“The driving force behind Vistaprint’s future with 99designs is our passion to help small businesses,” said Robert Keane, founder and chief executive officer of both Cimpress and Vistaprint. “We know how critical great design is for entrepreneurs on their journey. 99designs and Vistaprint have shared values and vision to be a trusted partner to business owners and creators which lay the foundation for something bigger and more valuable than either of our teams could create alone.”
The combination of 99designs’ large network of talented freelance designers and Vistaprint’s more than 20 million customers will create a global platform which will make it easy for small businesses to access both professional design services and great marketing products in one place, and will provide freelance designers on the 99designs network the opportunity to work with Vistaprint customers.
Patrick Llewellyn, 99designs’ chief executive officer, said, “In a year when the whole world has had to work together online, 99designs’ mission of championing creativity to bring opportunities to people around the world has never been more relevant. We’ve been enabling remote creative connections for more than a decade and have seen firsthand how these fuel the success of small businesses and creators. Vistaprint’s belief and investment in both our team and technology is testament to the enormous potential in human-powered creativity, as well as the profound impact that great design has on a small business.”
With more than 20 million customers worldwide, Vistaprint offers an enormous selection of customizable design templates for marketing and promotional materials. Over the past few years, Vistaprint customers have increasingly leveraged its design services, accessing real-time graphic layout assistance. This program has become much loved by small business owners who turn to Vistaprint’s customer service team members for tasks that range from modifying an eye-catching banner to creating basic flyers or business cards. During the pandemic, customers have also flocked to Vistaprint’s “we design it for you” offering for the quick and easy layout of custom face masks. With the acquisition of 99designs, Vistaprint will expand to serve additional customer design needs.
“In order to become a more complete marketing partner to our customers we are augmenting our internal teams with 99designs’ wide-reaching community of talented freelance professional designers who are experts for more sophisticated design projects,” said Vistaprint Chief Marketing Officer Ricky Engelberg. “As businesses grow, the complexity and importance of their design needs also grow. To meet these needs as professionally and seamlessly as possible, we sought a partner that not only brings a scalable network of high-quality talent for design services, but who shares our vision for providing best-in-class solutions to business owners throughout their entrepreneurial journey.”
Patrick Llewellyn will report to Robert Keane and will continue to lead 99designs, and its large community of freelance designers will serve customers of both 99designs and Vistaprint. Vistaprint plans for significant post-acquisition investment to expand the 99designs team and to accelerate the pace of technology and product development for a large range of freelancer-powered design services to help small businesses.
# # #
About Vistaprint
Vistaprint is the marketing partner to millions of small businesses around the world, empowering each one to live their dreams. For more than 20 years, we have helped small businesses look and feel credible through high-quality marketing products that include signage, logo apparel, promotional products, flyers and postcards, business cards, websites and digital marketing. With Vistaprint, small businesses are able to create and customize their marketing with easy-to-use digital tools and design-templates, or by receiving expert graphic design support. Our focus is on helping small businesses project a consistent and cohesive brand image that makes them look their best in-store, online, on-site and on-the-go.
About 99designs
99designs is the global creative platform that makes it easy for designers and clients to work together to create designs they love. Founded in 2008, 99designs has grown from a small, online forum into a worldwide community of talented designers that is now the go-to solution for businesses, agencies and individuals. 99designs has paid out more than US $300m to its creative community to date. With headquarters in Melbourne, Australia, 99designs also has offices in Oakland, California and Berlin, Germany.
About Cimpress
Cimpress plc (Nasdaq: CMPR) invests in and builds customer-focused, entrepreneurial, mass-customization businesses for the long term. Mass customization is a competitive strategy which seeks to produce goods and services to meet individual customer needs with near mass production efficiency. Cimpress businesses include BuildASign, Drukwerkdeal, Exaprint, National Pen, Pixartprinting, Printi, Vistaprint and WIRmachenDRUCK.
For more information please contact:
pr@99designs.com / PublicRelations@vistaprint.com
99designs Select gives clients on-demand access to a dedicated group of freelance creators who are curated around their brand’s specific day-to-day design needs; while 99designs Studio offers access to creative ideation and brainstorming on a global scale, as well as full-service management for larger scale projects and visual campaigns at a fixed price.
