This was my first (only) time winning a contest on 99designs.com. The client was awesome...a good guy with a great sense of humor, and lightning fast communication times. He owns a development company and loved the logo concept using the code brackets to frame out a test tube of sorts.

 

 

The client paid in total I believe $600 for a logomark and business card design. 99Designs kept $200 and paid out $400 to the winner. Hundreds of designers from around the world contributed designs.

 

After doing agency work for years (billing around $100+ per hour) it was a bit of a shock to see how low the payouts are on these competition sites. Its downright scary to think about how many wasted man hours go into each project on that site, when you account for every designer who submitted.

 

99Designs is a benefit for small business owners, who just need something quick, or for those who don't have a budget or experience dealing with a creative agency.

 

Its also great for designers in countries where the Dollar goes farther.

 

In total, after revisions, I had about 40 hours into this project...it took a while to get the bubble placement arranged in a way that didn't resemble faces.

 

I was happy to win, and even happier to see a client who appreciated the work. I believe the future of design could resemble a workflow like this...but there has to be some type of stabilization between higher price projects, or higher payout to the designers...otherwise I'll be designing from China soon LOL.

 

It was still fun to compete and a thrill to win...just couldn't make a living in the US doing it.