99designs

General

• What is 99designs? ¶

  Need something designed for yourself or a client? A new logo, a web site design, some business cards or letterhead, or maybe even a magazine ad for your next product launch? Whatever you want created, post your requirements at 99designs and let our massive community of professional designers from around the world compete for your prize.

• How can I find out about changes to the site? ¶

  Easy! Subscribe to the 99designs blog. It's the best place to find out exactly what we're doing, and we know — I mean, we're sure — you're as interested in that as we are. Right? Right?

• What are design contests? ¶

  A design contest is a competition run by a contest holder, who challenges designers with a creative brief for a piece of work. Designers create designs to meet that brief, and, after providing feedback to help designers improve their designs, the contest holder picks a winner, who wins a cash prize.

• How does a contest work? ¶
  1. The contest holders have a design job. They write a design brief describing what they want.
  2. They choose a prize amount.
  3. The contest is posted. Designers from all over the world submit design concepts.
  4. The contest holder provides feedback to each designer, then picks a winner, and pays the prize money directly to the designer.
  5. Once payment is made, all rights to the winning design are transferred from the designer to the contest holder.
• What costs are involved in participating? ¶

  It's cheap! You can run a contest for 39 credits, plus credits for any upgrades you decide you want to apply. If you find a design that fits your needs, you will need to pay the designer the prize you offered at the end of the contest.

  One 99designs credit costs $1 (USD). Designers don't have to buy credits to enter a contest — participation is free.

• What is crowdsourcing? ¶

  Crowdsourcing is one of those cool web 2.0 terms that seems nebulous until you realize how simple it is. It's the process of sourcing skills — in this case, design skills — from a group of people — the 99designs members. See? We told you it was simple.

• How do I sign up for an account? ¶

  Whether you are a designer or a contest holder, head over to the register page, the whole process takes less than a minute!

• Can I have more than one account? ¶

  In a word, No. Creating multiple accounts dilutes your reputation and confuses other users. It's also very confusing for our support team, please spare us the grey hairs and don't create multiple accounts.

• How do I change my password? ¶

  You can change your password by going to the "my account" tab, then look under "account details".

Contest Holders

• How do I run a contest? ¶

  First, sign up for an account on 99designs so that you can launch a contest. Snap up a few credits — you'll need 39 to run a contest. When you create your contest, you'll need to provide information about the requirements of your design task (the brief), and you'll need to specify how much money you'd like to award as a prize.

• How long do contests run for? ¶

  Your contest can run for up to seven days. Of course, if you don't have that much time, you can cut it short. If you really need a shorter contest you can run a "fast-track contest", which is an upgrade that you choose when you launch a contest. This lets you run shorter contests, but just remember that unless the prize you offer is worth the extra effort, designers will often pass up these contests.

• What is feedback in a contest? ¶

  Contest holders must provide feedback to every designer who participates in their contest. Feedback is given to a designer in the designer page, which is accessed by clicking on a designer's entry in a contest. Feedback is crucial to a contest — it ensures that all entrants get an idea of what you think of their designs, and their skills. Everyone can read feedback to any user, so giving good feedback helps other designers by giving hints on what you like and don't like.

• What are credits? ¶

  Credits are the special currency of 99designs. One credit costs UD$1, and you'll need 39 of these babies to run a contest.

• How do I pay for credits? ¶

  You can pay for your credits using either a credit card or your PayPal account.

• How do prizes work? ¶

  You'll need to offer a prize for your contest, and it'll need to be a cash prize. You can, of course, offer more than one prize, and other non-cash prizes if you like — the more, the merrier! Specify your prize amount in US dollars, and think about offering more than the minimum prize: the bigger the prize, the bigger the competition and the quality of the designs.

  See the prizes page for details on what the suggested prizes are.

• What is a design brief? ¶

  It's a document that specifies exactly what the contest holder wants — down to the letter. Designers rely on the brief to create quality, on-target designs. The design brief is like a roadmap to contest success!

