December 7, 2011

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If you need a new logo, t-shirt or website design where do you turn? Until several years ago, startups and established small to mid-sized companies (SMBs) may have issued a lengthy request for proposal (RFP), searched high and low for a recommendation or simply hired a designer in-house. While all of those options are still viable and widely accepted, one may choose to crowdsource their next design project and let hundreds of qualified designers bid and perhaps — win.

In 2008, 99designs founder, Matt Mickiewicz set out to connect thousands of designers from around the world with clients who needed professional design work completed in a timely manner, without the limited options and high costs offered by traditional design firms.

Learn how 99designs became a recognized marketplace for crowdsourced graphic design, dealt with criticism from “the establishment” and developed a viable business model that has served over 100,000 customers to date.

How I Got Started:

99designs was born out of my original company that I co-founded while in High School, SitePoint – a news and opinion site for web developers and designers that currently attracts 2.5 million users per month.

One of the trends that emerged in the SitePoint community was a game called “Photoshop Tennis.” Designers would essentially make up fictional projects, and compete against each other to see who could do the best job. They were doing this because they were passionate about graphic design. The designers that participated had spare time on their hands and they wanted to be a part of something while given a chance to improve their skills.

Eventually, some of the other members of the SitePoint community observed the growing trend and jumped in with a cash offer for a logo design project. The designers loved the opportunity to work for a real client and the possibility of earning a cash prize. Also the client loved seeing dozens of different designs created just for them. Clients considered this particularly valuable in comparison to working with a single designer based on their portfolio.

That’s how the idea for 99designs was born.

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