Ahead of the French Grand Prix later this month, global creative platform 99designs by Vista worked with its international community of freelance designers to give the ten racing team logos an unofficial makeover. Taking inspiration from the hottest design trends of 2022, the result is a series of reimagined logo designs that capture the energy of the sport, the creative industry, and these iconic brands.
“From retro rubber hose characters, to Ukiyo-e inspired illustration, bubble design and parametric pattern, these reimagined logo concepts bring some of the year’s biggest visual trends to life in a way that we hope resonates with design and motor sport fans,” said 99designs by Vista CEO, Patrick Llewellyn. “Created by freelance designers across four continents, the creativity and scope of the project reflects the global appeal and excitement the sport is inspiring in popular culture and mainstream audiences around the world.”
All 10 reimagined racing team logos with commentary from designers can be seen here: https://99designs.com/blog/designers/f1-logos-reimagined
VISTA, VISTAPRINT, 99designs, and VISTACREATE are trademarks or registered trademarks of the Cimpress group of companies. All other marks, including those of the F1 organization and respective F1 teams and sponsors are the trademarks of their respective owners. This article is being presented as a study on current design trends as reflected by hypothetical F1 team logos and Cimpress has no affiliation, sponsorship or other relationship with the F1 organization or respective F1 teams and sponsors.
More than 10,000 freelance designers across 144 countries have shared their insights, experience and perspectives in one of the most far-reaching surveys of its kind.
In a year where the post-pandemic world renegotiates the future of work, designers are stepping up and taking control of their careers: rethinking their place in traditional agency structures; upskilling for growth, with 78% learning a new professional skill in the last 6 months; and challenging industry bias with a strong belief in a better future. At the same time, the majority are also earning more (71%) and have found better work-life balance (60%).
99designs by Vista CEO Patrick Llewellyn comments, “Through another challenging year, it’s inspiring to see freelance designers harness their creative power for good, taking purposeful action and making real social impact, while also building more successful and fulfilling careers.”A few key findings from 2022’s survey include:
Designers are looking for purpose, not just a paycheck
- With brand activism on the rise, freelancers are stepping up: 97% of designers believe they have the power to make a real social impact
- 85% of freelancers believe it's important to work for clients who share their values
- 40% turned down work this year because of a client’s stance on a social issue they care about
- Almost a third of designers also work with a social justice organization, with 66% of these freelancers volunteering to do some charity work pro bono
- The majority of freelance designers (60%) say their overall work-life balance has improved in the past twelve months
- 68% report brands and agencies are more open to working with freelance talent than before the pandemic
- As attitudes to remote work continue to evolve, 71% of designers expect their annual income from freelance work to increase in 2022
- 1 in 5 freelancers currently work at a traditional agency – but almost half (45%) of them have considered leaving in the past year
- Almost a third (30%) of all designers with agency experience have quit their agency job in the past twelve months to freelance
- Just 15% of designers want to be employed at an agency in 5 years
- However, with 48% of freelancers also saying they would like to establish their own studio or agency in the next 5 years – and 68% already pulling in other freelancers in their network to work on projects – it seems new types of creative collectives and remote teams are poised to break on to the scene
Methodology:
The data for this report was collected by 99designs by Vista between October 18, 2021and November 1st, 2021. The online survey was distributed via email, social media, paid and industry-targeted ads onLinkedIn and Facebook. It had 10,118 qualified respondents from the following regions: APAC (4,059), Europe (2,570), North America (582), South America (1,283), Africa (765) and Unknown Location (859)
About 99designs by Vista:
99designs by Vista is the global creative platform that makes it easy to work with professional freelance designers online. 99designs has paid out more than US $400m to its creative community to date, with designers working across brand and logo design, packaging, web design and more.
Media Contact: Caitlin Collins / caitlin.collins@99designs.com
The Melbourne-head-quartered company is committed to providing equal leave entitlements for all new parents and guardians, and has removed internal policy distinctions between primary and secondary carers, adoptive parents, those in surrogacy arrangements or any other family structure.
99designs currently employs 185 people and the policy applies to all Australia and US based staff who have worked at the company for more than one day. Leave can be used flexibly within the first 18 months, and the same entitlements apply in the tragic event of stillbirth or neonatal death.
99designs by Vistaprint CEO, Patrick Llewellyn, said: “It’s inspiring how many secondary carers have already led the way in taking extended leave and choosing to work flexibly after becoming parents at 99designs – they have shown us something we wanted to amplify throughout the entire organisation. We have a responsibility to be the change we want to see in the world, and we’re excited to formalise a policy that creates equal opportunities for our team to balance both work and family by removing labels and expectations around what that means for individuals.”
Bee Hepburn, Senior Director of Community & People at 99designs by Vistaprint, adds: “Parenting is not a one-size-fits all experience. Alongside leave entitlements and Keeping in Touch Days, we want to give our team the freedom and flexibility to decide how they approach caring for a new child, supporting their partner or family unit, and returning to work when ready – however that may be.”
This change has been made alongside a number of other new policies introduced to reflect the fundamental shift in ways of working over the past two years. 99designs has introduced a framework that prioritises asynchronous ways of working across the business. Reducing the need for constant real-time meetings allows for fluid working hours that enable employees to work in ways that suit their individual lifestyles and schedules, opening up opportunities for increased flexibility in many different formats and roles.
Additionally, teams have access to a suite of tools to support physical and mental health, personal development, and annual bonuses dedicated to personal wellbeing ($605 AUD) and creating a beautiful, inspiring home workspace ($300 AUD).
About 99designs by Vistaprint: With a worldwide community of more than 150,000 talented freelance designers, 99designs byVistaprint is the global creative platform that makes it easy for clients and creators to work together to create designs they love. Spanning more than 180 countries, the 99designs creative community has earned more than $360m USD on the platform to date. 99designs.com
FOR MEDIA ENQUIRIES CONTACT: pr@99designs.com / 0400 958 887
- Nominations open for national search to find 10+ emerging ‘Homegrown’ Aussie and Kiwi acts to perform as part of Isol-Aid’s online music festival streamed live on TikTok
- 25 nominated acts will receive $2,000 worth of professional, custom design work for album art, gig posters, merch and more from 99designs
- One of these acts will also receive a $10,000 grant to invest in growing their career
Isol-Aid Homegrown is a new 16 week program where emerging local acts are invited to perform alongside established artists as part of Isol-Aid’s online festival. 25 acts will also receive $2,000 worth of design work from professional freelance artists from the 99designs community to create promotional materials such as t-shirts, posters, album art or other merch, which will be produced by Vistaprint. One act will also be selected by a panel of judges to receive a $10,000 grant to boost their career and creative growth, alongside a dedicated mentoring session from Killing Heidi singer and solo artist, Ella Hooper.
Ella Hooper, who is an industry ambassador for Isol-Aid Homegrown, said, “I’m so excited to be able to join the Isol-Aid and 99designs teams in providing some of Australia and New Zealand’s most exciting emerging musicians with real, tangible support while the industry is very much in recovery mode. It’s going to be incredible to see people getting around their favourite Homegrown artists as we come together to celebrate our local music community and help discover new talent.”
From July 5th fans and bands can nominate their favourite Aussie and Kiwi acts (or themselves) to be a part of Isol-Aid Homegrown via 99designs.com/homegrown
Isol-Aid Festival will stream live on TikTok every two weeks, starting on Wednesday 14th July from 6-7.30pm and each bill will feature at least one of the selected Homegrown acts.
“This collaboration is a celebration of creativity and global connections,” said Patrick Llewellyn, CEO of 99designs by Vistaprint. “We’re excited to match our talented community of designers with bands and musicians across Australia and New Zealand who are just starting their creative journeys, and to provide some much needed support at a time when the arts have been particularly hard hit.”
Emily Ulman, founder of Isol-Aid Festival said, “This next chapter of Isol-Aid is particularly exciting. It’s wonderful to be able to continue delivering incredible live local (Aus & NZ) talent to audiences on TikTok, regardless of their location or lockdown, and it’s extra amazing to now be able to offer Homegrown musicians the opportunity to collaborate with incredible designers who can make their artistic visions for merch, tour posters, album art etc become a reality; to literally grow. Isol-Aid is hugely grateful to 99designs and TikTok for making this possible.”
About Isol-Aid
Isol-Aid is an award-winning online music festival and community, profiling musicians who have been hit hard by the pandemic over the past year. Described as ‘a rabbit hole of new music discovery, community, and good feels’ Isol-Aid’s festival streams online every other Wednesday from 14th July 2021 on TikTok and at isolaidfestival.com
About 99designs by Vistaprint
With a worldwide community of more than 150,000 talented freelance designers, 99designs byVistaprint is the global creative platform that makes it easy for clients and creators to work together to create designs they love. Spanning more than 180 countries, the 99designs creative community has earned more than $360m USD on the platform to date. 99designs.com
FOR MEDIA ENQUIRIES CONTACT pr@99designs.com / 0400 958887
Alongside a study of more than 4,000 consumers around the world, the rapid growth in these industries was identified by analyzing the number of design projects commissioned by brands in these sectors on the 99designs platform:
- Mushrooms: Maitake, shiitake, cordyceps and lion’s mane are just a few of the mushroom varieties rocking the health and wellness space in 2021, with promises of improved mental focus, boosted immunity and other therapeutic benefits. Demand for mushroom-related branding and design has risen by an enormous 525% since 2018 on 99designs, increasing by 100% in the last year alone. And with 62% of consumers saying they are open to trying mushroom-based products for their reported health benefits, the opportunity for new brands and businesses is clear: mushrooms are going mainstream.
- Alternative alcohol: With more than 60% of people planning to change their drinking habits in 2021, alternative booze is big business. 1 in 4 people globally (26%) want to give up alcohol completely, and around 1 in 5 (19%) want to reduce their alcohol consumption. With another 15% planning to switch out their usual beverages for healthier alternatives, brands are responding to the demand with plenty of new, innovative options – particularly when it comes to non-alcoholic beer and zero-proof spirits. As such, the number of alternative alcohol-related creative projects completed on 99designs increased 257% in the past three years, shooting up 215% in 2020.
- Digital health and wellness: With so many of us under pandemic restrictions, access to at-home health and wellness services has been essential over the past year, fuelling an already booming digital healthcare industry. In 2020, design projects launched by digital health businesses on 99designs increased 103%, with overall growth of 176% since 2018. Globally, the most popular consumer digital health verticals are fitness and exercise (55%), medical services (53%) and mental health support (33%). Most significantly, while 57% of all consumers have used an online health service or platform of some kind in the past year, 93% of people plan to continue using these digital products in the future, which is promising news for startups and businesses in the wellness space.
- Branded Merch: Custom shirts, hoodies, bags and more have become a staple tool for savvy brands looking to build a sense of community, and in a year where physical connection was extremely difficult, customers were quick to show their support. 52% of people bought branded merch from a business in 2020, and 81% of these purchases were made to support a small business during the pandemic. It’s a trend that spans industries, from restaurants and bars to hair salons and bookstores, and 99designs by Vistaprint has seen a 134% increase in project briefs for branded merch since 2018, with a 32% jump in 2020.
For more information and an infographic illustrating these four emerging industries visit https://99designs.com/blog/business/emerging-industries-2021/
Methodology:
Industry growth data sourced from design contests and creative branding projects completed on the 99designs by Vistaprint platform between January 2018 and January 2021.
Consumer trends data sourced by 99designs via market research company Corus in February 2021. 4,178 responses were collected online from the following regions: North America (1,169), Australia (1,006), DACH (1,001) and the UK (1,002).
About 99designs by Vistaprint:
99designs by Vistaprint is the global creative platform that makes it easy for designers and clients to work together to create designs they love. Originally founded in 2008, 99designs has grown from a small, online forum into a worldwide community of talented designers that is now a go-to solution for small businesses, agencies and entrepreneurs. To date, designers have earned more than US $300m on the platform.
Media contact: pr@99designs.com
“The driving force behind Vistaprint’s future with 99designs is our passion to help small businesses,” said Robert Keane, founder and chief executive officer of both Cimpress and Vistaprint. “We know how critical great design is for entrepreneurs on their journey. 99designs and Vistaprint have shared values and vision to be a trusted partner to business owners and creators which lay the foundation for something bigger and more valuable than either of our teams could create alone.”
The combination of 99designs’ large network of talented freelance designers and Vistaprint’s more than 20 million customers will create a global platform which will make it easy for small businesses to access both professional design services and great marketing products in one place, and will provide freelance designers on the 99designs network the opportunity to work with Vistaprint customers.
Patrick Llewellyn, 99designs’ chief executive officer, said, “In a year when the whole world has had to work together online, 99designs’ mission of championing creativity to bring opportunities to people around the world has never been more relevant. We’ve been enabling remote creative connections for more than a decade and have seen firsthand how these fuel the success of small businesses and creators. Vistaprint’s belief and investment in both our team and technology is testament to the enormous potential in human-powered creativity, as well as the profound impact that great design has on a small business.”
With more than 20 million customers worldwide, Vistaprint offers an enormous selection of customizable design templates for marketing and promotional materials. Over the past few years, Vistaprint customers have increasingly leveraged its design services, accessing real-time graphic layout assistance. This program has become much loved by small business owners who turn to Vistaprint’s customer service team members for tasks that range from modifying an eye-catching banner to creating basic flyers or business cards. During the pandemic, customers have also flocked to Vistaprint’s “we design it for you” offering for the quick and easy layout of custom face masks. With the acquisition of 99designs, Vistaprint will expand to serve additional customer design needs.
