McDonalds, is a famous icon or consequence of the fast food culture. Same as the design industry, 99design and Graphicriver share the similar characteristics with the McDonalds, which they are same in providing easy and fast solution for different people and meeting up the demand.
Ritzer (1998) pointed out the characteristics of the fast food restaurant which we can imply it in the design industry. For examples, their is no "real" human interaction with the servers in fast-food restaurants. In reflection, there is also no real human interaction in the design crowdsourcing site and design template seller. For example, the client gave a design brief in the 99design site and wait for the crowd to submit their works. Only with a design brief, designers are very hard to come out a effective solution. Especially the tone of your message, it requires face to face discussion in order to let the designer full understands the problems and then come out an effective way to solve it.
A very good example is the logo design of a company. A client can just buy the logo template, then add the company name on it. It feels awkward and unfinished. The template may fulfil some people's need, but it is not effective and fades in the world of thousands of logos.
So, logo design or branding, should be done by the professional and should undergo the traditional design process, such as building concept, sketches, visualise and other. It need time and real communication to come out an effective design solution which the crowdsourcing site or design template site cannot achieve.
George Ritzer, 1998. McDonaldization thesis: explorations and extensions. University of Maryland.