• How do I write a good brief? ¶

  Don't worry — we'll show you how! As you begin to set up your contest, we'll guide you through the process of creating a clear brief that will help designers create the design you're after.

• Can I change the details of my contest at a later date?

  Of course! You can edit your contest at any time. Once your contest has received one or more entries, you won't be able to reduce the the prize money on offer (you can increase it anytime though!). And, as you'd expect, you can't edit a contest that's ended.

• How can I have more than one winner? ¶

  Simply allocate more prizes! You'll need to give a prize in exchange for every design you want to use. The more prizes you offer, the more winners your contest will have, and the more designs you'll be able to use. Leaving a comment commending the designer, as at present only one winner can be officially declared.

• How do I choose the right prize money? ¶

  Good question. What can you afford? Do you have a little extra to offer as prizes to second and third place-getters in your contest? What kinds of prizes are other contest holders offering — and how will yours compare? Answer these questions, and you should have an idea of what will constitute a good prize for your contest.

• How do I pay out the prize money? ¶

  PayPal and Western Union are the two payment methods we offer for prize money. Western Union money transfers are usually preferred by designers who don't have credit cards, or can't access PayPal, but keep in mind that the service places restrictions on the transfers you can make, as well as charing a fee.

  Check it out before you commit!

• How do I give feedback? ¶

  You can give designers feedback in two ways: as a text comment that's entered into the designated “feedback” field, or as a star rating. Star ratings are just indicators of what you like and don't like, you still need to leave text feedback.

• Why can I see my contest in search engines, like Google?

  We want to attract as many designers to your contest as possible. So we make every contest on the site search engine indexable. That means your contest will appear in search results, which exposes it to designers who don't use the site as well as those who do. If you don't want search engines to find your contest, tick the "block search engines" option at the bottom of your edit contest screen.

• Can I end a contest early? ¶

  You can. Ideally, you'll award your contest prizes when you end the contest — whether you're planning to use the designs or not. Backing out of a contest tends to be bad for contest holders' reputations, and might make it hard for you to attract designers to your future contests.

Designers

• How do I become a designer? ¶

  It's no big deal. Just sign up, set up your profile, and start reviewing briefs. You're free to submit as many designs as you like to whichever contests you like — there's no charge to designers.

• What are the rules of participating in contests? ¶

  Have a look at the Guidelines for Designers — they'll tell you all you need to know.

• What are the payment options available to me for the prize money transfer?

  PayPal and Western Union are the two payment options we provide, but contest holders can choose to use one or the other option — they don't have to offer both. Before you participate in a contest, make sure you can accept the payment through the method offered.

• Do I have to pay to enter a contest? ¶

  Nope. Contest entry is free.

• What format should I submit? ¶

  Check the design brief for the contest you're thinking of entering. Each brief specifies the format the contest holder wants for the finished art.

• Am I allowed to use clipart? ¶

  No — unless you own the copyright to the images you're thinking of using. Clipart is copyright to its creators! Don't use any content you don't own the rights to. Believe me, today's courtrooms are pretty boring places, and we all know what a pain those legal fees can be.

• What do I do if the contest holder doesn't pay me? ¶

  Don't transfer the artwork! You're under no obligation to send any files or content to the contest holder until after you're paid, so hang onto your IP until the prize is in your hands.

• How do I report a contest? ¶

  Use the Contact Us form, or click "report contest" on the contest page. Then, sit tight. We'll get right on it!

• How do I report a designer? ¶

  Again, use the Contact Us form, or click "report designer" button next to a designers name on a contest entries page.

• Can the contest holder ask me for a copy of my entry before the end of the contest? ¶

  They can, but you don't have to say yes! Don't send any files to the contest holder until the contest has been won and you've received the prize.

• Why is the contest holder taking so long to declare a winner? ¶

  Sometimes, contest holders can have difficulty deciding on the winner. They might also have to present designs to clients or other stakeholders. Be patient!