99designs Review: $249 Buys 30 Logo Concepts - Here Is Who Actually Gets Paid

This deserves a direct treatment rather than a footnote. The mechanics. You pay a fixed amount up front and write a brief. Designers submit concepts. In a $249 contest, roughly 30 designers may produce work. One is chosen and paid. The other 29 receive nothing. This is what the design industry calls "spec work" — creating finished work speculatively in the hope of being selected. It is contentious, and professional bodies including AIGA have long opposed it. The objections are worth stating fairly: Most participants work unpaid. The economics rest on many people producing work that will not be compensated. It encourages speed over process. Good identity design starts with research into the business, its market and its customers. A designer producing a speculative concept from a short brief cannot do that, so the work tends toward visual execution rather than strategy. It can incentivise derivative work. When thirty people compete on a short brief for one prize, safe and familiar solutions are rational. The counter-arguments, also fairly stated: Designers choose to enter, with full knowledge of the odds, and many use it to build portfolios, find clients, or work between contracts. It genuinely opens a market. A small business with $249 and no design contacts previously got a clip-art logo or nothing. This is a real democratisation and it should not be dismissed. Choice from many concepts has value for a client who does not know what they want and cannot articulate it — seeing thirty options is itself a form of discovery. 99designs also offers direct one-to-one hiring, which is not spec work at all, and full-service Brand Strategist packages. Our position: the model is legitimate and disclosed, and the platform is not hiding how it works. If the ethics concern you, use the direct-hire route or the strategist packages rather than a contest — you can get the same platform's vetting and payment protection without the speculative structure.

Full copyright ownership is listed on every tier, and it is the most valuable line in the package. Here is why it matters more than the number of concepts. A logo you do not own is a liability. If you cannot prove you hold the rights, you cannot reliably register it as a trademark, you may be unable to stop others using it, and you can face a claim from the original creator years later — typically at the worst possible moment, such as during a funding round or an acquisition. What to confirm you actually receive: A signed transfer of copyright from the winning designer, not merely a licence. Keep the document. The source files — vector formats such as AI, EPS or SVG. A logo delivered only as a PNG or JPEG is not a usable brand asset; you cannot scale it for signage, print it properly, or adapt it. This is the most common thing small businesses discover too late. Font licensing. A logo built with a font that is not licensed for commercial use is a problem you inherit. Ask which fonts were used and whether the licence covers your use — and note that if the logo type is fully converted to outlines, this is largely moot, which is another reason to want vector files. Any stock imagery or icons used, and their licences. Then do the checks the platform cannot do for you: Search the trademark register before committing. A logo can be original and still conflict with an existing registered mark in your class. The USPTO's search tool is free. Reverse image search the concept. This is a two-minute check that occasionally catches a submission lifted from elsewhere, and it protects you rather than accusing anyone. Consider registering the trademark once you settle on a mark. Design ownership and trademark rights are different things — owning the copyright in an image does not give you the exclusive right to use it as a brand in your sector.

The single biggest determinant of contest quality is the brief, and most are poor. This is where your effort should go. Say what the business does, for whom, and what it is not. "Modern and clean" describes almost every logo ever made. "We sell industrial safety equipment to construction site managers; it must read at 3 metres on a hard hat" is a brief that produces useful work. Give three examples you like and say why — and three you dislike, with reasons. The dislikes are more informative than the likes and designers rarely get given them. State the practical constraints early, because they eliminate whole categories of unusable concept: Where will it appear? An app icon, a shopfront sign and an embroidered polo have contradictory requirements. Does it need to work in one colour? In very small sizes? On dark backgrounds? Any words that must be included, and any that must not. Do not specify the solution. Saying "I want a swoosh and a globe" gets you thirty swooshes and globes. Describe the problem and let people solve it. Engage during the contest. Rate and comment on early submissions. This is the highest-leverage thing you can do — designers see the feedback, iterate, and the second round is markedly better than the first. A client who posts a brief and disappears gets a worse result and deserves to. Be decisive at the end. Extending indefinitely wastes everyone's time including yours. And a note on the money-back guarantee. All tiers advertise 100% money-back. That is a genuinely good term, and the sensible reading is: if nothing in thirty concepts works, the brief was probably the problem — take the refund, rewrite the brief, and start again rather than settling for something you do not like. A logo you are lukewarm about is a decade of quiet regret.

How much does 99designs cost? Logo contests at US$249, $399, $799 and $1,050 before tax, delivering approximately 30, 60, 90 and 60 concepts respectively. What is the difference between the tiers? Concept volume and designer level. Higher tiers restrict entry to mid and top level designers only, and the top tiers add a dedicated manager. Do I own the design? Full copyright ownership is included on all tiers. Make sure you receive a signed transfer and the vector source files. Is there a refund? A 100% money-back guarantee is advertised on all tiers. What is spec work and why do people object to it? In a contest, many designers produce finished work and only the winner is paid. Professional bodies have long objected on the grounds that it devalues design labour and prioritises visual execution over strategy. Designers do enter voluntarily, and the model genuinely opens design to small budgets. Is there an alternative to the contest format? Yes — 99designs offers direct one-to-one hiring and full-service Brand Strategist packages, neither of which is speculative. What files should I insist on? Vector source files — AI, EPS or SVG. A logo supplied only as a PNG or JPEG cannot be scaled or printed properly. What about fonts? Ask which fonts were used and whether the licence permits your commercial use. Type converted to outlines largely removes the issue. Do I still need a trademark? Owning the copyright is not the same as holding trademark rights. Search the register before committing, and consider registering your mark. How do I get better submissions? Write a specific brief, include examples you dislike with reasons, state practical constraints, and give feedback during the contest rather than disappearing.