Thanks for the comment. Like I say it’s a difficult situation. Your company is seen by many within the industry as a threat. Your take on the changing market seems to be a move towards market segmentation and your companies focus on the lower end of the market. That still makes you a threat.

If you look at dozens of comments on the 99designs bullshit2.0 post there seems to be a polarisation of views. However must are negative comments from traditional designers.

You (99Designs) are trailblazing a new way and so are under enormous pressure. Everything you do is watched. If you screw-up you will be attacked. I’ve spoken with several startups that’ve also used 99designs and they were positive about how logos are developed across several people.

Only time will tell whether this new form marketplace sourcing becomes the norm i.e. many similar suppliers, satisfied customers, happy designers and mainstream adoption, If/when that happens the attacks will probably stop. Until then you have a PR war.

Good luck and keep your faith

Nick

Thanks for your post…

Let me just say that we at 99designs are listening very closely. We recognize that our model is disruptive and causes a lot of emotions to swirl.

The market is evolving and we feel that 99designs fills a niche…on the client side we primarily serve small businesses, entrepreneurs and other startups looking for a cost effective way to get the design work they need while being presented with a a variety of choices.

On the designer side…we primarily serve younger designers who are looking to gain experience working on actual projects for actual clients, freelancers who are looking to tap into a pool of potential clients and hobbyists who just love designing for fun while making a little extra cash.

We think that both designers and clients have a lot to gain by experimenting with the model.

For the record… we are not a faceless, evil and diabolical entity hell bent on destroying the design industry.

We are a small group of regular people just trying make our way in the world..like everybody else.

We wake up in the morning…have coffee… and try to figure out how we can do better.

How we can do better for our design community by helping them learn and grow while building positive relationships with other designers as well as clients.

And how we can do better for our clients – making what can be an intimidating process of finding the right designer a whole lot easier.

Our work is not done…but step by step we will get there. We appreciate all the constructive feedback we have received along the way and welcome more of it…please don’t hesitate to reach out.

All the Best,
Jason Aiken
99designs

jason (at) 99designs (dot) com