Buzz

“The four-year-old company...has doubled the run rate of new contests from a year ago and is on track to surpass 200,000 design contests by the end of 2012. That’s serious. It’s disruptive . . . and awesome.”

“Crowdsourcing outfit 99designs says it’s on track to surpass 200,000 design contests by year end after doubling the number of monthly design contests held on its site year over year.”

“99designs chief executive Patrick Llewellyn says 2011 was a standout year, from rapid growth in contests and payouts to the launch of localised versions of the site in Australia and Canada.”

“Some of 99design's top designers are earning more than $10,000 per month, and the company says it will pay its community $1.5 million in January alone.”

“The highly controversial marketplace for crowd sourced designs continues to march through the torches and pitchforks to build a pretty interesting business…I talked to a few designers who’ve built staggering businesses off 99designs.”

“This is not the minor league for graphic designers. A 99designs competition produced the logo for errand-runner TaskRabbit, a finalist for the 2011 Crunchies (awards put out by TechCrunch, GigaOm and VentureBeat). The cost to TaskRabbit? $396.”

“99designs has doubled its staff numbers to over 50 and employed Jeff Titterton as chief marketing officer and Caroline Moon as chief financial officer. According to CEO Patrick Llewellyn, 2012 is shaping up as another ‘stand-out year for 99designs.’”

“Accel Partners led the round, and was joined by angel investors like Stewart Butterfield (Flickr, Tiny Speck), Dave Goldberg (SurveyMonkey), Michael Dearing (eBay, Harrison Metal) and Anthony Casalena (Squarespace)”

“Accel Partners, an early investor in Facebook Inc., Groupon Inc. and other white-hot companies, has led a $35 million Series A investment in graphic design marketplace 99designs”

“This huge market makes it simple and cheap for business owners and individuals to get custom sites and logos quickly and on the cheap.”

“More than 90% of 99designs’ customers come through word of mouth. Imagine if the company actually invested in sales and marketing.”

“One of the hottest crowdsourcing sites on the Web, 99designs allows business owners to post requests for graphic design work on a community network.”

“Rapid growth of job postings on freelance web sites for highly skilled workers, including 99designs.com, is fueling the trend.”

“99designs - thousands of designers compete for clients who need logos, websites or anything else designed for their small business.”

“This is a story of an overnight success that was a few years in the making. 16 months ago, 99designs launched and quickly became a marketplace that facilitated $5 million in design work.”

“Try crowdsourcing to leverage the larger community of design talent.”

“99designs is a crowdsourcing marketplace where individuals and small businesses can post graphic work that they need done. Within hours of a project being posted, designers from all around the world compete by uploading fully completed concept designs, which are than reviewed and rated by the project poster. At the end of the project period, a winning design is chosen and paid out the prize money.”

“While waiting to get into the Mashable party, I caught up with Jason to find out how 99designs is doing a year later. The big news out of 99designs is the launch of their logo store. Designers who have won at least one competition on 99designs can then create stock logos and place them in the logo store. Companies and small businesses can quickly select a logo for $99 with non-exclusive rights (or they can pay $300 for exclusive rights) and then the designer will customize the logo with the company name, etc. in 24 hours.”

“I’m excited to reveal the details of an interesting project that our friends from 99designs.com have been working on. Introducing the 99designs Ready-made Logo Store. The idea is you can browse a catalogue of logo designs (designed by the 99designs community) and buy them “off the shelf,” customized with your business name, for $99.”

“99designs is on Facebook! 99designs is the #1 marketplace for crowdsourced graphic design. Need something designed? Run logo and web designs contests. We have thousands of designers competing. Stay on budget, choose the right design.”

“At a family event over the weekend, I spent some time chatting with a cousin who just graduated from high school but isn’t sure what he wants to do next. He’s enrolled for some classes at a community college and has bigger dreams of a career in child psychology. But, in the meantime, he’d like to do something with a hobby - graphic design.”

“Freelance graphic artists and Web designers who create logos, Web sites, letterhead, business cards and so on are competing for projects on the site 99designs.com. Each month about $125,000 in business from the site goes to U.S. designers; the average payout is $350 per designer. Even more importantly, many designers use this as a springboard to find new clients and develop long-term relationships to build up their freelance business.”

“In February this year the online media company and forum operator SitePoint spun off a new company, 99designs.com, as an independent online design marketplace. According to SitePoint’s co-founder and director Mark Harbottle, 99designs.com now has annualised revenue approaching $2 million. More spin-offs will follow.”

“99designs has 20,331 designers from 134 countries, which means clients can access a far broader range of ideas than they could by briefing a local web developer. Rather than getting a handful of concepts, most competitions attract more than 50 entries.”

“‘The main thing that 99designs is about is choice,’ says Matt Mickiewicz, the U.S. office representative for 99designs, ‘It’s a fantastic model that eliminates risk for small business owners and puts designers on equal footing.’ Designers can be of any age, background or level of experience to post designs on the site, making the site a great lead-generator. ‘It doesn’t matter if you’re 15 or 60. It’s completely based on merit.’ Most participants are students and freelancers, but Mickiewicz says that several designers have managed to make a living out of the site, including a designer in Romania who earned approximately $25,000 USD.”

“The Top Website Award, sponsored by SmartCompany, was won by 99designs. Its founder is Mark Harbottle.”

“To some extent, Web 2.0 or the read-write web as it is known, is all about crowd sourcing. The idea is that the crowd can create content for you, give feedback and even have a hand in designing products they really want.

It's a tricky concept for many companies to master but the latest generation of crowd-sourced websites such as 99designs and Gooruze are making it safe for businesses to participate.”

“Fancy yourself as a creative type? Got loads of ideas and no outlet? Or perhaps you need something designed for you. 99designs can help. They aim to put creative people in touch with prospective clients and there's a lot of money to made if you're full of ideas.”

“More and more we’re all witnessing the power of the Internet and the successful businesses being built from it. Today more so than ever the possibility of packing your business along with your other hand luggage essentials and taking it with you without anyone even noticing your daring escape becomes a very viable option.”

“[99designs] connects thousand of designers from around the world with clients who need design tasks completed fast, and without the usual high cost and limited choice you get from most traditional design firms.”

“99designs is one of the few sites I’ve seen that is really making this work. They’re focused on graphic design: logos, icons, and other visual work. People who need something fill out a brief about their needs, pay $39 for a listing, and specify what they’ll pay for the final product. Then designers contribute their ideas, which the potential client can rate and comment on. In the end, the deal gets done, the designer gets the money, and the client gets graphic work that strikes them as best-of-breed.”

“1500 designs submitted every day. That’s about one every sixty seconds.”

“Forget about all those web 2.0 start-ups with no revenue and a business model that focuses solely on selling out to Google or Yahoo! as soon as possible. The real prime real estate on the web is in online marketplaces.”

“Gaining access to thousands of aspiring designers means that a small town pub or a summer computer camp can buy a logo or t-shirt design for USD 100-200. Meanwhile, designers from across the world can tap into a much larger market for their services, while building their portfolio, honing their skills and presenting to real clients.”