“In order to become a more complete marketing partner to our customers we are augmenting our internal teams with 99designs’ wide-reaching community of talented freelance professional designers who are experts for more sophisticated design projects,” said Vistaprint Chief Marketing Officer Ricky Engelberg. “As businesses grow, the complexity and importance of their design needs also grow. To meet these needs as professionally and seamlessly as possible, we sought a partner that not only brings a scalable network of high-quality talent for design services, but who shares our vision for providing best-in-class solutions to business owners throughout their entrepreneurial journey.”
Patrick Llewellyn will report to Robert Keane and will continue to lead 99designs, and its large community of freelance designers will serve customers of both 99designs and Vistaprint. Vistaprint plans for significant post-acquisition investment to expand the 99designs team and to accelerate the pace of technology and product development for a large range of freelancer-powered design services to help small businesses.
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About Vistaprint
Vistaprint is the marketing partner to millions of small businesses around the world, empowering each one to live their dreams. For more than 20 years, we have helped small businesses look and feel credible through high-quality marketing products that include signage, logo apparel, promotional products, flyers and postcards, business cards, websites and digital marketing. With Vistaprint, small businesses are able to create and customize their marketing with easy-to-use digital tools and design-templates, or by receiving expert graphic design support. Our focus is on helping small businesses project a consistent and cohesive brand image that makes them look their best in-store, online, on-site and on-the-go.
About 99designs
99designs is the global creative platform that makes it easy for designers and clients to work together to create designs they love. Founded in 2008, 99designs has grown from a small, online forum into a worldwide community of talented designers that is now the go-to solution for businesses, agencies and individuals. 99designs has paid out more than US $300m to its creative community to date. With headquarters in Melbourne, Australia, 99designs also has offices in Oakland, California and Berlin, Germany.
About Cimpress
Cimpress plc (Nasdaq: CMPR) invests in and builds customer-focused, entrepreneurial, mass-customization businesses for the long term. Mass customization is a competitive strategy which seeks to produce goods and services to meet individual customer needs with near mass production efficiency. Cimpress businesses include BuildASign, Drukwerkdeal, Exaprint, National Pen, Pixartprinting, Printi, Vistaprint and WIRmachenDRUCK.
For more information please contact:
pr@99designs.com / PublicRelations@vistaprint.com
99designs Select gives clients on-demand access to a dedicated group of freelance creators who are curated around their brand’s specific day-to-day design needs; while 99designs Studio offers access to creative ideation and brainstorming on a global scale, as well as full-service management for larger scale projects and visual campaigns at a fixed price.
In-house creative teams around the world are facing new challenges. They are producing a wider variety of content across more channels than ever before – often with smaller budgets and leaner resources. This new suite of services from 99designs will help marketers and creative teams meet these challenges. Brands can build flexible, remote extensions of existing teams through Select, or tap into state-of-the-art ideation processes and fresh global perspectives through Studio.
“The creative industries have always been fueled by freelance talent: fresh perspectives and flexibility are integral to creative projects and teams around the world”, said 99designs CEO Patrick Llewellyn. “With the wider economy adapting rapidly to remote work on a global scale, more organizations are evolving and collaborating in ways they never thought possible.”
“Connecting with the right person, with the right skills, and at exactly the right moment – no matter where they are in the world – is really where the magic happens. We have facilitated more than a million creative connections and relationships on our platform over the past twelve years, and as the world becomes accustomed to new ways of working, 99designs Studio and Select will make that process even better for brands and marketers everywhere.”
Businesses can choose from two new services:
99designs Select
99designs Select offers clients access to a curated group of remote freelancers who are trained on the client’s brand guidelines, and are on call to execute day-to-day design tasks such as presentation decks, email banners, flyers, landing pages, white papers, ads, and more. For a one-off onboarding fee of US $2,500 99designs Select clients will receive the following:
● A hand-selected group of up to five freelance designers, pre-briefed and fully trained on your brand standards by the 99designs team
● Centralized access to these designers via 99designs’ intuitive design and collaboration tools
● US $500 credit towards your first creative project
● Platform training for internal teams
● Access to ongoing, on-demand support from a dedicated 99designs project manager for US $100/hour
● Ongoing work billed on a project-by-project basis (costs ranging from US $199-$2000 depending upon scope)
99designs Studio
Targeted at clients needing to get larger creative campaigns off the ground in as little as two weeks, 99designs Studio offers full-service ideation, refinement and delivery of larger visual projects for a fixed price. The typical 99designs Studio package costs US $4,999 and includes:
● End-to-end project delivery from experienced creative directors or brand strategists
● Unparalleled access to global ideation and creativity, as well as diverse international perspectives from the 99designs community
● Five initial creative concepts; with two concepts fully fleshed out (includes two rounds of feedback and amendments)
● The project cost covers all payments to designers as well as platform fees, NDAs and copyright transfer
About 99designs
99designs is the global creative platform that makes it easy for designers and clients to work together to create designs they love. Founded in 2008, 99designs has grown from a small, online forum into a worldwide community of talented designers that is now the go-to solution for businesses, agencies and individuals. 99designs has paid out more than US $300m to its creative community to date. With headquarters in Melbourne, Australia, 99designs also has offices in Oakland, California and Berlin, Germany.
For more information please contact pr@99designs.com
These are among the findings of a study from global creative platform 99designs in partnership with research firm Corus, which surveyed more than 1,200 business owners about how the pandemic is affecting entrepreneurial behavior and performance.
“Entrepreneurs’ problem-solving skills, creativity and resilience come into their own during times of adversity, and with crisis comes the opportunity for reinvention and new beginnings,” commented 99designs CEO, Patrick Llewellyn.
“It is significant that we’re even seeing the language around business starting to shift. In recent weeks, words and working styles more common to early-stage startups are hitting the mainstream: Pivots, collaboration, experimentation and iteration have made their way into the boardrooms of major corporations and small businesses across the country - often for the first time. There’s no doubt that the pandemic will have a lasting impact on society, but when it comes to business, it also has the potential to be a catalyst for innovation.”
How are SMBs pivoting?
With more than half of small businesses indicating that they have pivoted to adjust to COVID-19 conditions, this has meant a significant shift to operating and engaging with customers online:
● 66% of businesses who were not online before the outbreak are in the process of creating a website.
● More than a quarter of businesses (27%) are looking at refreshing their existing website as a result of COVID-19.
● Of those with plans to add ecommerce to their website, 25% of businesses have started due to COVID-19
● Another 21% are discussing ecommerce as a result of the outbreak.
● 39% of businesses have either started or are planning on increasing their social media output as a result of COVID-19.
● 41% are exploring new ways to engage with customers through new online content because of the pandemic.
Resilience, Re-skilling and Side Hustles
The findings also point to resilience and creativity among the small business sector, even in light of current conditions. For example:
● Despite global unemployment statistics, 50% of SMBs who employ workers have managed to maintain headcount over the past month – and 10% have even been hiring.
● Over a third (34%) of business owners are taking online classes or courses to upskill during this time of disruption.
● More than half (54%) plan to start a new company or side hustle during the pandemic -- and while 64% said their primary reason was because they need the income, 41% also said it was because they “have more time” and 37% said it was because they “always wanted to”.
For more data and insights, as well as a downloadable infographic, visit 99designs.com/covid-19-entrepreneurship
MEDIA CONTACT: caitlin.collins@99designs.com
As it has done for the past two years, 99designs has identified the following emerging industries forecast for explosive growth in 2020, based on analysis of the number of companies in these sectors requesting design work on the platform:
Astrology-related businesses: Already an estimated $2.1 billion dollar industry that’s caught the eye of venture capitalists, astrology businesses include everything from horoscope apps and podcasts to spiritual consultancies. The number of astrology-related brands in this sector getting design work has risen 209% since 2015 and more than doubled (127% increase) in the past 12 months.
Biohacking: Also known as 'DIY biology,' biohacking encompasses a wide array of practices used to boost physical and mental performance. That can mean anything from sleep tracking and IV hydration therapy to intermittent fasting and much more. The number of businesses in this sector commissioning creative work on 99designs is up 445% since 2015 and 71% in the past year alone.
Cannabidiol (CBD) businesses: Already estimated to be a multi-billion dollar global industry spanning food and drink, health and beauty, pet products and more, 99designs has seen an incredible 1568% increase in cannabidiol related design work since 2015. With a sharp 61% increase over the past 12 months, the sector is showing no signs of slowing down as it continues to shed its social stigma thanks to more widespread legalization and increased public awareness of the difference between psychoactive (THC) and non-psychoactive cannabis extracts.
Vegan and plant-based products: Continuing with the health and wellness trend, vegan and plant-based brands continue to flourish with the number of design projects in this space showing a 20% increase year-over-year, and a 214% increase since 2015.
“Every year we take the pulse of what’s on the rise and the wane in terms of the types of businesses creating brands on our platform. It’s a fun way to spot emerging industry trends on a global scale,” said 99designs COO Pamela Webber. “While last year it was all about drones, AI healthcare and influencer agencies, 2020 shows a notable shift toward the wellness space. We think it is driven by consumers seeking to take control and wanting to address social anxieties and concerns about their health, happiness and future success.”
An infographic and more information about design trends in these sectors can be found here.
About 99designs: 99designs is the global creative platform that makes it easy for designers and clients to work together to create designs they love. Founded in 2008, 99designs has grown from a small, online forum into a worldwide community of talented designers that is now the go-to solution for businesses, agencies and individuals. With headquarters in Melbourne, Australia, 99designs also has offices in Oakland, California and Berlin, Germany.
Press Contact: pr@99designs.com
The report reveals insights into the world’s freelance design community, mapping out key demographics, shared attitudes, common challenges, and a wide range of professional expertise both within and outside of the creative industries.
Findings show that, overall, the freelance design workforce is thriving. Creative freedom and personal flexibility are the primary motivation for most freelance designers, and just 5% said they freelance out of necessity.
One in four freelance designers identify as part of a minority group based on ethnicity, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability. However, diversity was also flagged as one of the most significant challenges facing the industry as a whole, with one in five freelancers also having experienced discrimination based on their minority status in a professional situation.
“Our industry is made better by opening itself up to more voices and more diversity,” 99designs CEO Patrick Llewellyn explains. “We look forward to a world where creativity meets possibility and design is truly global.”
The full report can be downloaded here but a few notable findings include:
Creative work is more accessible than ever before
- While creative industries have traditionally flourished in cities like New York, San Francisco and London, the majority of freelance designers (76%) now live outside urban hubs in smaller cities, towns, villages and rural areas.
- Technology is a key driver in democratizing access to creative work. Globally, online platforms are the number one source for new clients (57%), but social media (11%) is also a key channel for client acquisition.
Freelance designers are global citizens
- 85% of freelance designers work with clients outside of their own time zone.
- They are also exceptionally well-travelled: 43% of freelance designers have lived and worked abroad, and just over a quarter have lived and worked in 3+ countries.
- Digital nomadism is not a uniquely millennial phenomenon: between 6 and 7% of designers in every age bracket (including those over 50) have lived and worked in 10 or more countries.
Designers are driven to create their own success
- Upskilling is important to designers: 60% are currently teaching themselves new skills, particularly online (74% of freelance designers gain insights and skills using YouTube tutorials)
- A high proportion of freelance designers have formal design training (40% undergraduate, 9% postgraduate, 20% technical certificate) but just 15% feel this is crucial for industry success - suggesting it is continuous self-directed learning that really fuels a designer’s creative career.
They have a complicated relationship with agencies
- The majority of designers under 30 (52%) are ditching their agency jobs after just two years, which is much earlier than previous generations.
- 40% of freelancers have agency experience, but only 13% see working full-time at an agency as part of their five-year plan. However, 44% of designers see setting up their own agency as a future goal.
About 99designs
99designs is the global creative platform that makes it easy for designers and clients to work together to create designs they love. Founded in 2008, and with offices in Melbourne, Oakland and Berlin, 99designs has grown from a small online forum into a worldwide community of talented designers that is now a go-to solution for businesses, agencies and individuals.
Methodology
This online survey was conducted by 99designs between in June 2019 and distributed via email, social media, and industry-targeted ads on Instagram. 11,204 designers responded from the following regions: APAC (3,364), Europe (2,390), North America (933), South America (552), Africa (437), Unknown (3,528).
Press Contact: pr@99designs.com
“Being an entrepreneur is tough, but doing it as a parent - and particularly as a mother - is even tougher,” said 99designs CEO Patrick Llewellyn. “The data shows the vast majority of care-giving responsibility falls on women and this ultimately contributes to both financial and labor inequality. With well over a million customers and designers having worked on our platform, we know many of them are balancing the role of entrepreneur and parent, and we think it’s important to shine a light on the sheer effort that goes into making a small business successful, both at work and at home.”
ADDITIONAL FINDINGS:
- 11% of male founders with children have raised between $US50,000 - $US99,000 vs 6% of female founders who have kids
- 36% of founder fathers have raised over $US100,000 vs 22% of founder mothers
- 30% of business-owning mums are putting in 50+ hours of childcare each week on top of their day jobs, compared to just 10% of founder dads
- Another 21% of female founders who have kids spend 31-49 hours on childcare each week vs 12% of fathers
- Overall, 71% of female entrepreneurs (parents and non-parents) volunteer vs 61% of male entrepreneurs (parents and non-parents)
- Mothers in this group are even more likely to give up their time, with 78% regularly volunteering to help not-for-profit organisation compared to 62% of founder fathers.
