Overall, I am extremely happy with my experience at 99designs. I ran a logo contest, and I think I ultimately received 71 designs in round 1 from about 25 designers.Not all designers operate the same way, obviously. Some were very communicative and responsive, some apparently didn't read my messages to them at all. Some clearly read my initial brief about what I wanted, and some obviously didn't. One of the things I will do next time to manage the process better is communicate in more detail with each designer (in Round 1) to see who's paying attention. That's just me - I assume a more communicative and attentive designer is going to produce a better result, although it may not work the same way for others. So next time I will pick my 4-6 finalists more on how well they communicate than on the design. I will also liberally use the instruction, "Give me a completely different concept than this." I will also try to give examples of other designs I like, and keep referring back to the initial brief describing what I like and want. I ended up with a logo design I really like, and the designer was great about providing every file type I'll ever need (seems like this isn't always the case, as 99designs asks about it several times in their post-design review process).99designs has constructed a very good process for suggesting/running the contest/communicating and finalizing the files. But it's still ca complicated process that is greatly affected by the communication between the client and designers. If you think you're going to get a great design at the push of a button...well, you might but only if you get very lucky. It's a good structure but you really need to stay on top of it and manage/drive it.
