This company and website was a joy to review. Primarily because of the huge collection of creative ideas and work that it hosted. 99designs is a website that is doing for web designers what general job portal websites are doing to connect employers and employees. The owners are four guys with pretty classy experience under their belts. The site is founded by Mark Harbottle, co-founder and chairman of sitepoint.com, along with internet veterans Lachlan Donald, and Paul Annesley. Let me share some great details on this creative project.

The Basic Concept:

99designs brings together web designers from all over the world and gives them a safe and secure platform from whence to market their work. If you're a designer or have ever had designs made for your company or blog, you probably know about all the forums out there that host design contests. These contests basically ask designers to submit their work in response to specifications given by companies or individuals. These companies then award prizes to the winner. The good thing about these contests was that they gave newbies a good place to start and learn. Those who wanted designs but had limited budgets could get great work to suit their budget requirements.

But these forums had certain drawbacks. For one thing, they paid the designers very little. I mean as little as $10 for a logo that would be a great brand representation. Just because a designer was new, didn't mean that he was clueless or less talented. The low rates were frustrating for newcomers too. Another thing that often happened, even though forum administrators did their best to prevent it, was the disappearance of contest holding companies or individuals after the winning project was chosen and delivery made by the web designer. The designer never received the prize.