Wow. I've used Fiverr twice. I used the same guy to do a mobile app icon and a logo for a different business. He did amazing both times. Total out of pocket expense was $11 each. I got exactly what I wanted and it really really really looked amazing. I got the psd too. Best 20 bucks I ever spent.

I tested out Fiverr by hiring 3 people to do simple T-shirt designs for $10-$15 each. Everything I got back was either stolen from somewhere else, extremely poor quality, or didn't fit my request at all.

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.

Fiverr is hit and miss, yes. It doesn't really pay if you have a single job. It pays if you anticipate needing 20, and can spend some time firing off jobs to multiple people until you find someone you like.

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.

Even with just 3 people at $10-15 each, you could sink more money into Fiverr and come out with a better logo than the predominately flat-UI only designs provided. However, Logo Pizza still has some (IMHO) great ones for sale

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?

That's not a great strategy to just continue to pump $15 into fiverr hoping to eventually get something good. Does that happen when you get to $500 or $5000. You don't know when you start so you could just waste your money.

I fully agree the strategy is unreliable.

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.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12488500

> Even with just 3 people at $10-15 each, you could sink more money into Fiverr and come out with a better logo than the predominately flat-UI only designs provided. However, Logo Pizza still has some (IMHO) great ones for sale

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.

Care to share the name of that guy?

yeah, it's knok_designs. I highly recommend it.

Thanks, much appreciated.

That's funny: from what I've heard the design community has been worried about these sites since the beginning because of the possibility of doing work that ends up not being bought.

Spec work. No one likes doing it. I'd much rather have a contract for my time and effort than sell logos like a sidewalk artist and hope you like them and are willing to part with $5.

I got the impression these are rejected designs from client work.

You get what you pay for. Ayone who'd do a logo for $5 really hasn't got the experience / talent to do that. Hire a graphic designer just as you know you should.

I've gotten great results several times for $5, as well as for higher priced 'competitions' on 99designs. I'd never go back to the 'pick a designer and hope they're not a dud before having sunk 1000's in them'. Oh and not a single one will work from where someone else left off, so you get to start all over again. Ugh.

I've had the best luck with Contests on Freelancer. I usually drop $25-$50 per piece of art I need (logos, mascots, icon sets) and usually get around ~30 submissions, of which at least half are solid quality. You just pick your favorite and that's the one you get for the price.

99Designs has a money-back guarantee if you don't like any of the logos. Not sure how good they are about actually honoring it. You get a lot of crap and super-generic logos, but (in my experience at least), there are a few good ones

The base option includes a money-back guarantee but you quickly learn that keeping the not guaranteeing a winner for your project will keep good designers away.

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've used 99D on behalf of about a dozen clients and the cheapest we've ever gotten a great logo for was about $1300.

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.

I paid about the same and was happy with the results.

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.

you can get some excellent logos from 99Designs. You can even invite designers based on their previous work to make a design for you so you can be sure the results will fit the style that you need. On top of that, after you pick the finalists you can have them refine them until you like them. IMHO designers are the ones at loss at 99Designs.