Contest Holders, this page is for you! If you haven't read the general community guidelines, that's the best place to start. But you'll need to read this page as well — you'll want to follow these guidelines when you launch a contest.
General
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One contest, one design task.
We know — it's tempting to run a single contest for your logo, business card, and letterhead, but the result is a contest management nightmare. Trust us! So please: start one contest for each design task, and we'll all sleep easy. Contact us if you want to run multiple contests, and we'll see if we can't work something out.
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Design, design and more design!
99designs is all about design. Wonderful, glorious design! We don't provide the infrastructure for coding, copywriting, or tagline contests (yet!). But boy, do we have design. Oodles of it! You want design? You've come to the right place!
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No shirt, no entry.
Would the average office worker be comfortable looking at your contest in the office? If not, don't post it!
Feedback and Discussion
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Please: talk among yourselves.
The designers who enter your contest are dying to know what you think of their work. You may not comment on every design, but if you provide feedback to each designer who competes in your contest, your reputation will soar — as will the numbers of entries your contests attract. Yes, really.
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Make it crystal clear.
Those designers need constructive, considered feedback, with as much detail as you can give. The clearer your feedback, the more likely you'll be to receive great designs.
Prizes
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Playing for cash!
Yep: we need you to offer at least one cash prize for your contest. Of course, if you'd like to offer extra non-cash prizes, be our guest. After all, it'll only make your contest more attractive to designers. Check out the prizes page for recommended prize amounts.
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Promote your prizes.
Don't keep your prizes a secret. Designers will want to know exactly what they'll get if they win your contest, so make sure you tell them.
Fair Play / Copyright
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Pay before you publish.
You know the copyright rules, and you know you can't use the winning design until you've paid the designer the prize money. You know it. We know it. We just thought we'd better mention it. To appease the legal team and everything.
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Multiple accounts? Multiple problems!
Creating multiple accounts is bad news. Bad, bad news. It can be confusing for designers, and means any reputation you build will be diluted. Diluted reputation? No one wants that! You need a reputation stockpile! And that's what a single account will give you.
Withdrawing Contests
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Leaving so soon?
You can withdraw from a prepaid contest — close it down without awarding your prizes and exercise your right to a refund — but this course of action won't exactly endear you to designers, for obvious reasons. You might, for example, find it difficult to attract designers to your contests in future. Instead of withdrawing, it's usually best to award your prize, close the contest, and move on.
You can't withdraw from a guaranteed contest. That would defeat the point of guaranteeing it in the first place.
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Contest neglect isn't nice.
Absence won't make the heart grow fonder at 99designs. If you don't comment or provide feedback on your contest for more than 7 days, the participating designers will be far from impressed. Neglect your contest, and you'll be neglecting your reputation. After 21 days, your contest will be marked as abandoned, and you won't be able to start any other contests on the site.
Transferring Artwork and Payment
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Choose your own format.
Whatever you do, don't forget to specify the format in which you require the finished artwork.
Having a logo designed? If we were you, we'd ask for the art in a vector format like that produced by Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator. You can resize vector graphics without any loss of quality — something JPG, GIF, TIFF and PNG files just can't swing.