With Super Tuesday next week and the drumbeat of the 2012 American presidential election growing ever louder, 99designs is inviting designers to enter the political fray and have some fun. The challenge? To give the Republican and Democrat party logos an overhaul. The creative masterminds behind the two winning designs will each receive a $500 cash prize, and the logos will be sent to party leaders.
Designs can be entered, and viewed, at the 99designs Political Parties Redesign Contest.
99designs was launched in February 2008, just days after President Barack Obama took up residence in the White House after a historic but highly contentious election. Since then, political mudslinging has left both the elephant and the donkey knee-deep in muck. In the spirit of bipartisanship and progress, and with a nod to the significant role graphic design played in the last presidential race (which made HOPE poster designer Shepard Fairey a household name), 99designs is calling on its design community to envision a more cooperative path through design.
“We think this is a great opportunity for designers to have some fun and think seriously about the messages they’d like to see the parties get across,” said 99designs Community Director Jason Aiken, who oversees the activity of 145,000 designers worldwide registered with the site. “We’ll be looking for innovative thinking and superb execution, as always, as well as the ability to balance sincerity, humor and the values each party represents.”
99designs often challenges its dynamic design community to improve upon well-known existing designs in the belief that it can do better. Previous competitions sponsored by the company, which collectively received thousands of submissions, include logo redesigns for NBC Universal, The GAP and the 2016 Rio Olympics, as well as a striking new hairdo for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Designers have shown they’re eager to tackle political themes, too – an independent contest launched in February 2012 by Occupy.com, an affiliate of the Occupy Wall Street movement, attracted more than 8,000 submissions from nearly 1,600 designers, a 99designs record on both counts.
Submissions to the 99designs Political Parties Redesign Contest will be judged by the 99designs staff, taking into consideration the results of a public poll featuring finalists to be held next week. And, of course, Democrat and Republican politicians nationwide will be personally invited to cast their votes.
About 99designs
99designs, the largest online marketplace for crowdsourced graphic design services, enables businesses to source custom logo design, web design, t-shirt design, print design and other graphic design work quickly and affordably by launching design projects to a global community of more than 145,000 designers in 192 countries. In addition to its design contests, 99designs provides a 1-to-1 invoicing system that enables designers and customers to work together efficiently, and offers a ready-made logo store stocked with more than 13,000 high-quality logos available for customization and sale right off the shelf. The company was co-founded by serial entrepreneurs Mark Harbottle and Matt Mickiewicz (SitePoint, Flippa), and is backed by Accel Partners and angel investors Michael Dearing (eBay, Harrison Metal), Dave Goldberg (Survey Monkey), Stewart Butterfield (Flickr, Tiny Speck) and Anthony Casalena (Squarespace). To learn more about 99designs, including where the company is hiring, visit www.99designs.com.
Media contact (Worldwide):
Lauren Gard
510-246-1366
lauren.gard@99designs.com