- 69% of single parents also volunteer personally.
- 43% of entrepreneurs had at least one parent who ran their own business.
- However most (72%) were not encouraged to think of entrepreneurship as a good career option when they were young.
- Only 21% of women were encouraged to start their own business by their parents compared to 31% of men.
- But this is changing: 82% of founders with kids would actively encourage their own children to take an entrepreneurial path.
- Only 2% said they would discourage their children from starting a business.
- Interestingly, single parent entrepreneurs are even more likely (89%) to actively encourage their children to become an entrepreneur.
- 77% of mothers expect their business revenue to grow in 2019 compared to 82% of founder fathers.
- 53% of founders who are mothers are solopreneurs, and 40% have between 2-10 employees.
- 40% of father founders surveyed are solopreneurs, and 49% have between 2-10 employees.
About 99designs:
99designs is the global creative platform that makes it easy for designers and clients to work together to create designs they love. Founded in 2008, 99designs has grown from a small, online forum into a worldwide community of talented designers that is now the go-to solution for businesses, agencies and individuals. With headquarters in Melbourne, Australia 99designs has operations in Oakland, California and Berlin, Germany.
caitlin.collins@99designs.com
The accelerated growth in designer earnings is largely thanks to the company’s investment in its direct work product in the past 12 months. This newer way of working on 99designs allows clients to hire one designer for a specific project as an alternative to running a design contest where multiple designers are invited to submit concepts for consideration.
To date, 250,000 direct work projects between designers and clients have been completed on 99designs, the scope of which includes everything from quick design tweaks to in-depth specialist app design. Pricing for these projects can range anywhere between fifty and several thousand dollars depending on the type and scale of work required. In Q3 of this year, 35 percent of total designer earnings came from one-to-one projects. This is a significant increase on 2017 figures, and the upward trend has continued strongly in Q4.
This investment in direct work has also had a positive impact on agency sign-up rates for the 99designs Pro service, with the company onboarding 4x as many agencies per month than last year.
“The team has worked really hard to ensure 99designs evolves to better serve the needs of both our designers and our customers, and it’s gratifying to see this growth in direct work pay off for our community,” says 99designs CEO Patrick Llewellyn.
"To see a 25 percent increase in all time earnings on the platform in just over a year has been super satisfying, and it’s great to experience this kind of growth a decade into the company’s journey. We’re excited to continue advancing the direct work experience on 99designs and supporting our talented creative community in building strong, long-lasting working relationships.”
According to the second annual International Women’s Day Entrepreneurship Survey by online graphic design marketplace 99designs, 28% of the men polled raised at least $100K or more to start their business, as compared to just 15% of the women. These numbers show little change from the results of last year’s survey showing a gap of 12% vs. 6%, respectively.
In addition to being less likely to raise significant outside funding, female entrepreneurs were more likely to be operating home-based businesses (68% vs. 48% of men) and sole proprietorships (49% of women vs. 31% of men) than their male counterparts. They were also more likely to say they put in a “second shift” at night - 67% vs. 61% for men.
“Women all over the world have become more vocal over the last two years, speaking out and marching toward political, social and economic change. Many of these issues are present in the world of entrepreneurship, as you can see exposed through the results of our survey, which we hope paints an honest picture of where women business owners are today,” said 99designs Chief Marketing and Operations Officer Pamela Webber. “It’s also interesting to see that – despite the gender funding gap – there is so much common ground between the sexes on the experience and attitudes toward entrepreneurship.”
- Experience the same levels of guilt about spending time with their business
- Cited “less time with friends” as the biggest sacrifice to being an entrepreneur - although men were more likely to cite “less time with family” than women at 46% vs. 34%)
- See a “Hard Work Ethic” followed by “Confidence” as the top skills/traits needed to be a successful entrepreneur
- Believe “Charisma,” “Intelligence” and “Financial Acumen” to be the most overrated traits for success as an entrepreneur
- Named “Not asking for help” as the top “biggest mistake” they’ve made
- Cited the same 2 “biggest fears” - 1) Finding new customers; 2) Getting out of my comfort zone
- Listed the same top 3 motivations for starting a business: 1) Passion for or expertise in an area; 2) Freedom/flexible schedule; 3) Always wanted to be an entrepreneur
About 99designs
415.706.1906
press@99designs.com
At the same time, a group of designers connected online for the first time as part of an informal competition, sparking the idea for a dedicated, on-demand marketplace for design. This initial connection exploded into a global network of ideas, inspiration and motivation, marking the conception of 99designs.
To date, the platform has seen almost 900,000 projects launched, and has served nearly 500,000 customers.
The past ten years have seen 99designs establish itself as the world’s largest design marketplace, achieve profitability, and grow from a humble meeting place for designers to a global one-stop-shop for all design needs. 2017 saw 99designs surpass AUD $250 million in designer earnings and relocate its HQ back to Melbourne after seven years in Silicon Valley.
99designs satisfies every design need, from logos and t-shirts to websites and book covers. Its client base is just as diverse, servicing everyone from individuals and small businesses to agencies and Fortune 500 corporations.
On the growth of 99designs, CEO Patrick Llewellyn notes, “Over the past decade we have done a great job of opening the world up to design in a meaningful way. 99designs has facilitated many entrepreneurs’ first connection with a designer, and we have helped build designers’ careers all over the world by putting more than $250 million into their hands.”
“When it comes to the next 10 years, I would like to see 99designs become the global work platform of choice for businesses and individuals with any creative need or skill set. We will build on the work we’ve started with our new ‘designer search’ feature to leverage our significant data sources and understanding of how creatives and their customers communicate, to enhance and spark the creativity connection that occurs when humans collaborate together to solve creative problems and to help foster long term meaningful working connections,” Llewellyn adds.
While still running its popular design contests, almost 25% of 99designs’ revenue already comes from projects where a customer works directly with an individual designer. To mark this evolution in the way people naturally collaborate on the platform, 99designs has launched a new ‘Find a Designer’ tool that allows individuals, agencies, and companies to browse and select a designer based on their needs. This functionality is the first step in the platform’s next 10 years of growth as a creative services marketplace.
Llewellyn comments, “We’ll continue to break down borders and champion the talent of creatives everywhere. Our platform will move into the corporate mainstream, as we, like many other service marketplaces, expand our audience from primarily servicing the consumer and solo entrepreneur to supporting agencies and the enterprise.”
- Each month, 99designs puts AUD $4.7 million into the hands of designers using the platform
- 99designs is an international community promoting seamless global collaboration: designers from 184 countries have used the platform in the past twelve months
- 875,552 design projects have launched on the 99designs platform
- The past decade has seen the team grow from 10 to 120+ employees
- 99designs has offices on three continents with approximately 50 people in Melbourne, 50 in Oakland and 20 in Berlin
- The fastest-growing element on the 99designs platform is its direct collaboration projects, which now generates just under 25% of 99designs’ revenue. The new ‘Find a Designer’ tool aims to build on this growth, propelling the business into its second decade.
- The fastest growing customer segment on 99designs is marketing agencies. Through 99designs’ recently launched Pro for Agencies, agencies have access to top talent, exclusive onboarding and training, and features designed to help streamline their projects.
For all of these stories and more, head to https://99designs.com/blog/community/10years/.
About 99designs
The PR Group for 99designs
caitlin@prgroup.com.au
+61 400 958 887
The annual competition is in its third year running and has received more than 40,000 votes from clients, 99designs designers and company employees to elect the best of the best designs from across the platform. In addition to familiar award categories from past years, such as “Best 1-to-1 Project” and “Most Surprising Design”, this year new categories have been added, including “Best Use of Stock Photography” and “Best New Artist”, to highlight the breadth of talent available on 99designs.
“While 99awards highlights some of the most amazing design work done on 99designs each year, it really is a celebration of our entire designer community who inspire each other to elevate their craft all year long,” explained 99designs CEO Patrick Llewellyn. “Having earned over $200M since inception of the company, we are excited to celebrate the entire community’s work as well as the individuals who have earned awards this year. The quality of designers is what makes 99designs the best place to get quality design done.
Paying out more than $3.5 million USD per month to designers across more than 90 design categories, 99designs is dedicated to helping designers around the world find access to work and build their skills.
Specifically, educational resources are available to all designers via several avenues including the 99designs blog, forum and other community-based educational programs. Other initiatives include Top Level Opportunities, which invites members of the community to mentor other designers through peer portfolio reviews, Forum moderation and blog guest posts, and the Top 9 at 99 program, which celebrates top designers on 99designs each month and inspires them to challenge themselves.
About 99designs
Bringing Adobe Stock into the 99designs platform alleviates a major pain point for designers who no longer have to guide customers through complexities regarding usage restrictions, ownership rights, file transfers and other issues that can be involved in finding and buying photos from other outside vendors.
"Our vision at 99designs is to be the most trusted platform for designers to find and do work," explains 99designs CEO Patrick Llewellyn. "That means finding ways to help freelance designers focus on design and taking care of the rest - from facilitating payment to file management and feedback to inputs like image sourcing and ownership. This collaboration is a great step in that direction."
About 99designs
“While entrepreneurs and small businesses continue to constitute the core of our business at 99designs, sales from the agency sector is actually growing about sixty percent faster than any other type of customer,” said Llewellyn.
About 99designs
“Over the past couple of years, we’ve made a strong and conscious decision to be laser-focused on maximizing our core business, building a platform that facilitates the highest quality work by talented designers around the world for businesses large and small,” said Patrick Llewellyn, President and CEO, 99designs. “The fact that we were able to reach and attain self-sustaining growth, generate revenue and opportunities for people around the world and turn a profit is a proud achievement for this company.”
Over the past two years, business from digital and marketing agencies has begun to account for a small but growing proportion of sales, according to Llewellyn: “While entrepreneurs and small businesses continue to constitute the core of our business at 99designs, sales from the agency sector in particular is actually growing about sixty percent faster than any other type of customer.”
About 99designs
“Havenwood,” a self-published novel by Eric Slade whose cover was created by 99designs designer Andrei Bat, received first place honors in the “Self-Published Cover” category in the “Young Adult” genre of the awards, which were presented at a ceremony in New York City last week.
According to Slade, who commissioned designer Andrei Bat to work on the cover design through the 99designs online graphic design platform, “Havenwood’s cover included 19th century decorative elements to convey a sense of history to prospective readers. Andrei Bat’s digital painting style is both luminous and moody."
Hosted by the Book Industry Guild of New York (BIGNY), the New York Book Show is an annual event that offers publishing and printing professionals an opportunity to mingle while honoring the best examples of quality book design and production from the previous year. The show’s aim is to showcase the best books as judged by a panel of industry professionals who evaluate manufacturing, production, and design qualities of entries in six main and a myriad of subcategories. The winners (which are featured in an online gallery here) are selected from hundreds of entries sent in by publishers and suppliers from around the country.
“This award is further validation of the creativity and high quality of our designer community,” said 99designs CEO Patrick Llewellyn. “99designs has from its earliest origins been a champion for great design from talented individuals around the world. In recent years, we’ve dedicated even greater resources in tools and processes to further help our community to produce their best work. We commend Andrei on this award and for his contributions to 99designs”
For more information on the winning design and winning designer, Andrei Bat, visit here.
About 99designs
These are just a few of the topline findings revealed in a recent survey by online graphic design marketplace 99designs that polled more than 1,290 male and female business owners with at least one child under 18 from US, Europe and Australia about various aspects of their business and personal lives.
Among the most notable findings in the 99designs Mother’s Day Mompreneur Survey include:
Majority of mom entrepreneurs started ventures at age 40 or older and still serve as primary childcare provider
Fifty-seven percent of mom respondents started their venture at or older than age 40, and 80% waited until having kids. The average age of these moms’ first child at the time they started their business was six years old. The vast majority of the women (79%) are married, and nearly all (95%) have a partner who brings in an income. Only 5% of respondents have three or more children – 79% have 1-2 kids, and more than two-thirds (71%) still serve as the primary childcare provider.
In contrast to these findings, of the male parent entrepreneurs surveyed, only 66% had a partner bringing in an income, and only 13% said they served as the primary childcare provider in the home. In addition, a lower percentage of men (61%) than women waited until after having children to start their business.
Mompreneurs put in “second shifts,” sacrifice hobbies and workouts – but not sleep or family time
Nearly three-quarters (73%) of female respondents admitted to at least sometimes putting in a “second shift” of work after the children go to bed, however the majority (63%) still manage to squeeze in at least 6-8 hours or more of sleep per night. On the other hand, 88% of women polled say they spend fewer than 3-4 hours per week on any outside hobbies. Of the “sacrifices” most often cited, “less time working out” at 67% was followed closely by “less time with friends” at 64% - but “less time with family” was in last place at 54%.
Guilt is common – but “Flexibility” tops list of benefits of entrepreneur path for moms
Just like any other working parent, many mompreneurs admit to feeling guilt at least sometimes (44%) and less than a third (32%) said they “rarely” or “never” felt guilt about spending time on their business.
Funding gap: Mompreneurs more likely to bootstrap their ventures
Significantly fewer mom entrepreneurs (19%) secured any outside funding for their business as compared to male parent respondents at 27%. This is consistent to the funding gap 99designs revealed in its last general entrepreneur survey released in March that showed twice as many male entrepreneurs had raised $100,000 or more in funding for their business than female entrepreneurs.
