Spec work and 99designs.com
99designs.com is a crowd-sourcing method for generating web and graphic designs quickly. It is also fairly cost-effective.
99designs.com has some things going for it that are attractive to customers, but I’m a little concerned about how they have designers competing. I wonder what kind of pay the designers get, and where they’re based. My understanding is the designers don’t get paid unless their design won the “contest”. This is spec work, which undermines and devalues this industry in my opinion. Why work with a disgruntled designer or one that doesn’t respect him or herself?
For example, to post a project, a client would pay a flat fee of $39, which should ward off frivolous project requests, and the winner of the design contest would be awarded the project budget via escrow. The trouble I have with this is that the final budgets, while reasonable for one designer (if on the low end), do not pay the “losers” of the design contest. I think this is wrong. In essence, 99designs.com is a competitor to elance.com and odesk.com, but presents its projects as design “contests” when in fact it is a way for clients to procure designs without needing bids. It’s spec work. I don’t think anyone should work for free, even the ones that lose the contest.
While a client might get a bunch of design options for little money this way, this process cut out the whole discovery phase of the project. For example, as a client you might want a new header and logo for your site. You can request this and receive many responses, and there’s a good chance one of them will strike your fancy. Normally there would be at least a small phase of getting to know the customer, their needs, business model, etc. That is entirely missing in the 99designs.com model. It might work in the end, but it’s exploitative. In some cases, designers on there are even under 18 (reference).
It’s a freelance marketplace masquerading as design contests … for little or no pay, and using child labor.
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June 3rd, 2011 - 17:23
do losing bidders get paid?
June 3rd, 2011 - 22:02
Not as far as I know. But I think the whole model is flawed. I don’t think designers should do that much design work up front without a deposit. I think it’s exploitative and devalues design professionals. I think companies or individuals looking to save a buck in the short run will only be shooting themselves in the foot in the long run. These spec sites do not affect professionals, other than that they may have to redo whatever was done for such a client by someone doing spec work, which could end up costing the client more in the end, while annoying the professional who has to pick up the pieces later.