Category Archives: 99 Designs

An Open Letter to 99designs

Hey Crew At 99designs,
I’m a fan of your work.  Your site, sitepoint, is a great resource to designers around the world.
Over the last year, slowly, you have been drug into the spec work conversation.
I don’t think you want to be here.  I really don’t.  I don’t see you as a middle man trying to make [...]

Spec Work Panel at SXSW

I’ve been thinking of the SXSW panel on spec work named after my post “Spec Work is Evil”
The panel was fantastic, because, it was really a panel.  There were people on one side, people on the other.  Other panel organizers, this is how it is done.
The panel was organized by the folks at CrowdSpring, which, [...]

Spec Work is a Ponzi Scheme

Last month in San Francisco I asked Stowe Boyd if I should keep writing about this spec work thing, and his advice was fairly candid:
“If it matters to you, it matters to you, and you can’t hide that.”
I love design.  I was a fulltime freelancer for 3 years.  I have my college degree in Computer [...]