In-house creative teams around the world are facing new challenges. They are producing a wider variety of content across more channels than ever before – often with smaller budgets and leaner resources. This new suite of services from 99designs will help marketers and creative teams meet these challenges. Brands can build flexible, remote extensions of existing teams through Select, or tap into state-of-the-art ideation processes and fresh global perspectives through Studio.
“The creative industries have always been fueled by freelance talent: fresh perspectives and flexibility are integral to creative projects and teams around the world”, said 99designs CEO Patrick Llewellyn. “With the wider economy adapting rapidly to remote work on a global scale, more organizations are evolving and collaborating in ways they never thought possible.”
“Connecting with the right person, with the right skills, and at exactly the right moment – no matter where they are in the world – is really where the magic happens. We have facilitated more than a million creative connections and relationships on our platform over the past twelve years, and as the world becomes accustomed to new ways of working, 99designs Studio and Select will make that process even better for brands and marketers everywhere.”
Businesses can choose from two new services:
99designs Select
99designs Select offers clients access to a curated group of remote freelancers who are trained on the client’s brand guidelines, and are on call to execute day-to-day design tasks such as presentation decks, email banners, flyers, landing pages, white papers, ads, and more. For a one-off onboarding fee of US $2,500 99designs Select clients will receive the following:
● A hand-selected group of up to five freelance designers, pre-briefed and fully trained on your brand standards by the 99designs team
● Centralized access to these designers via 99designs’ intuitive design and collaboration tools
● US $500 credit towards your first creative project
● Platform training for internal teams
● Access to ongoing, on-demand support from a dedicated 99designs project manager for US $100/hour
● Ongoing work billed on a project-by-project basis (costs ranging from US $199-$2000 depending upon scope)
99designs Studio
Targeted at clients needing to get larger creative campaigns off the ground in as little as two weeks, 99designs Studio offers full-service ideation, refinement and delivery of larger visual projects for a fixed price. The typical 99designs Studio package costs US $4,999 and includes:
● End-to-end project delivery from experienced creative directors or brand strategists
● Unparalleled access to global ideation and creativity, as well as diverse international perspectives from the 99designs community
● Five initial creative concepts; with two concepts fully fleshed out (includes two rounds of feedback and amendments)
● The project cost covers all payments to designers as well as platform fees, NDAs and copyright transfer
About 99designs
99designs is the global creative platform that makes it easy for designers and clients to work together to create designs they love. Founded in 2008, 99designs has grown from a small, online forum into a worldwide community of talented designers that is now the go-to solution for businesses, agencies and individuals. 99designs has paid out more than US $300m to its creative community to date. With headquarters in Melbourne, Australia, 99designs also has offices in Oakland, California and Berlin, Germany.
For more information please contact pr@99designs.com
The accelerated growth in designer earnings is largely thanks to the company’s investment in its direct work product in the past 12 months. This newer way of working on 99designs allows clients to hire one designer for a specific project as an alternative to running a design contest where multiple designers are invited to submit concepts for consideration.
To date, 250,000 direct work projects between designers and clients have been completed on 99designs, the scope of which includes everything from quick design tweaks to in-depth specialist app design. Pricing for these projects can range anywhere between fifty and several thousand dollars depending on the type and scale of work required. In Q3 of this year, 35 percent of total designer earnings came from one-to-one projects. This is a significant increase on 2017 figures, and the upward trend has continued strongly in Q4.
This investment in direct work has also had a positive impact on agency sign-up rates for the 99designs Pro service, with the company onboarding 4x as many agencies per month than last year.
“The team has worked really hard to ensure 99designs evolves to better serve the needs of both our designers and our customers, and it’s gratifying to see this growth in direct work pay off for our community,” says 99designs CEO Patrick Llewellyn.
"To see a 25 percent increase in all time earnings on the platform in just over a year has been super satisfying, and it’s great to experience this kind of growth a decade into the company’s journey. We’re excited to continue advancing the direct work experience on 99designs and supporting our talented creative community in building strong, long-lasting working relationships.”