“Female-owned businesses account for 30 percent of privately held companies in the US, and these companies are expected to create more than 5 million new jobs nationwide by 2018. A growing number of these startups have a mom at the helm, and we wanted to take a closer look at just who these hard-working mom entrepreneurs are and how they do what they do,” explains 99designs Chief Marketing Officer Pamela Webber.
“Overall, what we see is that the picture of the long-suffering working mom stereotype doesn’t necessarily apply across the board. While a good proportion of women sometimes feeling guilt, it’s interesting to see that neither sleep nor family time seem to be getting sacrificed for their entrepreneurial pursuit. It could be that entrepreneurship is actually much better for working moms than traditional corporate jobs because of the greater flexibility. We’ll have to look at that comparison in the future.”
For more detailed findings from the 99designs Mother’s Day Mompreneur Survey, along with details about methodology and an infographic, along with interviews with several influential mompreneurs, please visit https://99designs.com/blog/business/mom-entrepreneur-infographic/
- A visually-intuitive creative brief highly tailored to support different genres and book types such as hardback, paperback, and digital
- The opportunity to have dozens of designers create custom book cover designs and, if needed, custom illustrations for self-publishers to choose from
- Interior book design and typesetting services staffed by hundreds of designers certified for IngramSpark, CreateSpace and other self-publishing platforms
- A cost calculator to help with estimating the total cost of self-publishing a book
“With over a million new books published each year** – standing out in the crowd as an author is critical. In fact, a recent test we ran showed a book cover designed through 99designs can increase reader interest by a whopping 51 percent or more, validating the power of our solution,” explained 99designs CEO Patrick Llewellyn. “99designs can now fully serve the design needs of the self-publisher seeking a custom book design to help them stand-out on the shelf.”
How 99designs’ Book Design Solution Works
- Filling out a simple and visually intuitive creative brief outlining their specific needs and preferences, and choosing a budget for the project.
- A customer receives dozens of design options from vetted, professional designers, and provides feedback to these designers to guide the process.
- Seven days later, a customer chooses from a group of finalists and chooses their favorite.
Custom illustration projects for books follow the same process.
Overall, self-publishers go from brief to final files within 7-10 days. Ebook covers on 99designs start at $199, physical book covers from $299, ebooks from $199, and both from $449.
“Working with 99designs on my cover helped my book, ‘Sunrises to Santiago,’ become a bestseller for travel adventure books about the Camino de Santiago. It has been featured in USA Today, Deseret News National and DayBreak USA,” said author Gabriel Schirm, a 99designs book design customer. “It also inspired me to quit my job and write full time.”
To learn more, visit: https://99designs.com/book-design-services.
This is the second year in a row that 99designs has hosted a competition among its design community, inviting customers, 99designs designers and company employees to vote for their favorites in such categories as “Most Epic Design” “Most Surprising Design,” “Best Throwback Design,” and “Best Use of Custom Illustration.” More than 30,000 votes were cast and nominations were received from among nearly 150,000 design projects completed on the site last year.
For a full list of winners in each category, along with details about the design projects and designers, visit https://99designs.com/best-design-awards/2017.
“We’re excited to celebrate the amazing talent pool within our designer community and to further promote design quality and creativity from around the world,” explained 99designs CEO Patrick Llewellyn. “Over the past year, especially since unveiling our rebrand last spring, we’ve been dedicated to creating even better opportunities for designers around the world. The results have been great – with over $170 million in payouts to designers to date for everything from logos and websites to book covers and product packaging.”
99designs Committed to Design Community
Paying out more than $3.5 million USD per month to designers across more than 90 design categories, 99designs is dedicated to helping designers around the world find access to work and build their skills.
Specifically, educational resources are available to all designers via several avenues including the 99designs blog, forum and other community-based educational programs. Other initiatives include an Advocates Program, comprised of members of the community, that is dedicated to mentoring other designers through peer portfolio reviews and by hosting webinars, and the Top 9 program, which celebrates top designers on 99designs each month and inspires them to challenge themselves.
About 99designs
99designs is the world’s largest on-demand design marketplace, connecting a global community of freelance designers with businesses of all sizes to complete their design needs. Created by designers for designers, 99designs began with a group of designers who were competing together to create the best designs. In 2008, that friendly competition grew into a unique design marketplace that has now become the world leader in online graphic design. 99designs is changing the lives of designers around the world by providing them with an opportunity to access customers globally, to earn income, and to build their portfolios. 99designs has operations in the USA, Australia and Germany.
Of the male respondents surveyed, 12% of them had secured $100,000 or more in funding compared to only 6% of women, which highlights that potential obstacles still exist for women entrepreneurs. In the US specifically, the pattern is the same, with 12% of men raising more than $100,000 compared to just 5% of female entrepreneurs. Men start their entrepreneurial ventures younger than women.
While 18% of male respondents started businesses between the ages of 18-25, only 12% of women got their start this young. And of those entrepreneurs who began ventures at 35 years or older, 43% of women fell into this category compared to just 35% of men. Men tend to work more hours a day on their venture while women (still) spend more time with family.
Internationally, it seems that traditional family roles and childcare affect the amount of time entrepreneurs dedicate to a venture, with nearly a fifth (19%) of women entrepreneurs spending over five hours a day with their family vs. 13% of men. The number of hours worked demonstrates the opposite trend, with 13% of men working over 12 hours per day vs. 7% of women. However, among US respondents, these numbers were slightly closer – with approximately 19% of women reporting they spend 5+ hours with family vs. 17% of men. And of those spending 8-12 hours a day on a business venture, women and men varied by 13% (56% of US men vs. 43% of US women). Men say they are more likely to read books to improve their skills, while women are more likely to take a course.
18% of male respondents said they prefer to build their skills via books, versus only 13% of women. It seems that more structured learning is the method of choice for women, with 14% of them favoring courses and seminars to men (9%). Women value “networking” more highly than men as the most important skill for an entrepreneur, while men value “patience” more than women entrepreneurs.
Nearly a quarter (23%) of the women respondents listed networking as the most important skill when starting a business, compared with 19% of men. And patience was a more valued trait for men, with 18% of male respondents saying they thought patience was key versus only 12% of women.
99designs is the world’s largest on-demand design marketplace, connecting a global community of freelance designers with businesses of all sizes to complete their design needs. Created by designers for designers, 99designs began with a group of designers who were competing together to create the best designs. In 2008, that friendly competition grew into a design marketplace that has now become the world leader in online graphic design. 99designs is changing the lives of designers around the world by providing them with an opportunity to access customers globally, to earn income, and to build their portfolios. 99designs has operations in Oakland, Calif., Melbourne and Berlin.
Oakland – July 20, 2016 – 99designs, the world’s largest online graphic design marketplace, announced today that its community of graphic designers has now earned more than $150 million USD through its platform. With more than $3.5 million USD available each month to its global design community via 90 design categories (including emerging categories such as Mobile App Design and Book Cover Design), 99designs has built the number one freelance design community through its commitment to helping designers around the world find access to work and expanding their access to applied learning.
"Design is shaping future careers and the next generation of business across the globe and we are pleased to be playing a part in this phenomenon. Our unique combination of education and competition has accelerated the careers of designers all over the world," said Patrick Llewellyn, CEO and President of 99designs. "Education and ongoing access to work is central to what we do at 99designs and key to helping us achieve our vision of owning design online."
Over the past eight years 99designs has expanded its commitment to educating the world’s designers and continues to devote significant resources that help designers grow their skills. The design community is an integral part of the 99designs story and one out of every four employees of 99designs works in a role that engages directly with them, including a team dedicated to curating, educating and nurturing its members. Educational resources are available to all designers via several avenues including the blog, forum and community based educational programs.
Other initiatives include an Advocates Program, comprised of members of the community, that is dedicated to mentoring other designers through peer portfolio reviews and by hosting webinars, and the Top 9 program, which celebrates top designers on 99designs each month and inspires them to challenge and push themselves. Recently, 99designs launched its inaugural 99awards where top designers from the past year were recognized by their favorite customers, 99designs employees, and by other designers on the platform.
99designs continues to give back to its community and starting today, designers registered on 99designs will also receive a 30-day trial of Lynda, from Linkedin, where they will have access to over 1,000 design courses including inspirational documentaries from professionals at the top of their game, real world conceptual design skills and in depth coverage of every major professional design tool. All designers are encouraged to participate in a one-week curriculum curated by the design experts at 99designs to learn new design techniques and challenge their skills. Designers can learn more about this offer at this page.
About 99designs
99designs is the world’s largest on-demand design marketplace, connecting a global community of freelance designers with businesses of all sizes to complete their design needs. Created by designers for designers, 99designs began with a group of designers who were competing together to create the best designs. In 2008, that friendly competition grew into a unique design marketplace that has now become the world leader in online graphic design. 99designs is changing the lives of designers around the world by providing them with an opportunity to access customers globally, to earn income, and to build their portfolios. 99designs has paid out more than $150M to designers around the world to date at a rate of $3.5 million per month. Headquartered in Oakland, Calif., 99designs has operations in Australia, Germany, Japan, and Brazil.
World’s largest graphic design marketplace celebrates milestones and record year with unveil of rebrand
San Francisco – March 8, 2016 – 99designs, the world’s largest online graphic design marketplace, is celebrating a record-breaking year that includes the strongest performance in the history of the company.
In its eighth consecutive year of double-digit growth, 99designs achieved revenue approaching $60 million USD. The 99designs platform facilitates over 10,000 design contests every month, and in total, customers have launched over 500,000 design contests over the life of the company. 99designs’ fast growing 1-to-1 Projects feature, a workspace where a designer and a customer can collaborate individually on the platform, has grown 50% year-over-year and now accounts for 15% of the company’s total revenue. Designer payouts are now averaging $3.5 million USD per month and have have reached $142 million USD lifetime, best in class in the online graphic design world.
“We enjoyed our best year yet in 2015 as we achieved nearly $60 million USD in revenue, including a 50% year-over-year growth in our 1-to-1 Projects service that now accounts for 15% of all revenue,” said Patrick Llewellyn, President and CEO, 99designs. “Our success is driven by our single-minded focus on solving the significant challenges that exist in the global design market. By continually investing in the quality of our design community and the tools that allow them to connect and collaborate with customers online, we’re attracting a larger segment of premium customers to 99designs. This will fuel our growth in 2016 and beyond.”
99designs serves the design needs of entrepreneurs and SMBs looking to launch their brands and has a growing customer base of major brands and marketing agencies that are using 99designs to source graphic design, a validation of the quality of the freelance graphic designers on the platform.
Global expansion has been a central part of 99designs’ success and 2015 was buoyed by strong performance in key markets. The top five performing markets are The United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and Germany. A $10 million USD Strategic Series B financing round in early 2015, led by Recruit Strategic Partners to fuel 99designs’ expansion into Asia, has been highly successful as Japan has become 99designs’ fastest growing territory ever.
To celebrate these major achievements, 99designs is launching a rebrand that reflects the company’s evolution from a destination for startups to get a quick and affordable logo design into the world’s largest on-demand marketplace for quality graphic design.
“We want to own design online. We’ve created a better way to get design done for businesses big and small,” said Llewellyn. “This rebrand celebrates what is core to the success of 99designs: the relationships customers have with our curated design community – the quality of work being created on the platform and the connection that designers have with their designs.”
About the 99designs rebrand
Over the past eight years 99designs has become the world’s largest graphic design marketplace by making it easier for design to do the things it was born to do: build businesses, shift attitudes, and change lives. The rebrand keeps the focus on the customers, the designers, and the way they collaborate to make a difference. Sourced through the company’s signature design contest platform, the new logo was designed by Onripus and was chosen from over 4,000 entries from 556 designers around the world. It is one part of the look and feel of the new rebrand that celebrates the connection between the designer, the customer and 99designs.
For more information about 99designs’ rebrand, please go here.
About 99designs
99designs is the world’s largest on-demand design marketplace, connecting a global community of freelance designers with businesses of all sizes to complete their design needs. Created by designers for designers, 99designs began with a group of designers who were competing together to create the best designs. In 2008, that friendly competition grew into a unique design marketplace that has now become the world leader in online graphic design. 99designs is changing the lives of designers around the world by providing them with an opportunity to access customers globally, to earn income, and to build their portfolios. 99designs has paid out more than $142M to designers around the world to date at a rate of $3.5 million per month. Headquartered in Oakland, Calif., 99designs has operations in Australia, Germany, Japan, and Brazil.
The global leader in logo design also adds Accel venture partner Rob Solomon to 99designs board of directors
SAN FRANCISCO – April 15, 2015 – 99designs, the world’s largest marketplace for graphic design, today announced it has received $10 million in a strategic Series B round of funding led by Recruit Strategic Partners, the Silicon Valley based venture capital arm of Japan’s Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd. Accel – the lead investor for 99designs’ Series A in 2011 has also reinvested and added partner Rob Solomon to the board.
According to 99designs CEO Patrick Llewellyn, the Recruit investment represents a strategic move to support the company’s further international expansion, particularly in Japan and other parts of Asia where Recruit is a dominant force in information services and marketplace matching services. In addition to helping accelerate worldwide growth, partnering with Recruit also opens the door to a wider corporate customer base for design services.
“We knew that we would need the right partner to enter Japan and expand our footprint in the broader Asia market,” explained Llewellyn. “Recruit believes crowdsourcing and marketplaces are an important part of the future of work and in empowering people to follow their dreams and find opportunity. This is something we have been doing successfully for designers and small businesses around the world since 2008, so the fit with our business is perfect.”
