Comments on: 9 practical steps to getting great outsourced design on 99designs

By: 99designs review

99designs review — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 06:54:00 +0000

I have also just had my first experiment with 99designs and I couldn’t agree more – the range and quality of designs was amazing. And many of the designers were happy to alter existing designs they had posted to change color or font type.

By: Outsourcing

Outsourcing — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 09:29:00 +0000

Nice Post!!!
Good points for outsourcing. The points you mentioned are very good in outsourcing world. There are lot of vendors who provide logo design service through outsourcing.
Good work….

By: Saulo Deboni

Saulo Deboni — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 16:15:00 +0000

You paid $414 for the logo.

How do you expect a graphic designer to pay rent, food, taxes and other expenses with that? How many logos one would have to make (and get selected) to be able to get enough money for a living?

99designs will make a bunch of people work, but only one person will be paid. A design project is a not contest, it takes time and resources.

Graphic designers do not go through 4 years of college education to learn how to draw. Innovative graphic designers know how to create businesses, not simple logos. You should read what Tim Brown, from IDEO, has to say about design innovation: https://www.designinnovation.ie/what_innovation_sec1.html

By: Ross Dawson

Ross Dawson — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:24:36 +0000

Thanks for your excellent comments Angelina!
I too think this is an extremely exciting time, when many of the constraints of the past can be thrown off by those that have the curiosity and drive to explore new ways of going about design and other creative endeavors.
I expect this space to change very fast over the next year or two.

By: Angelina Russo

Angelina Russo — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:08:35 +0000

Hi Ross
Thanks for this posting. I’ve spent the year reading many different books on open source innovation and co-created experiences – including your ‘Living Networks’.
Through all of this I’ve been trying to formulate ideas around what this means for design practice and education. Until now design hasn’t been part of the creative industries agenda but the most recent ‘manfifesto’ has design squarely located within a social networking rather than art production paradigm. While this is good news (and about time) I have yet to come across anyone who has been able to stitch together design practice, social networking, creative economies and of course, the role of cultural organisations in all of this. Guess I might be busy in 2009.
So your posting was particularly pertinent, particularly your 9 tips for outsourced designs. As I read through them I couldn’t help thinking that:
– the design procurer starts to take the role of design lecturer, providing feedback and identifying successes in a public forum. There is a long tradition of this in design education through the design’studio as laboratory’ model and through peer-reviewed public critique at formative stages of a design project.
The difference is that in our contemporary education environments, points 4,5 and 6 get us hauled up in front of discipline committees!
– open source design is potentially a very important innovation for young designers in particular. I remember many years ago wondering how I could ‘break into’ the inner circle of small design contracts which always seemed to go to the same designers. Additionally, back in the paper and print days, entering competitions was an expensive proposition. Digital technology does away with that barrier particularly as increasingly, the more specialised software programs are available relatively cheaply or there are open source options.
– We don’t have the critical mass in Australia to be able to set up truly multidisciplinary design firms. While there are a few, it remains difficult for most designers to collaborate in this way. SMEs are probably at the most disadvantage. In the open source environment there is the potential for the design procurer to take up your 9th point and actually bring designers together to solve different problems and collaborate in ways which would not be possible otherwise.
Thanks for taking the time to reflect on the process. There are big questions to be asked in design schools around the world re: the impact of open source design on design education and practice. Your post is one of the few I have read that begins to explore the scope of change in practice.
Ta
Angelina