99designs is a global creative platform that makes it easy for designers and clients to work together to create designs they love. Founded in 2008, 99designs has grown from a small, online forum into a worldwide community of talented designers that is now the go-to solution for businesses, agencies and individuals.
Profitable since 2017, and backed by Accel (investors in Facebook, Dropbox, Etsy) 99designs generates over $60m USD in annual revenue. Designers from 192 countries are active on the platform, and at any given moment there are 10,000 designers online to tackle projects across 90 categories from logos and book covers to web design.
With headquarters in Melbourne, Australia, 99designs also has offices in Oakland, California and Berlin, Germany.
リクルート、出資先の“99designs”において楽天が開催するフリマアプリ『ラクマ』の
WEBページデザインコンテストを企画支援
株式会社リクルートホールディングス（本社：東京都千代田区、代表取締役社長 兼 CEO：峰岸真澄、以下リクルート）は、出資先である世界最大級のクラウドソーシング型デザインマーケットプレイス99designs, Inc. （本社: 米国オークランド、CEO: Patrick Llewellyn）において楽天株式会社（本社：東京都世田谷区、代表取締役会長兼社長：三木谷 浩史）のフリマアプリ『ラクマ』が開催するWEBページデザインコンテストの企画支援を実施致しますのでご報告いたします。
１．本件の目的、99designs,Incについて
99designs, Inc. は、世界192カ国100万人超のデザイナーを活用したクラウドソーシング型マーケットプレイスを運営する企業です。コンテスト/プロジェクト形式にてロゴやグラフィックデザインサービスを提供し、企業は高品質なデザインを安価に製作することが可能になります。同社は2008年のサービス提供開始以降、デザイン分野における主要な企業の一つに位置付けられており、現在までに約43万回のコンテストを開催し、参加したデザイナーへの報酬支払実績は累計120百万ドルにも達します。
リクルートは、同社への出資を通して、「デザイナーが時間と場所を選ばずに、世界中のクライアントの仕事を受けることができる世界」の創造へのチャレンンジを支援してきました。今回、99designsの普及および認知拡大に向けた更なる取組み強化の一環として、同社の日本企業とは初めてのタイアップとなる楽天株式会社の運営するフリマアプリ『ラクマ』のWEBページデザインコンテストの企画支援を実施いたします。
２．デザインコンテスト開催概要
◆参加方法
下記のWEBページよりお申し込みください。
http://99designs.jp/lp/collaboration-rakuten-rakuma/
◆対象者
99designsにデザイナー登録いただいている方はどなたでも応募可能です。
※Illustrator／Photoshopによるイラストレーションスキルが必要です。
◆応募受付期間
2015年9月10日（木）～2015年9月27日（日）
◆テーマ楽天のフリマアプリ『ラクマ』紹介ページのリニューアルデザイン
※現在の当該ページ：https://rakuma.rakuten.co.jp/
◆賞金1,000ドル
※賞金は米国ドルで99designs,IncよりPaypalによって支払われます。
◆デザインの取り扱いについて
・コンテスト開催後「ラクマ」担当者は、優勝したWEBデザインを基に、対象ページのリニューアルを検討します。検討の結果、リニューアルに至らない可能性もございます。
・優勝したWEBデザインをリニューアルに採用する際には、優勝WEBデザインを基にデザイン修正を行う可能性がございます。
・デザインの応募・譲渡については99designsの利用規約、著作権譲渡契約に従って実施して頂きます。
◆当コンテスト内容に関するお問い合わせ先
https://support.99designs.com/hc/ja/requests/new
▼リクルートグループについて
http://www.recruit.co.jp/
▼リクルートのプレスリリース
日本語/Japanese : http://www.recruit.jp/newsdata/release/2015/091016235.html
英語/English : http://www.recruit-rgf.com/newsdata/release/2015/09107670.html
The global leader in logo design also adds Accel venture partner Rob Solomon to 99designs board of directors
SAN FRANCISCO – April 15, 2015 – 99designs, the world’s largest marketplace for graphic design, today announced it has received $10 million in a strategic Series B round of funding led by Recruit Strategic Partners, the Silicon Valley based venture capital arm of Japan’s Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd. Accel – the lead investor for 99designs’ Series A in 2011 has also reinvested and added partner Rob Solomon to the board.
