are there other sites like 99designs? please do tell
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are there other sites like 99designs? please do tell
Re: are there other sites like 99designs? please do tell
There are a couple different design sites. another one like 99 designs is designoutpost.com, then there is also guru.com which people bid for your job. Hope this helps
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Re: are there other sites like 99designs? please do tell
Here are a few articles that everyone should read before participating in 99designs or similar sites as a customer or a designer. As a designer, I find these sites appalling, and a slap in the face of professional designers.
Re: are there other sites like 99designs? please do tell
I completely agree with Unik. Its almost like having 5 different companies print your shirt, and only paying for the one you think did the best job. And I am not really a designer, just my opinion on the whole "crowd sourcing" phenominon.
Re: are there other sites like 99designs? please do tell
I'm neutral to the issue either way. On the one hand, I understand the truly professional artists trying to maintain their business relationships & income stream. On the other hand, the contests do create a tremendous amount of exposure for the artists, even those who don't win the contest. I've hired artists directly whose work I liked from these sites, even though they may not have won that particular contest.
The internet has changed the game for everyone and everything. Resistance is futile. Adapt or perish.
Re: are there other sites like 99designs? please do tell
creativeallies.com very similar and while I don't like contests like this either, I have sent a couple things in to get a feeling? Seems like we did something similar here recently?
dlac
Re: are there other sites like 99designs? please do tell
There is a difference between participating in a contest like Threadless or the T-Shirt Forums contest than these spec-design mills like 99designs.
When you submit a design to Threadless you are designing/illustrating what YOU want for FUN and the chance at some dough. When you submit to the T-Shirt Forums contest your participation is an affirmation of/contribution to a community experience and service that you value. Either way, it's not something you're doing professionally. It's not what you do to support yourself.
When you participate in a blatant spec-mill like 99designs you are DOING PROFESSIONAL WORK that you will, in all likelihood, not be compensated for, and if you do happen to be compensated for your work it will likely not be up to market standards. There is almost nothing in it for a professional designer whose skills, experience, and tools deserve to command commensurate compensation.
Also, the argument that one gains tremendous exposure from their wasted efforts is absurd. No one gains worthwhile exposure from participating in something like 99designs, especially considering that the sort of clients likely to see anything there are exactly the sort of cheap, short-sighted clients you don't want. Even with something as popular and prolific as threadless the exposure is limited. I've had 9 designs chosen on Threadless. I have certainly received some exposure from it, but I assure you, it is not overwhelming.
People really should read the arguments put forth at NO!SPEC... It really explains how the practice is usually negative for everyone involved, including the client who imagines that the quality of the work will improve through "crowd-sourcing" only to find the opposite.
It's almost always best to simply research some designers whose work demonstrates their competence and HIRE them to WORK WITH YOU to achieve the best solutions than to sick a bunch of poorly-guided (often amateur) designers on a particular problem and hope something sticks.
Re: are there other sites like 99designs? please do tell
Quote:
Originally Posted by Unik Ink
Here are a few articles that everyone should read before participating in 99designs or similar sites as a customer or a designer. As a designer, I find these sites appalling, and a slap in the face of professional designers.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels like this.... when you're a teenager it sounds nice because you don't know any better and "it's a good way to get exposure!!!"... but after a good ten+ years after you've spent as much money as some of you spend on your machines, inks, establishments, etc.... it starts to become an insult... as a seasoned artist I've learned that a lot of people who go about finding designs in this manner usually don't know what they want and have no deeper understanding for what works and HOW it works... if they did they wouldn't be open to whatever they think is cool.... what usually happens is you get a ton of excellent artists who do great designs and they still can't decide... so the bidding begins and it goes from some money to a little money to free plus extra stuff because those artists are just that desperate to "get exposure"..... so I don't partake in that.... good work that's gonna be successful takes a good understanding of your market and some degree of research.... most artists who make successful designs are also natural psychologists..... I've never been to one so I don't know how much they charge... but from what I can tell they make a decent living..... so why should artists always be put against each other?.... it should be called a pokemon tournament rather than design contest because that's just how it is.... but that's just my opinion..
Re: are there other sites like 99designs? please do tell
Quote:
Originally Posted by Unik Ink
Here are a few articles that everyone should read before participating in 99designs or similar sites as a customer or a designer. As a designer, I find these sites appalling, and a slap in the face of professional designers.
Good designers wont do Spec work period... We just don't do it. Its the equivalent to going to a fine restaurant and taking a bite from 4 different dishes and asking to only pay for 1.
No one that knows how to do a good job will spend the many many hours designing something if there is no guarantee of getting paid. If you are looking for something, there is a portion of this forum where you can look for designers.
Plus as an artist that works with other printers, I charge out the ying-yang to fix some mediocre art or get it ready for print. While that design may look awesome, it may not be high resolution, it may use a bunch of effects that will need to be recreated by your print artist.
In specific, we just recreated someone's art for $XXX when the design itself would have only cost us $25 more to do from scratch. So the client paid double to get a design done by 2 different artists.
__________________ Mstevens_Design - Vector conversions, custom illustration, simple and complex separations, web and print design and more.
are there other sites like 99designs? please do tell 
