99designs

99designs operates a global creative platform that facilitates collaboration between freelance designers and clients. The company’s origins trace back to SitePoint, a web developer forum founded in 1998 by Matt Mickiewicz and Mark Harbottle. Within the forum, designers began participating in informal design competitions based on fictional project briefs. Recognizing the potential, the founders introduced a fee for posting real project briefs, which eventually led to the establishment of 99designs as a separate entity in 2008. This evolution from a community-driven activity to a formal marketplace illustrates a direct response to an emerging user behavior.

The firm primarily serves small businesses, startups, and marketing agencies in need of graphic design services. Its offerings cover a wide spectrum of design needs, including logos, websites, app design, book covers, and marketing materials. The business model is twofold. The flagship service is its design contest, where a client submits a brief and designers from around the world submit concepts. The client then chooses their preferred design and the winning designer receives the prize money. This model provides clients with a variety of creative options. Additionally, the platform enables clients to hire designers directly for one-on-one projects, offering a more traditional freelance workflow. Revenue is generated through several streams. For design contests, clients pay a package fee that includes the designer's prize and a platform commission. For direct hire projects, the company charges a platform fee. There are also tiered platform fees for designers based on their experience level, ranging from 5% for Top Level designers to 15% for Entry Level.

A significant milestone in the company's history was its acquisition in October 2020 by Cimpress, the parent company of Vistaprint. This strategic move was aimed at creating an integrated platform for small businesses, combining Vistaprint's printing and marketing product capabilities with 99designs' global network of freelance designers. Following the acquisition, 99designs continues to operate as a standalone brand under the leadership of its CEO, Patrick Llewellyn, while also integrating its services with Vistaprint to offer a seamless design-to-print solution for over 20 million customers.

Keywords: graphic design marketplace, freelance designers, design contests, logo design, web design, branding services, crowdsourcing design, Vistaprint, Cimpress, Matt Mickiewicz, Mark Harbottle, creative platform, small business design, marketing materials design, one-to-one design projects, book cover design, app design, online design services, client-designer collaboration, brand identity design