner’s mag logo should be “Classic” or “Modern”, “Mature” or “Youthful”. Femine vs Masculine I can work with. But the other categories aren’t intuitive for me.
6. Choosing Colors
Now it’s time to pick our color preferences. I stuck with “Reds”.
7. Writing project brief
Filling out the project brief didn’t take too long. The questions were straight forward and all makes sense. It is odd that the project brief itself is this far down the process.
8. Choose your package
So far, we haven’t paid 99designs anything. Now it’s time for us to pick a tier for our plan. Although the Logo starts at $299, that’s actually for the Bronze tier. The higher tier you go, the more submissions and higher quality the work will be. Or at least that’s what 99designs promise.
For this, we chose the Silver $499 plan. We’ll be expecting about 60 designs to be submitted with this package.
9. Add-ons
In addition to the $499 we’re paying for the Silver tier, 99designs will upsell us for a few things. Some of these I think makes sense, others I felt should be included in the price I’m paying.
Personal Creative Consultant ($129) actually looks like customer support to me. I’m not a designer, of course I will need some help through this process. I felt like this should’ve already been included in the price instead of being a $129 add-on.
Guaranteed doesn’t cost anything. But it will null your money-back guarantee. This ensures the designer WILL get paid if they make it to the final round. Because of 99designs’ pay structure, this makes your project much more appealing to designers and more will likely submit drafts if you opt out of their guarantee.
Private ($59), this came as a shocker. I didn’t know this would even be public. Why my project is even open to the public in the first place is beyond me. This doesn’t feel right. Paying $59 just so 99designs keep my designs private seems like a scare tactic for me to cough up more money. Not a fan.
Duration lets you pay a bit more for faster delivery. For this, I feel the prices are fair and it’s typical to pay more for expedited work anyway. You can pay $39 for 3 day instead of 4 day delivery, $59 for 2 days, and $79 for 1 day.
9. Complete! Now we wait…
I opted to not purchase any add-ons for this review. Once paid, we’re redirected to 99designs’ dashboard where we can see the estimated timeline for the project. From today, it’ll take about 4 days for all of the designs to be submitted. Each day some designers will submit their work and on the final day, the round will be closed and we have 4 days to pick finalists.
The Designs Are In!
First off, very disappointed that we only received 17 designs instead of the promised 60. I contacted 99designs support about the issue and they claim that they don’t guarantee “60”, even though their pricing tiers clearly listed “Expect ~60 designs”.
Maybe the 17 designs we received are good? I’ll let you be the judge of that before we give our verdict.
Here are the 17 designs that 99designers submitted to us after 4 days.
What does our office think?
We passed the designs around our office to get some initial thoughts. Most thought the designs were random and not aligned with any of the directions given. Some look templated. Others look like they just slap a random icon in front of the text and call it a logo.
Overall, none of us were impressed by the results thus far. We eventually picked #6 to give feedback just to move the process along, not because we love the design. We felt let down that only 17 versions were submitted since 99designs promised we’d get around 60 designs to choose from.
We submitted our revisions and now wait for our designer to spin something back to us.
4 days later…
We received new versions of logo #6 within about 3-4 days. Personally I wasn’t happy with the new versions, but I shared the new designs with the office. You can probably guess how we all felt about the new drafts. Results…were disappointing and not what we had suggested. At this point, we didn’t feel compelled to give any further instructions or move the project to the final round.
We’re not happy
We decided not to continue the project given we’re not happy with any of the drafts so far. Even revisions were still so far off what we would even accept. I understand graphic design is subjective, and that sometimes you just have a difficult client. I assure you, we’re not that difficult and was looking for a very simple logo.
It was hard for us to justify even moving to the final round given the designers barely followed our directions. We specifically asked them to design the logo using our RED, and some of them ignored it completely. We asked them to NOT use any icons and just keep it text-based, yet there were logos with random icons.
Getting a Refund
Our experience could be a unique case and your experience could be much more pleasant. We eventually asked for a refund and was met with another obstacle. You can’t get a refund on the website, they request a call to speak to you to “verify” your identity before releasing your refund.
This is an annoying step clearly put in place just to discourage refunds. I oblige and got on a call with a representative. The rep was understanding and didn’t try too hard to sell me, which I appreciated. Our refund was promptly processed afterward.