According to 99designs CEO Patrick Llewellyn, the Recruit investment represents a strategic move to support the company’s further international expansion, particularly in Japan and other parts of Asia where Recruit is a dominant force in information services and marketplace matching services. In addition to helping accelerate worldwide growth, partnering with Recruit also opens the door to a wider corporate customer base for design services.
“We knew that we would need the right partner to enter Japan and expand our footprint in the broader Asia market,” explained Llewellyn. “Recruit believes crowdsourcing and marketplaces are an important part of the future of work and in empowering people to follow their dreams and find opportunity. This is something we have been doing successfully for designers and small businesses around the world since 2008, so the fit with our business is perfect.”
Recruit Strategic Partners (“RSP”) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Recruit, a Japan-based holding company that started as one of the first employment marketplaces and has evolved into the world’s largest matching platform across verticals including human resources, travel, real estate, bridal and dining.
“Investing in 99designs fits in with Recruit’s goal of becoming the number-one company in global matching across multiple sectors,” said Recruit Strategic Partners’ President & Managing Director Akihiko Okamoto. “They have helped more than 350,000 businesses launch and grow and paid out more than $110 million to designers around the world. With this investment, we can help them promote their global design platform throughout Asia and beyond.”
Accel’s participation in this round reflects the firm’s strong belief in 99designs’ strategic growth decisions. The addition of Accel venture partner Rob Solomon to the board of directors is also part of the company’s ongoing efforts to build a strong global consumer Internet brand. Most recently prior to Accel, Solomon served as President and COO at Groupon, where he led operations through the company’s hyper-growth phase and helped it scale into one of the fastest-growing companies ever.
“Since Accel Partners’ initial investment in 99designs four years ago, I’ve watched the company expand into new markets and evolve from a pioneer in contest-based logo design into a thriving marketplace for designers and SMBs to connect,” said Solomon. “As a board member, I’m excited to help them reach the next phase in their growth.”
About Recruit Holdings
Founded in 1960, Recruit Holdings is a leading information services and human resources company in Japan. Through a wide range of services, Recruit is delivering new discoveries and opportunities to users with information in such fields as employment, education, housing, marriage, travel, restaurants, beauty, cars, hobbies, and lifestyles. Recruit has more than 30,000 employees and operates in Asia and North America.
Recruit Strategic Partners, a wholly owned subsidiary of Recruit in Japan, is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm investing in innovative companies from all around the U.S. It offers industry knowledge and expertise to our entrepreneurs and is an integral part of Recruit's global investment business. Recruit Strategic Partners co-invests with leading venture capital firms in the U.S..
About Accel Partners
Founded in 1983 and based in Palo Alto, California, Accel has a long history of partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs and management teams to build world-class businesses. Accel has helped entrepreneurs build more than 300 successful technology companies, many of which have defined their categories, including AdMob, AirWatch, Atlassian, Braintree, Campaign Monitor, Cloudera, Couchbase, Dropbox, Etsy, Facebook, Fusion-IO, Groupon, Hootsuite, Kayak, Lookout, MoPub, Nimble Storage, Opower, OzForex, QlikTech, Qualtrics, Real Networks, Riverbed, Rovio, SeatGeek, Spotify, Squarespace, SuperCell, Trulia and VSCO.
About 99designs
99designs, the world’s largest logo design and graphic design marketplace, has helped more than 350,000 businesses access quality design at an affordable price and paid out more than $110 million to designers across the world. 99designs pioneered crowd-sourced design contests, where businesses receive a wide variety of design concepts and choose their favorite, and expanded to provide services for customers to work 1-to-1 with individual designers, purchase design templates from the ready-made logo store, or get small design projects done within an hour through Tasks. With more than 950,000 designers from 192 countries around the world, 99designs’ suite of services helps businesses succeed through great design created by a robust community of talented graphic designers. Headquartered in San Francisco, 99designs has operations in Australia, Germany and Brazil.