99designs is a Melbourne, Australia, based company that operates a freelancer platform for connecting graphic designers and clients.

[4] 99designs was founded by Matt Mickiewicz and Mark Harbottle as a spin-off of SitePoint, a website started in 1998 as a forum for web developers and designers.

Designers on its forums began organizing contests based on fictional client briefs.

[5][6][7] The founders decided to test charging a fee to post briefs for real projects, eventually creating 99designs as a separate company for the contests.

[5][8][9] In 2008, the company opened a San Francisco office because the majority of the platform's initial clients and designers were in the United States.