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We’re kicking off a new monthly contest for the community – every month we will showcase the 9 designers who have won the most projects for that month – The “Top 9 at 99.”

The community will then vote for that month’s “Top Designer” who will win a fantastic prize.

This month’s prize… an Apple iPad!

Here are the Top Designers for July (from top to bottom, left to right in no particular order):

• Oliverd
• Renovatio
• Logostudio
• Babakonda
• Jonathan Frost
• Keegan
• Kolopach
• Ingenious Design
• Club t

Vote for your favorite designer here!

**Voting will be open until Tuesday, August 10th 5:00pm PT.

Terms & Conditions

• 99designs will giveaway 1 iPad to the designer who receives the most votes.
• You may only vote once
• The prize is a 16GB WiFi Only Apple iPad. If you are selected as one of the winners and we cannot get you the iPad for any reason, we may choose to pay you the cash equivalent of $499 USD

Designer Profile

Mark Lester Jarmin – Philippines
99designs handle: Spork
Projects entered: 218
Projects won: 50

How did you get started in design?

I started drawing in school when I was very young. From elementary to high school my notebooks are filled with sketches and doodles. I was always assigned to design our classroom bulletin boards and I was chosen to represent our school in art competitions. I won several awards including one for a design that our university used as our school ID.

After I graduated, I worked as a sign maker and later as a mall artist – designing decors and seasonal themes including graphic designs for events and activities. Right now i’m focusing more as an illustrator.

How do you get your design inspiration?

I really look up to great illustrators – seeing how they create their art inspires me to create something better. Reading their books and blogs, watching their animations, studying their comics, etc… motivates me to learn and improve my skills.

What led you to start using 99designs.com?

My officemate referred me to 99designs and I’ve been hooked ever since. At first, I joined the contests just for fun but when I won my first contest and a follow up project came in – I got serious and more competitive. I love it here – I enjoy, learn and earn at the same time!

99designs has really helped me showcase my skills. I continue to improve, meet new clients, make new friends and build a good portfolio.

What are three things designers can do to have success at 99designs?

1. Preparation is the key! Study the design brief first. View it in different angles – from the client’s perspective, from the perspective of the target audience and from your view as the designer. Proper composition requires more time than execution.

2. Create your own identity. As an illustrator, style really does matter! If you want to stand out and get noticed, draw the way YOU want to draw – offering something unique… yourself.

3. Take care of your profile and portfolio. A higher winning percentage surely reflects well on your status within the community and to potential clients. This is not a raffle contest so – join only the projects that you are really interested in and you’ll have more chance of winning.

What do you love most about being a designer?

I just love what I do- I enjoy, learn and earn!

“Everybody loves choice until you have to choose… and that’s where friends come in”

An ancient proverb that I just made up

One of the best things about 99designs is having so many great designs to choose from… BUT choice necessitates a decision – and decisions can sometimes be hard!

That’s why we’ve introduced a new voting feature that allows you to easily create a poll so you can get your friends, colleagues, social networks or even the twitterverse to help you choose the best design from your project.

Creating a poll is easy!

1. Click the “Invite friends to Vote” button on your main project page

2. Choose up to 8 designs you’d like your friends to vote on

3. Share the poll with your friends

That’s it – simple huh.

The best news is… you can create as many polls as you’d like so you can share one with your colleagues over email and invite your Facebook friends to another – the sky’s the limit!

And you don’t even have to wait until the project has ended to create a poll – you can run a poll at anytime durning the project and even use it to help generate feedback to give to the designers!

Our pals at BizTechDay are running another project for this year’s conference.

No doubt BizTechDay is one of the best conferences for entrepreneurs (10 inspirational talks + 10 practical technology demos) – and we’re all about supporting entrepreneurs!

BizTechDay will be held at in New York, San Francisco and Seattle this year. And the winner design will be worn by over 1500 entrepreneurs!

Check out the 2008 and 2009 winning design from last year’s contest below.

Thank in advance for your creative brain juice!

BizTechDay will highlight their top 3 favorite designs daily starting July 15th on their Facebook Page.

Read the brief

Entrepreneur

How to Harness Your Creativity to Solve Problems – http://bit.ly/bCUpIR

How To Engage Customers In Your E-Commerce Website – http://bit.ly/dpq0Pb

7 Steps to Stellar Solopreneurship – http://bit.ly/cZynKf

How To Make The Right Keyword Analysis For Your Website – http://bit.ly/db7y4a

Dealing with trademark, copyright and Legal issues – http://bit.ly/aQV8xD

General Design

Be Inspired or Copy: What’s the difference? – http://bit.ly/d9se3v

How sketching will take your design process to the next level – http://bit.ly/d1E5Df

