99 Designs A Sweatshop for Designers

I wrote a blog back in April 08 about 99 Designs, At the time the website had only just established itself and was creating some animosity amongst designers. My view back then was that 99Designs was a strong website with a lot of potential to do good for designers and Clients alike. 6 months Later Ive decided to revisit this topic and see how things are progressing on both sides of the fence.

The first thing that really shocked me was that the rules have changed. Previously when a contest was held a winner had to be picked from the designs put forward, I mean after all this is the entire premise of a contest, and just to clarify;

“A contest, is an event in which two or more individuals or teams engage in competition against each other, often for a prize or similar incentive.”

But this is no longer the case, upon a contest closing the contest holder is now able to either pick a winner, or just create yet another contest for the same prize money. This completely defies the entire point of creating a contest scenario. I am not the only one who feels this is an injustice, graphicpush wrote a very compelling argument against the premise describing it (quite rightly) as sweatshop labour where designers work for nothing. positive space blog also made a similar point along with xemion and an armful of others who had string arguments against the site. Is it really right for designers to be pitted against each other, designing for clients who may never even pay them for their work.

I think the greatest problem I have with the site is its disrespect for designers. The very idea of a website which portrays design as a pot luck situation, where someone might stumble upon a good design is a complete joke. It makes the entire profession seem like a gimmick, but more than this it is yet another damaging blow to the craft. Web and graphic designers alike have always been at the bottom the food chain in terms of salary, but not charging them anything for their efforts is one step too far in my opinion.

I wanted this to be a level argument, so lets look at it from the other end of the spectrum, If you are a client looking for a design lets say a logo, 99designs would seem like the perfect solution, very cheap prices, a rate, which you can set yourself, a raft of willing designers, the chance to describe exactly what you want and all of this for the a nominal fee. Sounds reasonable. But the truth is the only people making any real money out of this situation are the creators of 99designs themselves. Taking the money from the contest holders. and pouring it all back into sitepoint no doubt.

I started this blog with a view to being fair and level, but the more I have reseached, the more I have realised there is no fairness to be had, just exploitation of a craft which takes many years harness and perfect. My original argument was that If a designer was good enough he should win through the fairness of the contest, but when the contest holders move the goal posts as it were, they make the very idea of fairness an impossibility, and I dont know how that makes you feel but its certainly not something I want any part of.