Recruit Strategic Partners (“RSP”) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Recruit, a Japan-based holding company that started as one of the first employment marketplaces and has evolved into the world’s largest matching platform across verticals including human resources, travel, real estate, bridal and dining.
“Investing in 99designs fits in with Recruit’s goal of becoming the number-one company in global matching across multiple sectors,” said Recruit Strategic Partners’ President & Managing Director Akihiko Okamoto. “They have helped more than 350,000 businesses launch and grow and paid out more than $110 million to designers around the world. With this investment, we can help them promote their global design platform throughout Asia and beyond.”
Accel’s participation in this round reflects the firm’s strong belief in 99designs’ strategic growth decisions. The addition of Accel venture partner Rob Solomon to the board of directors is also part of the company’s ongoing efforts to build a strong global consumer Internet brand. Most recently prior to Accel, Solomon served as President and COO at Groupon, where he led operations through the company’s hyper-growth phase and helped it scale into one of the fastest-growing companies ever.
“Since Accel Partners’ initial investment in 99designs four years ago, I’ve watched the company expand into new markets and evolve from a pioneer in contest-based logo design into a thriving marketplace for designers and SMBs to connect,” said Solomon. “As a board member, I’m excited to help them reach the next phase in their growth.”
About Recruit Holdings
Founded in 1960, Recruit Holdings is a leading information services and human resources company in Japan. Through a wide range of services, Recruit is delivering new discoveries and opportunities to users with information in such fields as employment, education, housing, marriage, travel, restaurants, beauty, cars, hobbies, and lifestyles. Recruit has more than 30,000 employees and operates in Asia and North America.
Recruit Strategic Partners, a wholly owned subsidiary of Recruit in Japan, is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm investing in innovative companies from all around the U.S. It offers industry knowledge and expertise to our entrepreneurs and is an integral part of Recruit's global investment business. Recruit Strategic Partners co-invests with leading venture capital firms in the U.S..
About Accel Partners
Founded in 1983 and based in Palo Alto, California, Accel has a long history of partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs and management teams to build world-class businesses. Accel has helped entrepreneurs build more than 300 successful technology companies, many of which have defined their categories, including AdMob, AirWatch, Atlassian, Braintree, Campaign Monitor, Cloudera, Couchbase, Dropbox, Etsy, Facebook, Fusion-IO, Groupon, Hootsuite, Kayak, Lookout, MoPub, Nimble Storage, Opower, OzForex, QlikTech, Qualtrics, Real Networks, Riverbed, Rovio, SeatGeek, Spotify, Squarespace, SuperCell, Trulia and VSCO.
About 99designs
99designs, the world’s largest logo design and graphic design marketplace, has helped more than 350,000 businesses access quality design at an affordable price and paid out more than $110 million to designers across the world. 99designs pioneered crowd-sourced design contests, where businesses receive a wide variety of design concepts and choose their favorite, and expanded to provide services for customers to work 1-to-1 with individual designers, purchase design templates from the ready-made logo store, or get small design projects done within an hour through Tasks. With more than 950,000 designers from 192 countries around the world, 99designs’ suite of services helps businesses succeed through great design created by a robust community of talented graphic designers. Headquartered in San Francisco, 99designs has operations in Australia, Germany and Brazil.
Design services marketplace is latest and largest tech company to move across the bay
San Francisco, CA (March 25, to_timestamp(2015)) - 99designs, the largest global marketplace for graphic design, today announced plans to move its corporate headquarters from San Francisco to Oakland in spring 2015. Based in San Francisco for the past five years, 99designs will relocate to the historic Breuner’s building at 2201 Broadway in the burgeoning Uptown District of Oakland in order to accommodate the company’s accelerating growth.
99designs’ 14,000 square-foot office will be completely custom-renovated on the top floor of the building that was once Breuner’s flagship furniture store. Already home to other tech startups, the historic art-deco building features a penthouse roof deck, an ideal outdoor space for meetings. The move is expected to be completed in May 2015.
“The decision to move to Oakland was inspired by several factors, including our desire to be part of the city’s flourishing art, design and tech community. We think Oakland is a perfect location for us to access all the talent that resides in the broader East Bay area as we continue to recruit a broad range of talent to grow out our team,” said 99designs President and CEO Patrick Llewellyn. “We love the Uptown neighborhood in particular because of its proximity to public transportation and the variety of food, fitness and entertainment experiences. We think our employees will quickly become part of the fabric of the neighborhood.”
"Oakland's local economy and its businesses have long benefitted from encouraging innovation, creativity and growth of companies in a variety of areas. Most recently this has included the design and technology sectors," said Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. "We're excited that 99designs is attracted to Oakland and recognizes the unique advantages of doing business here. I'm sure they will enhance our business environment - building community and the bottom line."
99designs has signed a five-year lease for 14,161 square-feet at 2201 Broadway with an option to assume the entire floor as space becomes available, giving it up to 26,000 square-feet of space on a single floor. The building is owned and managed by Metrovation. 99designs was represented by Jon Dishotsky of Custom Spaces and Mike Keely of CBRE and Metrovation was represented by Trent Holsman of Colliers International. Chris Curtis of Metrovation said, “We are very excited to be working with 99designs to create a truly unique tech space on the top floor of our historic building for their new headquarters. We are very pleased to welcome them to our building and to Oakland’s Uptown.”
Deborah Boyer, president, Lake Merritt/Uptown District Association said, "I’m delighted to welcome 99designs and its employees to the Uptown District, one of the best live/work/play neighborhoods in the Bay Area. The vibrancy of our eclectic Uptown community is continually enhanced by creative companies like 99designs drawn to locate here."
About 99designs
99designs, the world’s largest logo and graphic design marketplace, has helped over 380,000 businesses access quality design at an affordable price. 99designs pioneered crowd-sourced design contests, where businesses receive a wide variety of design concepts and choose their favorite, and expanded to provide services for customers to work 1-on-1 with individual designers, purchase design templates from the ready-made logo store, or get small design projects done within an hour through Tasks. With more than 990,000 designers from 192 countries around the world, 99designs’ suite of services helps businesses succeed through great design created by a robust community of talented graphic designers. 99designs is backed by Accel Partners.
New offering helps businesses launch and grow
San Francisco – March 17, 2015 – 99designs, the largest global marketplace for graphic design, and Jimdo, one of the leading website builders, today announced a strategic partnership to provide small business owners with logo design, website creation and hosting seamlessly on the 99designs website. By bringing the services together it will be easier, faster and more affordable for clients across the globe to launch their businesses and begin offering products and services quickly.
"We think great brands start with a great logo and 99designs has successfully created hundreds of thousands of logos for businesses and entrepreneurs globally," said 99designs President and CEO Patrick Llewellyn. "As we’ve grown and evolved, so have our customers’ needs. Now, with the addition of Jimdo, businesses can extend the essence of the brand captured in their logo to their hosted website."
The deep integration between 99designs and Jimdo makes it even easier for entrepreneurs around the world to launch a business without having to spend time locating, interviewing and hiring designers and developers for logo and website creation. Instead, an owner can focus energy and time on other important business initiatives. 99designs delivers a professionally designed logo and ready-to-use, mobile-friendly, easy-to-edit Jimdo website for as little as $499. A custom logo design and matching website is live in as quickly as fourteen days. The package includes hosting for a year.
"This package also allows businesses to manage and edit their website even after the logo design contest is over, without requiring any special skills," said Jimdo co- founder Christian Springub."
"Businesses need a strong brand and a strong website presence to succeed and this new partnership will provide that quickly, easily and affordably. Jimdo and 99designs were both founded to help small businesses create and grow, and this logo and website package is only the beginning."
How it works in four easy steps
- Customers visit 99designs and launch a Logo+Website contest.
- Customers complete a creative brief by answering a few questions about their business and preferred design style.
- Design concepts stream in at which time the customer can collaborate and provide feedback to refine their favorite.
- The customer selects a final logo design and the designer delivers a hosted Jimdo website that is easy to edit without requiring any technical skill.
What’s included for $499.
- Logo Design
- Hosted website styled by designer to match the logo
- Custom domain name
- One year of free hosting
About 99designs
99designs, the world’s largest graphic design marketplace, has helped over 350,000 businesses access quality design at an affordable price. 99designs pioneered crowd- sourced design contests, where businesses receive a wide variety of design concepts and choose their favorite, and expanded to provide services for customers to work 1-on-1 with individual designers, purchase design templates from the ready-made logo store, or get small design projects done within an hour through Tasks. With more than 950,000 designers from 192 countries around the world, 99designs’ suite of services helps businesses succeed through great design created by a robust community of talented graphic designers. 99designs is backed by Accel Partners.
About Jimdo
Jimdo is the easiest way to create a website on a computer, smartphone, or tablet. With a simple intuitive interface, Jimdo enables anyone to create a customized online presence with a blog and online store. Founded in Germany in 2007 by Christian Springub, Fridtjof Detzner, and Matthias Henze, the company set a new standard in website creation. Profitable since 2009 without venture capital, Jimdo has a passionate team of 200 people in Hamburg, San Francisco, and Tokyo. Jimdo is available in 9 languages and has helped people build over 12 million websites. For more on Jimdo visit: http://www.jimdo.com
Un nuovo progetto ogni 3 secondi viene caricato sulla piattaforma da qualche parte nel mondo
Milano, 1 ottobre 2014 – A meno di due anni dal lancio in Italia, 99designs - il più grande marketplace al mondo per il design creativo in crowdsourcing - continua inarrestabile la propria crescita nel nostro paese. La comunità di creativi italiani è infatti aumentata dell’80% rispetto al 2013 e si è affermata come una delle più attive ed estrose a livello internazionale.
Proprio a sottolineare l’importanza strategica di un mercato come quello italiano, 99designs ha stretto un accordo di partnership con Talent Garden, uno dei principali player dell’innovazione in Italia, che aggrega nei suoi Coworking Campus più di 500 talentuosi in otto città.
“Abbiamo a che fare con l’ecosistema startup ogni giorno e sappiamo che la formula di 99designs è la soluzione ideale, perché è flessibile al punto giusto”, ha dichiarato, commentando la partnership, Davide Dattoli, co-fondatore di Talent Garden. “Per un’azienda appena arrivata sul mercato è fondamentale poter creare immagine coordinata e logo in poco tempo a partire da un meccanismo conveniente, semplice e immediato come il crowdsourcing, che caratterizza la piattaforma 99designs”.
In base ai termini dell’accordo, 99designs fornirà tariffe agevolate per tutti i membri del network di Talent Garden, permettendo così a giovani aziende di creare un’immagine professionale e una grafica di alta qualità a un prezzo accessibile.
In termini di designer iscritti alla community e di numero di paesi di provenienza, a livello mondiale 99designs è al primo posto nel mercato della grafica per le piccole e medie imprese e le startup, realtà che cercano flessibilità e originalità a un prezzo conveniente.
A oggi, 99designs ha messo in contatto più di 225.000 aziende in 196 paesi con designer di alta qualità.
Nell’ultimo anno, 99designs ha raddoppiato il numero di addetti in Europa, identificata come area chiave dall’azienda, e ha confermato una crescita inarrestabile in tutto il mondo:
● Oltre il 25% degli 850.000 designer iscritti è basato in Europa; ● A oggi, su 99designs sono stati realizzati più di 333.000 progetti di grafica; ● L’azienda ha erogato guadagni per oltre 60 milioni di euro alla sua comunità di creativi; ● Ogni tre secondi un nuovo progetto viene caricato sulla piattaforma. Solo in Italia, il numero di contest lanciato ogni mese evidenzia una crescita anno su anno del 91% (settembre 2013 vs settembre 2014)
"L’Italia è riconosciuta come uno dei paesi più creativi del mondo e i designer italiani sono famosi per la loro qualità e professionalità anche all’estero”, ha dichiarato Patrick Llewellyn, Presidente e CEO di 99designs, evidenziando quanto l’Italia rappresenti una parte importante del successo europeo di 99designs. “La nostra continua crescita dimostra che siamo sulla buona strada per realizzare il nostro obiettivo: rendere il design accessibile per tutti”.
SAN FRANCISCO and SÃO PAULO – August 27, 2013 – 99designs, the largest online graphic design marketplace in the world, today announced it has acquired LogoChef, one of Brazil’s leading design marketplaces. 99designs has also launched a Portuguese version of its site at 99designs.com.br, and will now offer Portuguese-language support and local currency capability to customers and designers throughout the country.
“On the back of our successful launch last week of Swiftly, which significantly broadens our design product offering, we’re excited to be taking the next step in our globalization strategy with the acquisition of LogoChef,” said 99designs President and CEO Patrick Llewellyn. “With small businesses and startups driving 99 percent of Brazil’s economy, we have an extraordinary opportunity to connect a new group of our core customers with designers there and around the world.” Llewellyn is in São Paulo this week to deliver a keynote address at The Next Web Conference Latin America.
LogoChef is 99designs’ second acquisition; in August 2012, 99designs acquired Berlin-based European design marketplace 12Designer. The acquisition and new site are part of 99designs’ expansion strategy in Latin America, which kicked off in March 2013 with the launch of Spanish-language versions of 99designs in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia and Chile. LogoChef co-founder Dan Strougo has been named 99designs’ Country Manager for Brazil, and will oversee the company’s efforts from its Rio de Janeiro office.
