Guess it’s time to roll out the Borg graphic again, because according to Techcrunch, Facebook and Forbes backers Accel Partners has ponied up $35 million to invest in spec work and design contest site 99designs. That’s a healthy chunk of change (and props to 99designs’ founders for pulling it off) but with the money intended for ‘sales and marketing’, who knows how this will play out in the upcoming months and years.
Reaction on Twitter was swift and furious this afternoon, with business types applauding the move while designers gnashed their teeth about yet another harbinger of doom for the design industry. I’m reminded of a few years ago when Hewlett Packard bought over Logoworks (for $8 – $11 million if I recall) and designers around the globe freaked out then too, likewise thinking the end was nigh. Same goes for this 99designs deal (fingers crossed).
Though if 99designs really believed in their business model, maybe they should have taken the money from dozens of venture capitalists, but only handed the keys to the one they liked the best. And as long as we have logo design review sites to keep ‘em honest, it’s all good.
Related Posts
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- Worst logo redesign of 2008 – Capital One
- Spec work hackery redux. More of our work copied & entered into 99designs logo design contest
- Snippets: The 10% better than 99designs, more stock logo shenanigans and the strange story of Brandstack edition
I was hoping you would morph one us into Locutus… where’s the love
I keep a picture of the Emperor and Lord Vaderovsky for a good laugh every now and again.
Cheers,
Jason