Yesterday a client asked me if I had ever heard of 99designs, a site that crowdsources graphic design. I immediately opened Google and looked at the first 2 search results: links on the site 99designs and a blog entry written in opposition to 99designs. More on the latter in a bit.
99designs is similar in practice to Logoworks, a company within the Hewlett-Packard brand, where companies can get a logo “for as little as $99 to start”. Do a search on Google for logo design and other companies offer logo work with full copyrights for $199. $149. $99. $79. 99designs likes to differentiate itself from its competitors because of its ability to crowdsource.
If I were a student looking to build a real portfolio for work after graduation, I would find 99designs an invaluable tool. And if I were the owner of 99designs, I would only allow currently enrolled college students that ability to participate. My biggest concern with the site is that the projects are open to anyone, and herein lies the cannibal nature of advertising. Capitalism, really. A company doesn’t have to hire a designer or an agency for branding when hundreds of designers are willing to exhaust themselves for branding that may yield $100. $200. $500.
A designer with talent will lose work to a less-talented designer willing to produce endless sketches and ideas without a true return of investment. And that same less-talented designer may have to work twice as fast to compete with another designer with even less talent. This competition really has no end with lack of talent or amount of time and effort wasted.
The companies engaging 99designs miss the larger point: the value of their brand. A real brand is an investment, not a cost. If a consumer of a luxury brand were to discover that the company paid $79 for its identity, then everything made by that luxury brand would come under suspicion. If a company wanted to build trust and loyalty with its users, could that be achieved if a brand came out of nowhere for the low, low price of $200?
When Wal-mart opens an online store for companies and offers branding for as little as $49, how many of its competitors will scream ‘foul’? Seems it’s only a matter of time before a student gets wise to the market and beats Wal-mart – and everyone else – to the punch. In the interim, 99designs hits graphic designers right where it counts: their livelihood.