“We couldn’t be happier to welcome Dan and the LogoChef community to 99designs. Dan’s experience in our industry, gleaned not only through building a successful marketplace but also as a long-time graphic designer himself, makes him a perfect fit for growing our Brazilian business,” added Llewellyn. “We’re very pleased with the strong momentum we’ve seen in Europe since acquiring 12Designer last year and localizing in five local languages. We have high expectations that with Dan at the helm in Brazil we’ll also see rapid adoption of our services there.”
“I’ve always admired 99designs and held it as a benchmark for LogoChef,” said Strougo. “Joining forces offers LogoChef designers and customers a wide range of new benefits and opportunities. Customers now have access to 99designs’ extensive global designer community, including a strong group of designers here in Brazil, and designers have the opportunity to work with tens of thousands of additional potential clients.”
In conjunction with the introduction of 99designs.com.br, 99designs has partnered with Startup Circuit Brazil to provide special promotions for its members. Startup Circuit organizes dozens of networking events annually in cities across Brazil to bring together entrepreneurs, startups, investors and accelerators.
99designs has hosted more than 235,000 graphic design contests for startups, small businesses and other organizations worldwide since its founding in 2008. In the same period, the company has paid out more than $60 million to its global community of more than 245,000 graphic designers. Earlier this month 99designs launched Swiftly, a first-of-its-kind, flat-fee service for small design tasks.
About 99designs
99designs is the world's largest graphic design marketplace, connecting businesses looking for design work with more than 240,000 graphic designers from 192 countries around the world. Businesses can source graphic design work quickly and affordably by launching design contests to the community, working via 1-to-1 Projects with individual designers, or purchasing design templates from 99designs' readymade logo store. 99designs also runs Swiftly, a new site and service that helps customers get small design tasks done quickly and effortlessly. 99designs was co-founded by serial entrepreneurs Mark Harbottle and Matt Mickiewicz (SitePoint, Flippa), and is backed by Accel Partners and angel investors Michael Dearing (eBay, Harrison Metal), Dave Goldberg (Survey Monkey), Stewart Butterfield (Flickr, Tiny Speck) and Anthony Casalena (Squarespace). To learn more about 99designs, including where the company is hiring, visit 99designs.com.
Media contact (Worldwide):
Lauren Gard, 99designs
1-510-246-1366
lauren.gard@99designs.com
Media contact (Australia):
Emma Maidment, 99designs
03 9417 5661
emma.maidment@99designs.com
Media contact (Brazil):
Polyana Ferrari, NR-7 Communications
(55 11) 2389-5807
polyana@nr-7comunicacao.com.br
SAN FRANCISCO – August 13, 2013 – Online graphic design marketplace 99designs, which has paid out more than $60 million to its global design community since 2008, today announced the launch of Swiftly.com, a first-of-its-kind service for small design tasks. Swiftly enables customers to get existing graphic design files altered by professional graphic designers within hours.
“Swiftly is part of 99designs' broader plan to change the paradigm for how businesses worldwide get graphic design work done and how designers earn money,” said 99designs President and CEO Patrick Llewellyn. “99designs contests have connected more than 230,000 customers with our extensive community of skilled designers. Now, with Swiftly, we’re introducing an entirely different model for businesses to get smaller design tasks done quickly and effortlessly. Swiftly’s launch underscores our determination to provide a full spectrum of graphic design solutions for customers and more opportunities for designers.”
Typical uses of Swiftly include altering logos, business cards, banner ads, marketing templates and icons; retouching, cropping and resizing photos; and vectorizing images. The process is fast and easy: customers simply upload design files, indicate the modifications required, and pay a flat $15 fee. A member of the Swiftly designer community claims the “task,” completes it, and delivers it to the customer within a few hours. After the customer reviews and approves the task, Swiftly facilitates handover of the design files to the customer and issues payment to the designer.
Swiftly designers are a curated group from 99designs’ community of more than 240,000 graphic designers in 192 countries. 99designs staff hand-selected these designers based on their design skill and hours of availability to ensure rapid turnaround 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“Swiftly grew out of our awareness that many people don’t know where to turn for a quick graphic design project, either because they don’t employ in-house designers or their designers are tied up with more substantial projects,” said 99designs Chief Technology Officer Lachlan Donald, who led the team that developed Swiftly. “It’s exciting to have the opportunity to develop a totally new service that fulfills a real need for customers and gives freelance designers another way to make money. It’s a win-win for everyone.”
About Swiftly
Swiftly is a new site and service from 99designs that helps customers get small design tasks done quickly and effortlessly. Customers simply upload a design file they need altered to Swiftly.com, pay a $15 fee, and get their completed project back in 24 hours or less. Each project is completed by an experienced member of Swiftly's design community.
About 99designs
99designs is the world's largest graphic design marketplace, connecting businesses looking for design work with more than 240,000 graphic designers from 192 countries around the world. Businesses can source graphic design work quickly and affordably by launching design contests to the community, working via 1-to-1 Projects with individual designers, or purchasing design templates from 99designs' readymade logo store. 99designs also runs Swiftly, the new design task service that helps customers get small design tasks done quickly and effortlessly. 99designs was co-founded by serial entrepreneurs Mark Harbottle and Matt Mickiewicz (SitePoint, Flippa), and is backed by Accel Partners and angel investors Michael Dearing (eBay, Harrison Metal), Dave Goldberg (Survey Monkey), Stewart Butterfield (Flickr, Tiny Speck) and Anthony Casalena (Squarespace). To learn more about 99designs, including where the company is hiring, visit 99designs.com.
Media contact (US/Worldwide):
Lauren Gard, 99designs
1-510-246-1366
lauren.gard@99designs.com
SAN FRANCISCO – June 4, 2013 – 99designs, the world’s largest graphic design marketplace, today announced it is accelerating its expansion in Asia with the launch of a new site for the Singapore market, an extensive tour of its large and active designer communities in Indonesia and the Philippines, and the hiring of regional design consultants to better serve the needs of customers throughout Asia.
“Word-of-mouth adoption of 99designs’ design contest model in Asia has been amazing since we launched 99designs five years ago, and we are now ready to more formally invest in accelerating our growth there,” said Patrick Llewellynn, president and CEO of 99designs. “Our customer bases in regional startup hubs like Singapore and Hong Kong have grown at a remarkable pace, and some of our largest and most successful design communities are in Indonesia and the Philippines.”
Launch of 99designs.com.sg
Jason Sew Hoy, Chief Operating Officer and Asia-Pacific General Manager of 99designs,
is in Singapore this week to celebrate the launch of 99designs.com.sg with local customers
and designers, as well as to speak at CrowdsourcingWeek,
Echelon and Startup Grind Singapore.
The new site enables Singapore customers to purchase design work on 99designs using local currency
and access support through a local phone number. Singapore is one of 99designs’ top markets, with
one of its highest sales per capita. 99designs.com.sg is 99designs’ second country site in Asia;
last year the company launched a successful local-currency site for the Hong Kong market at 99designs.hk.
Design Community Tour
99designs Community Director Jason Aiken and a team of designer community liaisons have begun
a two-week tour of Indonesia and the Philippines, where they will host numerous design events
reaching thousands of designers, including a full-day National Conference for Indonesian designers
in Yogyakarta on June 7.
Indonesia and the Philippines are among 99designs’ top designer markets, with thousands of designers in those regions earning a living by winning design contests on 99designs and carrying out follow-on work for clients they meet on the site. 99designs has paid out more than $10 million USD to graphic designers in Indonesia and the Philippines alone since its launch in 2008 – more than any other design marketplace has paid out to their entire global design community. In total, 99designs has paid out $54 million USD to its designer community of more than 444,306 designers from 192 countries.
“The request for 99designs to visit Indonesia and the Philippines came directly from our designers, dozens of whom have worked with us to plan a full calendar of events,” said Aiken. “Our designers in these countries are incredibly proactive, and have already organized many meetups on their own to form social and professional networks. We couldn’t be more excited and delighted to meet them in person to provide support and education.”
Hiring of Regional Staff
To help support its rapid growth in the region, 99designs has hired a staff of three design
consultants based in The Philippines. These support staff will help ensure 24/7 customer support
for the Asia-Pacific markets and will be available to help customers write design briefs and facilitate their contests.
“We’re working closely with our new staff in the Philippines and will continually evaluate the need for additional staff in other countries,” said Sew Hoy. “We’ve learned a lot about how best to approach internationalization over the past year in the course of launching nine new sites across Europe and Latin America, and we’re looking forward to applying those learnings as we focus on building our presence throughout the Asia-Pacific region.”
About 99designs
99designs is the
world's largest online graphic design marketplace,
connecting businesses looking for design work with more
than 220,000 graphic designers from 192 countries around
the world. Businesses can source graphic design work
quickly and affordably
by launching
design contests to the
community, working
1-on-1 with individual designers, or purchasing
design templates from 99designs' readymade logo
store. The company was co-founded by serial
entrepreneurs Mark Harbottle and Matt Mickiewicz
(SitePoint, Flippa), and is backed by Accel Partners and
angel investors Michael Dearing (eBay, Harrison Metal),
Dave Goldberg (Survey Monkey), Stewart Butterfield
(Flickr, Tiny Speck) and Anthony Casalena
(Squarespace). To learn more about 99designs, including
where the company is hiring, visit
99designs.com.
Media contact:
Lauren Gard (US/Worldwide)
1-510-246-1366
lauren.gard@99designs.com
Emma Maidment (Asia Pacific)
T: +613 9417 5661
emma.maidment@99designs.com
99designs, the largest online graphic design marketplace in the world, today introduced a Dutch version of its site at 99designs.nl and will now offer Dutch-language support and local currency capability to customers and designers.
“99designs has loved the Netherlands since our first Dutch customer launched a design contest the week we opened for business five years ago. Today, the Netherlands is among 99designs’ top ten markets thanks to the many startups and small businesses across the region who use our design marketplace to brand their companies,” said 99designs President and CEO Patrick Llewellyn, who announced the launch of 99designs.nl today during a talk at The Next Web’s Conference Europe 2013 in Amsterdam. “As the Dutch startup scene accelerates, we’re looking forward to helping even more entrepreneurs there source great graphic design work by connecting them with the talented designers in our community.”
In conjunction with the launch, 99designs announced a partnership with Rockstart Accelerator, the Netherlands’ leading startup incubator, to provide customized design upgrades to the hundreds of innovative companies in their network. Founded in 2011, Rockstart Accelerator provides seed investment, six months of office space, mentors, and coaching by entrepreneurs-in residence to help promising startups launch and succeed.
“99designs is already a trusted design resource for Dutch startups needing affordable logos and other collateral, and launching a localized version of the site will help even more entrepreneurs make their dreams a reality,” said Rockstart Founder Oscar Kneppers. “Through our partnership with 99designs, Rockstart participants now have a key tool for building their brands quickly and efficiently. Boom!”
To celebrate the launch and the April 30th inauguration of Crown Prince Willem-Alexander to the Dutch throne, 99designs is inviting graphic designers in the Netherlands and around the world to enter 99designs’ "Design a Business Card Fit for the King” community contest. The winning designer will receive a €500 cash prize and be featured in 99designs’ blog and across its social media channels.
99designs has hosted more than 200,000 graphic design contests for startups, small businesses and other organizations worldwide since its founding in 2008. In the same period, the company has paid out €40 million to its global community of more than 220,000 graphic designers.
About 99designs
99designs is the world's largest online graphic design marketplace, connecting businesses looking for design work with more than 220,000 graphic designers from 192 countries around the world. Businesses can source graphic design work quickly and affordably by launching design contests to the community, working 1-on-1 with individual designers, or purchasing design templates from 99designs' readymade logo store. The company was co-founded by serial entrepreneurs Mark Harbottle and Matt Mickiewicz (SitePoint, Flippa), and is backed by Accel Partners and angel investors Michael Dearing (eBay, Harrison Metal), Dave Goldberg (Survey Monkey), Stewart Butterfield (Flickr, Tiny Speck) and Anthony Casalena (Squarespace). To learn more about 99designs, including where the company is hiring, visit 99designs.com.
99designs, the largest online graphic design marketplace in the world, today launched localized Spanish-language versions of its service in Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Colombia. The company has appointed a Regional Manager for Latin America to manage the new sites, and will now offer Spanish-language support and local currency capability to customers and designers.
“The establishment of new government initiatives to fuel business innovation and a significant increase in venture capital investments in Latin America over the past several years has set the stage for tremendous expansion in the region’s startup and small business sectors,” said 99designs President and CEO Patrick Llewellyn. “We’re excited to help Latin America’s entrepreneurs source quality, affordable graphic design by connecting them with thousands of talented designers from their own countries and around the world.”
99designs has named Angela Peña its Regional Manager for Latin America. Peña will be responsible for overseeing 99designs’ expansion throughout the region, including managing 99designs’ Latin American design community, leading marketing efforts, and building strategic local partnerships with startups, design groups and other organizations. Peña previously worked as Country Manager for Latin America and Spain at Talenthouse, an online marketplace connecting artists across a range of disciplines with celebrities and major brands.
“Having worked for several years with an amazing and diverse range of graphic designers in Latin America, I am eager to connect those designers with 99designs’ large and fast-growing pool of global clientele,” said Peña. “Our new Spanish-language sites will help designers and clients in Latin American work more efficiently on 99designs and develop longer-term collaborative working relationships with each other.”
In conjunction with the launch of its Latin American sites, 99designs also debuted a localized version of its site in Spain and a site for Spanish speakers in the United States. 99designs’ Spanish-language expansion comes fast on the heels of the marketplace’s introduction of localized versions of its service in Germany, France and Italy in the preceding six months.
