How to Get What You Need Out of 99Designs Contest

99Designs is a custom design platform that lets you facilitate design contests for any graphic design needs. If you’re interested in posting a 99Designs game, there are a few things you should know. Besides, you need to get the most of your prize money, right? 

Creating a Design Contest

99Designs is a user-friendly platform, so you won’t get a headache by simply creating a contest. However, before posting a contest, you need to determine what you need in the first place. 

What kind of 99Design contest should I start? 

It all depends on what you need. Your 99Designs contest can be everything that falls into the category of graphic design: 

• Logo
• Website
• Packaging design
• Business card design
• Brochures
• T-shirts 
• Etc.

Brand Identity

Whether you work as an individual or as a company, you probably have a brand identity in mind. So you need to highlight that on your design requirements. Posting a 99Designs contest should be detailed as much as possible to help guide the interested designers. By doing this, you can expect more accurate proposals to what you have envisioned. 

Here’s what you can add to your post: 

• Color scheme
• Tagline
• Branding image
• Typography
• Design style
• Design concept
• Mission and vision of the company

99Designs Contest Pricing

After writing a design requirement, it’s time for you to create a 99Designs contest. However, you should know that 99Designs has a minimum price for each design and project. Depending on the project you choose, you can select from 99Designs’ bronze, silver, gold, or platinum pricing. Each contest package has an approximate number of design concepts. Also, a more expensive package allows access to mid and top-level designers. 

For example, you want to start a 99Designs contest for your book cover: 

• Bronze, $299 with 30 approximated design concepts
• Silver, $499 with 60 approximated design concepts
• Gold, $799 with 90 approximated design concepts
• Platinum, $1,199 with 60 approximated design concepts from top-level designers

What if I don’t receive any entries?

If ever your 99Designs contest did not receive any entries, don’t panic! You should expect interested designers to spend at least 2 to 3 days working on their design proposals. Of course, the length will depend on your design requirements, so after four days or so, you can expect entries to increase slowly. 

What to do after receiving design entries? 

As designers post an entry to your contest, you’re able to reach out to each and provide some feedback. It’s the most crucial stage, so you can receive a more accurate output that fits your preferences. Don’t forget to “guarantee” your prize money. A 99Designs contest with a guaranteed prize will receive more entries. 

Should I cancel my 99Designs contest?

There will be a moment when you’ll feel guilty about choosing one design out of more than 30 entries. As you facilitate your 99Designs contest, there will be many factors that will enter your mind. However, the designers know this fact well themselves. 

It’s important to remind yourself that no one forced the designers to participate in your contest. But if you’re considering canceling the contest instead, that’s more likely to upset the designers working on your design requirements. Besides, some enter the contest for the sake of “competing.”  

Managing a 99Designs Contest

Before we end this article, here are other tips on how to manage your first 99Designs contest: 

• Create a detailed design brief as much as possible. It’s important to highlight the defining factors of your brand to help designers imagine what design to propose. 
• You can look at other 99Designs contests as references. By doing this, you can determine what kind of contests gets the most entries. 
• Creating a design takes a few days, don’t be upset if you don’t get entries on the first three days. 
• It’s vital to give detailed feedback to entries. This approach will help designers polish their design outputs and mold them to your preference. 
• You can consider adding more to the minimum price of your package. Even an additional $5 or $10 increases the designer’s motivation. 
• If ever there’s a design you don’t like, never hesitate to give pointers to the designer.