Final Verdict
Our experience with 99designs has been mixed. I like how intuitive the website is and how easy it was to get your logo project started. The biggest let down were the number of submissions we received (17 instead of the promised 60) and the quality of each design. You can judge for yourself. Looking at the logos submitted, I didn’t feel like we got even intermediate level designers. These just felt rushed, patched together, and overall unpolished work.
Giving revision was difficult because most of the designs were so far off base. I didn’t know where to start, except tell the designer to re-read my project brief and start over.
Overall, it wasn’t the best experience for us. We would’ve gladly paid an agency or a freelancer the same amount and get more dedicated care and attention to produce 2-3 good logos instead of 17 poorly design random logos.
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Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has forever changed our lives, including how we do business. Despite the temporary halt during the pandemic’s onset, more and more ventures have been bouncing back strong.
That said, it’s a good time as any to seize the opportunity to offer products or services people need under the new normal. And if you’re thinking of starting a business to start post covid, you certainly won’t run out of excellent ideas.
If you’re wondering what industries are projected to reign supreme in a post-pandemic world, here are a few options you might want to consider.
1. Online Merchandise
Online shopping might have been popular even before the pandemic. However, the threat of catching the virus has made eCommerce all the more relevant. In fact, a survey by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), online purchases rose throughout the pandemic.
That said, if you’re looking for a business to start post covid, an eCommerce venture has never been as attractive as it is now.
According to a report, items that have been selling out from online shops during the pandemic include cleaning materials, thermometers, board games, baking supplies, fitness equipment, and home office supplies.
Whether you’re offering essential needs like food and toiletries or miscellaneous items like gifts and hobby-related items, eCommerce is the way to go.
2. Local Delivery
When the pandemic first broke out, people relied on deliveries for their needs. And now that they’ve come to appreciate the convenience of effortless shopping, the delivery industry will only flourish even more.
Many are exploring the idea of offering “hyperlocal” delivery or catering to a certain niche. For instance, focusing on a specific service such as beauty products, pet supplies, or medical needs. This narrows your services to a specific product set, making you a go-to venture for things related to your brand focus.
3. Home Improvement
It may be cabin fever at work, but being stuck at home can push people to think of ways to improve their living space. A survey by Bank of America says over 7 out of 10 Americans tacked home improvement projects during the pandemic.
The good news is, more projects are scheduled in 2021, so surely won’t be late to the party. Some of the products and services to consider are home office space and children’s playroom solutions. Many homeowners are also looking to extend their living space through outdoor amenities like patios. These projects allow them to enjoy the outdoors without having to brave crowded parks or public places.
4. Home Workout and Health Tools
As mentioned from the UNCTAD survey above, fitness equipment was one of the best-selling items during the pandemic. Added to that, a survey says almost 6 out of 10 Americans aren’t leaning to renew their gym membership after the crisis.
For one, some aren’t comfy using the same gym equipment as other members with a virus going around.
With more people trying to avoid outdoor exercise and fitness gyms, focusing on home workout is a good business to start post covid. Whether you’re leaning towards workout apps, gym equipment, or health products like meal plans, it’s best to strike while the iron is hot.
5. Online Teaching
With face-to-face classes discouraged to prevent the spread of COVID, many people are turning to the internet for instruction. This presents a great opportunity for entrepreneurs in the education and instruction sector.
A report tells us that enrollment at Coursera swelled up to 640% higher from mid-March to mid-April compared to the same period in 2019. This only goes to show that massive open online classes or MOOCs will surely enjoy more prominence from hereon.
But online business opportunities aren’t limited to MOOCs. Learners are just as keen to attend webinars and online workshops just as long as they won’t have to step outdoors to learn.
The Takeaway
Here are the key factors to remember when brainstorming for a business to start post covid:
- Less to no contact. With social distancing at the front and center of policies implemented to curb the virus’s spread, it’s best to focus on ventures that offer products and services without requiring physical contact.
- Convenience. Even without state-mandated lockdowns in place, many people choose to limit going out to avoid exposure to the virus. That said, people now put a premium on products and services they can get right at their doorstep.
- Agility. The COVID-19 crisis taught us that the world could change without warning. In one snap, restaurant dine-ins became curbside pickups, and gym classes were held online. Even babysitters turned to Zoom to entertain kids! Your business model must be able to adapt to societal changes.
Without a doubt, the pandemic has caused a huge economic setback this year. But more than anything, it has pushed entrepreneurs to stretch their creativity and become more flexible to adapt to changing times.
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