Crowd-sourcing design platform 99designs has recently announced a new service named “Swiftly”, which will link people with small design projects to designers who can complete them quickly and easily.
The most attractive aspect of Swiftly is how clients would only have to pay a flat rate of US$15 to get their simple design tasks—such as Photoshop tweaks, document alterations and cleaning up a business card design—done.
If the system works as planned, designers may be able to earn up to US$60 an hour for doing relatively easy work—however, designers’ income from the service will largely depend on the demand for it.
To safeguard the interests of both the designer and the client, Swiftly has a feedback loop where unrealistically large projects are flagged and customers get to approve work before they are considered completed.
Writer Mark Wilson of Fast Co. Design tried out the service by submitting three orders—one of which is to make it look as if Mark Zuckerberg has requested to be his friend on Facebook—and is generally pleased with both the quality of the work and the turnaround time.
What do you think—is this a system that is ripe for abuse or will it be a convenient way for designers to make a little money on the side?
You can try out Swiftly over here.
[via Fast Co. Design]