The No. 1 Habit of Highly Creative People - http://bit.ly/dg4VdM

The Process Behind Good Illustration (Part 1) – http://bit.ly/cFbBLZ

The Process Behind Good Illustration (Part 2) – http://bit.ly/bR0vTl

The Process Behind Good Illustration (Part 3) – http://bit.ly/cFbBLZ

Learn Photo Editing: Tutorials for Designers  – http://bit.ly/bjhQ9y

21 Fresh and Excellent Photoshop Tutorials – http://bit.ly/a4Rrwo

6 Ways to use a seamless pattern in Photshop and Illustrator – http://bit.ly/9INcwC

Quickly convert CMYK to Pantone – http://bit.ly/c6D0Py

Harmony In Design – http://bit.ly/9HVHNj

Harmony in Design (part 2) – http://bit.ly/cdeyLJ

40 High Quality Adobe Illustrator Character Tutorials – http://bit.ly/cMUBBS

Excellent Poster Design Tutorials – http://bit.ly/dciw4M

20 Nice Tutorials for Designing T-Shirts – http://bit.ly/cfgnMI

Freelance Design

7 Habits as a Freelancer You Need to Ditch – http://bit.ly/axHaGt

How To Create Multiple Income Streams – http://bit.ly/cPKO5h

Why it’s Important to Be Professional as a Freelancer – http://bit.ly/9nvqiq

The Makeup of a Designer – http://bit.ly/ahbUEN

How to Upsize Your Next Project – http://bit.ly/cSZLsg

Logo Design

Brilliant Tips and Guidelines for Professional Logo Design – http://bit.ly/8YioHO

25 iconic corporate logo tutorials to challenge your skills – http://bit.ly/diWu0Q

Web Design

Web Design: Redesign vs. Realign – http://bit.ly/9lJSKV

Modern Element Trends In Minimal Webdesign of 2010 – http://bit.ly/a3BAQD

50 Powerful Time-Savers For Web Designers – http://bit.ly/a5FVwg

Five Tips For Designing Eye-catching Tables For Your Site – http://bit.ly/cPSQAB

9 Usability And UX Pitfalls, And How To Avoid Them – http://bit.ly/bbJWVK

How To Control Flow Within Your Web Designs – http://bit.ly/97xIIk

7 Most Useful HTML5 Video Integrating Tools - http://bit.ly/bc79PY

Speed Optimization Tips For Your Website – http://bit.ly/9vvRMJ

Typography

HOW TO : Make Your Web Typography Better – http://bit.ly/dzwan2

The Beauty Of Typography: Writing Systems of the World – http://bit.ly/aSwH2w

The Beauty Of Typography (Part 2) – http://bit.ly/ciDlPd

Inspiration

Understanding inspiration – http://bit.ly/cSA1P9

35 Beautiful Examples of Creative Collage for Your Inspiration – http://bit.ly/cHfJzq

How to seek inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci – http://bit.ly/9Kr2IV

Top 20 Logos with Hidden Meanings – http://bit.ly/9EtrvK

Design Resources

Top Sites To Download Free High Quality Photoshop Brushes – http://bit.ly/dehS5M

Top Free Online Tools for Designers – http://bit.ly/d77z7a

8 Free Stylish Fonts From Typographers On Behance – http://bit.ly/ae9TWz

No doubt the book is chock full of helpful resources for entrepreneurs – and we’re all about that!

The project is offering $1,200.

Read the brief

That’s a lot of opportunity!

Let’s take a closer look…

Logo Design -over 400 logo design opportunities
Web Design – over 120 web design opportunities
WordPress Design – 23 WordPress design opportunities
Print design – 37 print design opportunities
T-Shirt Design – 13 T-Shirt design opportunities

And there’s lot’s more so – Find your opportunity today!

99designs is teaming up with global stock image company Fotolia to contribute to the Gulf oil relief effort.

Until July 31, 2010, 99designs and Fotolia will make a 20% contribution to the Gulf Oil Disaster Relief Fund for every credit or subscription purchased through http://fotolia.com/99gives

Our thinking is – you need images anyway, so why not make a difference while you download?

Join the nearly two-million professionals using a free Fotolia account to access over 9,000,000 royalty-free images. Fotolia is a leading choice for designers and artists looking for affordable, high-resolution photos, vectors, illustrations, and videos.

To make a difference with your downloads, visit: http://fotolia.com/99gives

It’s our way of saying THANK YOU for helping us win this prestigious award.

Here’s how it works:

1. Visit 99designs any time on Friday June 25, PDT.

http://99designs.com/go/free_contestday

2. Decide what you need designed, such a new brochure to attract more clients, new banner ads to grow website traffic, event invitation cards for an upcoming party, or maybe some attention grabbing business cards.

3. Click the ‘post a design project’ button to launch a contest. We’ll pay your listing fee, which means you’ll only need to cover the processing fee, prize and any optional upgrades you pick.
You’ll instantly save $39.

It’s that easy – Don’t miss out!