To celebrate the launch of its Spanish-language sites and the strength of its Spanish-speaking designers, 99designs is sponsoring a “99designs Habla Español” t-shirt design contest. Designers are invited to create original t-shirts designs incorporating the phrase “99designs Habla Español” and will award up to five winners, each of whom will receive $500 and be featured across 99designs blog and social media channels.
99designs has hosted 200,000 graphic design contests for startups, small businesses and other organizations worldwide since its founding in 2008. In the same period, the company has paid out $50 million to its community of more than 210,000 graphic designers.
About 99designs
99designs is the world's largest online graphic design marketplace, connecting businesses looking for design work with more than 210,000 graphic designers from 192 countries around the world. Businesses can source graphic design work quickly and affordably by launching design contests to the community, working 1-on-1 with individual designers, or purchasing design templates from 99designs' readymade logo store. The company was co-founded by serial entrepreneurs Mark Harbottle and Matt Mickiewicz (SitePoint, Flippa), and is backed by Accel Partners and angel investors Michael Dearing (eBay, Harrison Metal), Dave Goldberg (Survey Monkey), Stewart Butterfield (Flickr, Tiny Speck) and Anthony Casalena (Squarespace). To learn more about 99designs, including where the company is hiring, visit 99designs.com.
Media contact (Worldwide):
Lauren Gard, 99designs
510-246-1366
lauren.gard@99designs.com
99designs, the largest online graphic design marketplace in the world, today launched a localized Italian-language version of its site at 99designs.it. The company has appointed a Country Manager to manage the new Italian site and will now offer Italian-language support to customers and designers in the region.
“With Italy’s startup scene really taking off in recent months, it seemed the ideal time to give Italian entrepreneurs a native-language version of 99designs to help brand their companies and get to market quickly,” said 99designs President and CEO Patrick Llewellyn. “As one of the most design-centric countries in the world, Italy has been an important part of 99designs’ European success to date. We already have a strong customer and designer base there and look forward to significant growth in 2013 and beyond.”
99designs has named Giulia Depentor its Italian Country Manager. Depentor joined 99designs in August 2012 with its acquisition of Berlin-based 12designer, where she managed the company’s Italian-language services. In her new role Depentor will be responsible for overseeing 99designs’ expansion in Italy, from leading marketing and community management efforts to building strategic local partnerships with startups and other organizations.
The launch of 99designs.it marks 99designs’ third new foreign-language offering in less than five months and the continuation of the company’s broad European expansion plans. In September 99designs launched 99designs.de for German speaking customers and designers, and in November introduced 99designs.fr for the French market.
“The rapid adoption of 99designs in Germany and France following our introduction of localized sites in these countries is a clear indication that offering regionally tailored platforms and support is critical,” said Eva Missling, 99designs’ General Manager of Europe and founder of 12designer. “Giulia’s passion, experience, and knowledge of the local language, culture and startup community make her the ideal candidate to lead our expansion efforts in Italy.”
To celebrate the launch of 99designs.it, 99designs and Italian entrepreneur platform Startupbusiness are inviting startups based in Italy to participate in 99designs Loves Italian Startups!. Nine startups will be selected to receive a free design contest (valued at up to 479 €), and will be featured on 99designs.it and Startupbusiness.it. Complete details and the application form can be found at 99designs.com/customer-blog/99designs-launches-italian-site-at-99designs-it/.
Since its founding in 2008, 99designs has hosted more than 185,000 graphic design contests for startups, small businesses and other organizations around the world. In the same period, the company has paid out more than $45 million to its community of 200,000 graphic designers from around the world. European customers currently account for more than 15 percent of design contests on 99designs.
About 99designs
99designs is the
world's largest online graphic design marketplace,
connecting businesses looking for design work with more
than 200,000 graphic designers from 192 countries around
the world. Businesses can source graphic design work
quickly and affordably
by launching
design contests to the
community, working
1-on-1 with individual designers, or purchasing
design templates from 99designs' readymade logo
store. The company was co-founded by serial
entrepreneurs Mark Harbottle and Matt Mickiewicz
(SitePoint, Flippa), and is backed by Accel Partners and
angel investors Michael Dearing (eBay, Harrison Metal),
Dave Goldberg (Survey Monkey), Stewart Butterfield
(Flickr, Tiny Speck) and Anthony Casalena
(Squarespace). To learn more about 99designs, including
where the company is hiring, visit
99designs.com.
Media contact (Worldwide):
Lauren Gard, 99designs
(Worldwide)
510-246-1366
lauren.gard@99designs.com
Media contact (Italy):
Laura Codispoti, Theoria
+39 02 202215
laurac@theoria.it
99designs, the largest online graphic design marketplace in the world, today announced it has launched a localized French-language version of its site at 99designs.fr. In addition, the company has hired a Country Manager for France in Paris and will now offer French-language support to its customers in the region. The moves signify important next steps in 99design’s European growth initiatives following its August acquisition of multilingual European creative design marketplace 12designer and September launch of 99designs.de, the company’s first non-English language site.
“As one of the cornerstone economies of the European Union, France is already an important market for 99designs. One of our key strategic goals this year has been to introduce a French-language site, on-the-ground local leadership and support for the French market,” said 99designs President and CEO Patrick Llewellyn. “We’re very excited this is now a reality. Under the capable leadership of our new country manager in Paris, Siham Belouadheh, we are well positioned to learn, adapt and aggressively grow our services in France.”
Belouadheh joins 99designs with experience in public relations, business development and marketing management; most recently she led marketing and business development activities for Kaplan in France and Belgium. As country manager for France, she will oversee 99design’s French expansion from Paris and be tasked with growing awareness and adoption of the design marketplace among French designers, business owners, and local technology entrepreneurs and startup communities.
“France is a critical part of our early European success. We’re pleased to welcome Siham to the team and expect that her leadership and our new service offerings will accelerate our expansion there and in other French-speaking regions of Europe,” said Eva Missling, 99designs’ General Manager of Europe and founder of 12designer, with whom Belouadheh will work closely. “The launch of 99designs.fr will allow French customers to run contests more efficiently and effectively, and will encourage more skilled French graphic designers to participate on our platform.”
99designs has hosted more than 175,000 graphic design contests for small businesses, startups and other organizations around the world since its founding in 2008. In the same period, the company has paid out more than $43 million to its community of 190,000 graphic designers from around the world. European customers currently account for more than 15 percent of design contests on 99designs.
About 99designs
99designs is the world's largest online graphic design marketplace, connecting businesses looking for design work with more than 190,000 graphic designers from 192 countries around the world. Businesses can source graphic design work quickly and affordably by launching design contests to the community, working 1-on-1 with individual designers, or purchasing design templates from 99designs' readymade logo store. The company was co-founded by serial entrepreneurs Mark Harbottle and Matt Mickiewicz (SitePoint, Flippa), and is backed by Accel Partners and angel investors Michael Dearing (eBay, Harrison Metal), Dave Goldberg (Survey Monkey), Stewart Butterfield (Flickr, Tiny Speck) and Anthony Casalena (Squarespace). To learn more about 99designs, including where the company is hiring, visit 99designs.com.
Media contact (Worldwide):
Lauren Gard
510-246-1366
lauren.gard@99designs.com
Media contact (France): Jean-François Kitten, Licence K
+33(0)1 45 03 21 77 (office)
+33(0)6 11 29 30 28 (mobile)
jf@licencek.com
99designs, the largest online graphic design marketplace in the world, today announced it has acquired Berlin-based, Grupo Intercom financed company 12designer, the leading creative design marketplace in Germany and the second largest in Europe after 99designs. The acquisition is 99designs’ first and signals the company’s ongoing focus on international expansion via localization following its $35 million Series A investment led by Accel Partners last year.
Germany is 99design’s number one non-English language market, its fifth largest overall and one of its fastest growing. Despite minimal marketing in Germany and other European countries, European small businesses and startups have accounted for approximately 15 percent of the 155,000 graphic design contests held on 99designs’ English-language site to date. The 12designer acquisition will allow 99designs to better meet the needs of European customers by providing support in their own languages and time zones.
“We’re very excited to welcome 12designer Founder and CEO Eva Missling and her talented team into the 99designs family. We believe their deep regional marketplace expertise and multi-lingual capabilities will prove instrumental in accelerating our delivery of truly localized world-class design services to European businesses and designers,” said 99designs CEO Patrick Llewellyn. “This acquisition enables us to build significantly on our existing momentum and resources in Europe and gives us an ideally situated base in Berlin. As the tech startup and design hub of Europe, there is no better place from which to implement our aggressive regional growth plans.”
In conjunction with the announcement, 99designs has named Missling the company’s new General Manager of Europe. She will be tasked with optimizing localization of 99designs services for European markets, accelerating growth in Germany and across Europe, and building a 99designs team in Berlin. She will also continue to oversee 12designer, which boasts a community of more than 20,000 designers interacting with customers in German, French, Spanish, Italian and English. 12designer will continue to operate as a stand-alone site in the near term.
“The 12designer team is eager to join 99designs and further our shared vision of connecting businesses seeking affordable, high-quality design services with skilled designers,” said Missling. “The combination of 99designs’ global reach and resources, 12designers’ regional experience, and the enormous multilingual talent pool here in Berlin will be a win for Europe’s small business owners and designers alike.”
Financial terms of the deal are not being publicly disclosed.
About 99designs
99designs is the world's largest online graphic design marketplace, connecting businesses
looking for design work with more than 175,000 graphic designers from 192 countries
around the world. Businesses can source graphic design work quickly and affordably by
launching design contests to the community, working 1-on-1 with individual designers,
or purchasing design templates from 99designs' readymade store. The company was co-
founded by serial entrepreneurs Mark Harbottle and Matt Mickiewicz (SitePoint, Flippa), and
is backed by Accel Partners and angel investors Michael Dearing (eBay, Harrison Metal),
Dave Goldberg (Survey Monkey), Stewart Butterfield (Flickr, Tiny Speck) and Anthony
Casalena (Squarespace). To learn more about 99designs, including where the company is
hiring, visit www.99designs.com.
About 12designer
12designer, the largest German marketplace for crowdsourced creative design services,
enables businesses to source custom logo design, print design, website design, slogans,
naming services, and other creative work from a community of more than 20,000
professional creatives throughout Europe. Berlin-based 12designer was founded by Eva
Missling together with Grupo Intercom and offers services in German, Spanish, French,
Italian and English.
Media contact (Worldwide):
Lauren Gard
510-246-1366
lauren.gard@99designs.com
Media contact (Australia):
Caroline Shawyer
+61 (0) 401 496 334
caroline@prgroup.com.au
We hear a lot from business and technology pundits that design is becoming an increasingly important factor in the success of companies, but does that sentiment trickle down to the people actually running small businesses and deciding how much emphasis to place on design work? To find out, 99designs polled 1,500 small business owners, start-ups, entrepreneurs and design decision-makers on graphic design and its importance to their business.
The results sent a clear message: small businesses really do care about design, and expect it to become increasingly important to their success in the years ahead.
Here are the key findings, which you can see illustrated in our infographic:
- Small businesses consider design important to their success: 80% of small business owners consider the design of their logos, websites, marketing materials and other branding tools either “very important” or “important” to the success of their companies. Just 3% indicated design is “not important.”
- Design will only become more important to business success in coming years: 67% expect graphic design to play an increasingly significant role in business success over the next five years.
- Small businesses plan to spend more on graphic design in the coming year: 78% of survey respondents anticipate their companies will spend the same or more on graphic design work in 2012. Only 21% plan to spend less.
- Affordability continues to be a factor for small businesses: 65% of small business owners said they would pay up to $500 for a new custom logo; 20% indicated they would pay as much as $1,000; and 15% indicated they would spend more than $1,000. With these numbers in mind, it’s not surprising to learn that the majority of small businesses are still taking a DIY approach: More than 50% source design work in-house or do it themselves, while 21% use freelancers, and 18% run crowdsourced design contests on sites like 99designs. Only 7% work with design agencies.
- Blue is the color small business owners most associate with success: Fifty-seven percent of respondents associate the color blue with success; the second most cited color is green (35%) followed by white (32%), black (29%) and red (21%). Purple was the color male respondents least often associate with success, while women were least likely to select orange.
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Apple topped the lists for best logo and best website, while Wal-Mart topped the worst lists for both categories: Asked to name the companies with the best and worst logos and websites, those identified most often were (in order of frequency):
- Best logos: Apple, Nike, Coca-Cola, Google and FedEx
- Worst logos: Wal-Mart, Microsoft, Pepsi, IBM and Google
- Best websites: Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook and Nike
- Worst websites: Wal-Mart, Yahoo, Facebook, MySpace and Microsoft
About 99designs
The 99designs Business Design Survey was conducted online from March 2012 to May 2012. The 1,500 respondents were evenly split between 99designs customers and non-customers holding design decision-making roles within their companies who were polled through market research firm Ask your Target Market.
Media contact (Worldwide):
Lauren Gard
510-246-1366
lauren.gard@99designs.com
99designs, the largest online marketplace for crowdsourced graphic design services, announced today it has launched into the UK at 99designs.co.uk and begun hiring staff locally as part of its strategic international growth plan. The company was founded in Melbourne in 2008 and began building out its San Francisco headquarters in 2010 - the UK will be the company’s launch pad for its European expansion.
“The UK has been a significant market for 99designs from the very beginning in terms of the design talent and customer base we’ve attracted there,” said CEO Patrick Llewellyn. “We’re looking forward to building a strong presence on the ground to help UK designers build their businesses, enable companies of all scope and size to source affordable high-quality graphic design work, and enhance and expand our services on all fronts.”
