I'm aware of products like fiverr and 99Designs, but I'm worried about sinking a bunch of money into them only to get crap back. I like being able to view the logos and simply browse without any commitment.
I'm sure there are great people on Fiverr, but you have to do a lot of searching or get really lucky.
Upwork costs more, but I think the increase in quality and communication ability more than offsets the price.
Just wondering - how were you able to tell the idea was stolen from somewhere else? Simple reverse-image searching, or did you have a better procedure?
But, for rapid development of prototype, or early stage products, I could see a few $15 injections going a much farther way than abandoning a project and having dropped $299 or even more into a 99Designs (or 'higher-end') logo[0].
I would always double back and get a more professional looking design that is also coherent with the Web App look & feel or product page look & feel.
Maybe. But like I said, you'd have to do a TON of filtering to find someone good or get extremely lucky. Fiverr is flooded with people who only do the bare minimum to fill the request, then they'll pester you endlessly until you accept it and give them a 5 star rating.
Either that or you'll get tired of having to request countless revisions because they can't understand English and keep giving you work that's nothing like what you requested.
> Just wondering - how were you able to tell the idea was stolen from somewhere else? Simple reverse-image searching, or did you have a better procedure?
I just did exactly what I figured they would do: Googled some terms from my request and looked through the images that came up. Didn't have to look very far.
I've had people turn down jobs for idiotic reasons instead of just quoting me more, even though I was pretty much begging them to take my money.
But once you find good people there, it works very well.
I've worked with 99designs a few times and liked the outcome but potential customers should be aware that keeping the money-back option on your project and sticking with the base price will get you generic looking logos.
If you want to attract quality designers to your project, you'll need to increase the amount you're awarding and guarantee the payment (opt-out of the money-back guarantee).
Again, I liked working with 99designs but you'll have a hard time finding something unique and amazing at the $299 price with the money-back guarantee option. I'd recommend working with them but set your expectations accordingly.
I'm sure some people have been happy with the lowest price point, but every time a client wanted the money back guarantee they ended up using. Every time I convinced them to opt out and spend a little more they were generally happy.
One more note for people considering 99designs. You can increase your award even after you start the project. Meaning, you can try out the Bronze level design for $299 and hope to get lucky but then raise your prices when you see the generic designs flow in.
When I say generic designs, I mean the designer will take what is essentially clip art and change some curves, colors, and lines to give you a "custom" logo.
Again, that might be good for what you're looking for but at least now you have your expectations set properly.