The first time I came across 99Designs.com, I was blown away by what I saw. Not only are their prices reasonable, I like to peruse what’s been submitted as it gives me inspiration and ideas to incorporate into my designs as well. I think the concept of designers submitting their proposal is great. However, the one complaint is that designers are not going to go through too much trouble to create something that has a low chance of being selected. So, what ends up happening is a designer will take something he or she has done before, and tweak it a little based on the proposal’s specs.

I think it works for sites where you want something nice up and running pretty quick, and am not too worried about it looking generic. If you’re building a serious brand though, I’d probably go a different route.