The UK is among 99designs’ fastest-growing major markets — the company has increased its monthly UK design contests 120% year over year, and expects accelerated growth as it ramps marketing and local outreach activities. 99designs has held more than 120,000 design contests on its site to date in categories ranging from logo, stationery and t-shirt design to website and mobile app design, and expects to surpass 200,000 design contests by year-end.
Some of 99designs’ top graphic designers reside in the UK, including Michael Kirby of Newcastle in the northeast of England. Kirby has made more than $30,000 in the last six months through a combination of designer payouts secured on 99designs plus ongoing client work sourced through the marketplace. 99designs has distributed more than $30 million to designers worldwide since its inception and projects it will pay out $25 million in 2012 alone.
“99designs offers the perfect solution for talented designers living in the north of England or less commercial areas to find work on a global stage without having to relocate, allowing them to grow and develop their business with little risk or overhead,” said Kirby, who was prompted to join 99designs after his design business took a hit in the recession. “I now have a huge amount of content and glowing testimonials from clients to populate the new business website I’m launching.”
UK businesses that have used 99designs for their graphic design needs include technology startups like Cambridge-based Hubflow, an enterprise mobile learning platform; brick and mortar retail outlets including London café and patisserie Le Petit Village; and charities such as KiDs of Bolton, founded by Bolton Wanderers captain Kevin Davies and his wife, Emma Davies.
About 99designs
99designs, the largest online marketplace for crowdsourced graphic design services, enables businesses to source custom logo design, web design, t-shirt design, print design and other graphic design work quickly and affordably by launching design projects to a global community of more than 140,000 designers in 192 countries. In addition to its design contests, 99designs provides a 1-to-1 invoicing system that enables designers and customers to work together efficiently, and offers a ready-made logo store stocked with more than 13,000 high-quality logos available for customization and sale right off the shelf. The company was co-founded by serial entrepreneurs Mark Harbottle and Matt Mickiewicz (SitePoint, Flippa), and is backed by Accel Partners and angel investors Michael Dearing (eBay, Harrison Metal), Dave Goldberg (Survey Monkey), Stewart Butterfield (Flickr, Tiny Speck) and Anthony Casalena (Squarespace). To learn more about 99designs, including where the company is hiring, visit www.99designs.com.
Media contact (Worldwide):
Lauren Gard
510-246-1366
lauren.gard@99designs.com
Media contact (UK):
Marc Ambasna-Jones
+44 (0) 1225 481734
marc@marcompr.net
Media contact (Australia):
Caroline Shawyer
+61 (0) 401 496 334
caroline@prgroup.com.au
99designs, the largest online marketplace for crowdsourced graphic design services, today announced it has doubled the number of monthly design contests held on its site year over year, hired key staff and executives to meet growing demand, and expects significantly accelerated growth in 2012.
99designs continues to experience substantial growth across its graphic design categories, including logo, web, t-shirt and print design, as well as new categories such as mobile app design. The four-year-old company, which has held more than 115,000 design contests on its site to date, has doubled the run rate of new contests from a year ago and is on track to surpass 200,000 design contests by year end.
The amount of money 99designs distributes to its designers each month continues to surge—99designs expects to pay out approximately $1.5 million to its design community for contests held in January 2012, twice what designers earned for January contests last year. 99designs has paid out more than $29 million to designers to date and projects it will pay out $25 million to its designer community in 2012. Top designers on 99designs have reported earning more than $10,000 per month from a combination of designer payouts earned on 99designs plus ongoing client work sourced through the marketplace.
Doubling Staff and Executive Hires
To meet growing demand, 99designs has doubled its staff to more than 50 employees in less than a year and hired two key executives: Jeff Titterton as Chief Marketing Officer and Caroline Moon as Chief Financial Officer.
“2011 was a stand-out year for 99designs, from rapid growth in design contests and payouts to the successful launch of the first localized versions of our site in Australia and Canada,” said CEO Patrick Llewellyn. “In 2012 we’re focused on continuous improvement of our services as crowdsourced graphic design enters the mainstream. Caroline and Jeff not only have the experience we need at this next stage of growth, they are also passionate about design, which makes them a great fit for our team and community.”
Titterton comes to 99designs with strong brand management, marketing and international experience, including his most recent post as VP of Marketing at social dating company Zoosk, where he led the company’s aggressive global expansion. He has also served as VP of Marketing at IMVU and SVP of Consumer Marketing and Services at PlanetOut, Inc.
“What I love about 99designs is that it solves a major pain point felt by so many of my colleagues—sourcing professional graphic design quickly and affordably,” said Titterton. “I’m looking forward to the next phase of our evolution as we focus on expanding our customer base and refining our services to better meet the needs of both designers and customers.”
Moon brings financial and analytical leadership, with particular expertise in online marketplace strategy. She previously served as CFO of independent ad exchange AdBrite and prior to that worked in a series of marketplace strategy and analysis roles at online marketplace eBay and Credit Suisse First Boston.
“99designs has been profitable since its inception – and that isn’t something many CFOs at venture-backed startups can say,” said Moon. “The confidence our investors have in us and the powerful engagement of our customers and designers is a testament to the strength of the crowdsourced model we’ve created. I’m looking forward to helping the company navigate the road ahead as we shift into our next phase of growth.”
About 99designs
99designs, the largest online marketplace for crowdsourced graphic design services, enables businesses to source custom logo design, web design, t-shirt design, print design and other graphic design work quickly and affordably by launching design projects to a global community of more than 140,000 designers in 192 countries. In addition to its design contests, 99designs provides a 1-to-1 invoicing system that enables designers and customers to work together efficiently, and offers a ready-made logo store stocked with more than 13,000 high-quality logos available for customization and sale right off the shelf. The company was co-founded by serial entrepreneurs Mark Harbottle and Matt Mickiewicz (SitePoint, Flippa), and is backed by Accel Partners and angel investors Michael Dearing (eBay, Harrison Metal), Dave Goldberg (Survey Monkey), Stewart Butterfield (Flickr, Tiny Speck) and Anthony Casalena (Squarespace). To learn more about 99designs, including where the company is hiring, visit 99designs.com.
Media contact (Worldwide):
Lauren Gard
510-246-1366
lauren.gard@99designs.com
Media contact (Australia):
Caroline Shawyer
+61 (0) 401 496 334
caroline@prgroup.com.au
October 11, 2011 – Today, 99designs, 99,999th design contest by establishing a $99,999 fund for design students. Since 2008, 99designs has pioneered the crowdsourced graphic design market by helping designers and small businesses around the world work together and build lasting relationships.
"It has been an exhilarating ride to 99,999 contests," said Mark Harbottle, co-founder of 99designs. "What better way to celebrate than by offering additional support to design students across the globe as they acquire the skills they need to build their careers."
99designs will award 1,010 x $99 bonus payments to students on top of every contest prize won, until the $99,999 cash pool runs out.
Every month over $1.2 million dollars is paid out to designers in the 99designs community as a result of design work commissioned by small businesses from around the world. In just over three years 99designs has:
- Built a community of over 125,000 designers in over 192 countries
- Paid a total of $25 million to its designers
- Uploaded a new design to the site every 6 seconds
- Placed over 13,000 logos available for customization and sale in its logo store
- Launched 99,999 design contests to date
"In the past year alone we've more than doubled our contest volume and made it significantly easier and more valuable for small businesses and designers alike to use our service. We also secured investment from leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm Accel Partners. This investment has enabled us to accelerate our growth and launch localized editions of our site in key markets," said Patrick Llewellyn, CEO of 99designs. "I want to thank our community of talented designers, the myriad of small businesses who use the service and our amazing team in Australia and San Francisco -- we couldn't have done it without you. Here's to the next 99,999 contests!"
99designs connects small businesses needing custom design work such as logos and websites to a global community of over 125,000 designers. Businesses benefit from engaging with multiple designers simultaneously making it easier to build the right relationship while designers are exposed to upwards of 1,200 new client opportunities at any given time and can showcase their work on a level playing field.
For more information about the Design Student Fund please see: http://99designs.com/designers
Contact:
Lauren Gard
510-246-1366
lauren.gard@99designs.com
99designs, the largest online marketplace for crowdsourced graphic design services, announced a $35 million first-round investment led by Accel Partners, with participation from angel investors Michael Dearing (eBay, Harrison Metal), Dave Goldberg (Survey Monkey), Stewart Butterfield (Flickr, Tiny Speck), and Anthony Casalena (Squarespace).
Andrew Braccia and Ryan Sweeney of Accel Partners will join 99design’s Board of Directors, along with Michael Dearing, 99designs co-founder Mark Harbottle, and company CEO Patrick Llewellyn.
99designs was founded in Melbourne, Australia in February 2008, when co-founders Mark Harbottle and Matt Mickiewicz – the entrepreneurs behind sitepoint.com, Flippa.com and Learnable.com – spun it out of the SitePointForums. 99designs, which employs 26 staff in Melbourne and San Francisco, was bootstrapped and is profitable, and has enjoyed 120 percent year-on-year growth.
- 99designs has over 100,000 designers in 192 countries.
- The company has paid out over $19 million to designers to date.
- 99designs has hosted 75,000 projects, resulting in a new design uploaded every six seconds.
- There are more than 10,000 logos available for customization and sale in their logo store.
The new capital will be invested in international expansion, platform development, community initiatives like design scholarships, and aggressive hiring in San Francisco and Melbourne.
99designs is Accel Partners’ third investment in Australia, including Atlassian Software and OzForex.
Accel Partner Andrew Braccia said: “Accel Partners has a history of investing in online businesses that cater to the ever changing needs of small business owners and independent professionals. 99designs has quickly become a global market leader in its category, providing an invaluable service to its customers and their global community of design professionals. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to assist in the company’s next phase of growth.”
Michael Dearing, whose private investments include Admob (Google), Heroku (Salesforce.com) and Mix Labs (Twitter) said: “99designs caught my attention when I realized that nearly every one of the early stage companies and entrepreneurs I work with was turning to them to get great design work done. The team has created a marketplace that is easy for companies to get onboard with, and is also a boon for designers who can go after any of the hundreds of jobs open at any one time.”
99designs Co-Founder Mark Harbottle said: “I’m thrilled that Accel see the same potential in 99designs that we do. This obviously presents a fantastic opportunity for the 99designs team, but I’m most excited about what we have in store for our loyal community of designers, and the hundreds of thousands of businesses around the world who use 99designs.com. I’m looking forward to the next chapter.”
99designs CEO Patrick Llewellyn said: “This is an exciting time for the company as it pushes forward with expansion in several key areas. We now have the benefit of our talented and dedicated team, coupled with the best technology investors around. The board and shareholder advisors we have in place provide us with exceptional experience and insight to help guide our future growth.”
About 99designs
99designs is the #1 marketplace for crowdsourced graphic design services. Its ready-made logo store has over 10,000 high-quality logos available for customization and sale right off the shelf for $99, and its Design Contest Marketplace enables businesses to quickly and inexpensively source custom logo design, web design, business cards or any other graphic design work by launching design projects to a global community of over 100,000 designers. 99designs has hosted over 75,000 design contests to date, sees a new design uploaded every 6 seconds, and pays out approximately $1 million to its design community each month. To learn more about 99designs, including where the company is hiring, visit 99designs.com.
Media contact (Worldwide):
Rebecca Fuller
415-298-0416
rebecca@mightypr.com
Media contact (Australia):
Miranda Burford
+61 3 9090 8299
Thousands of High Quality Logos Can Be Purchased and Customized from 99
BUSINESS WIRE -— 99designs.com, the #1 marketplace for crowdsourced graphic design for small business, today announced a new ‘Ready-made’ logo store where thousands of professional logos can be browsed, purchased and customized starting at just 99. The ‘Ready-made’ logo store from 99designs.com provides small businesses immediate access to a catalogue of original and professional logos while also creating additional opportunities for designers to generate revenue. The Ready-made storefront is now accessible and accepting logo uploads with the first logos available for sale in March.
The logo store compliments the existing design contest marketplace at 99designs.com to create two options for sourcing professional logos at an affordable price. Small businesses looking for the fastest solution can pick a logo “off the shelf” at the Ready-made store and quickly have it customized to fit their needs. Meanwhile, clients who desire the highest level of customization can choose to have their logo created from scratch by crowdsourcing it to the community of designers at 99designs.com.
"While our popular design contest marketplace is ideal if you're looking for a fully customized logo, many small business owners simply want a fast, cost effective, ‘off the shelf’ option,” said Mark Harbottle, Co-founder of 99designs.com. “With thousands of professional logo designs ripe for the picking, our new logo store serves this purpose nicely. At the same time, our 60,000 active designers who upload a fresh design every 10 seconds to 99designs.com will welcome another potential source of income, and another channel to expose their talent to thousands of new customers."
99designs.com is currently working with its designers to prepare and categorize the Ready-made logos for sale. Designers interested in uploading logos for sale can do so by visiting http://99designs.com/readymade/submit/logo. The first logos will be available for purchase in March at http://99designs.com/readymade/logos.
About 99designs
99designs is the largest marketplace for crowdsourced graphic design, connecting passionate designers from around the globe with savvy clients who need design projects completed in a timely fashion without the usual risk or cost associated with professional design services. It has held over 28,000 design contests to date with over 2,600,000 unique designs submitted. For more information please visit: 99designs.com.
Contact:
Jason Aiken
99designs
jason@99designs.com