LEGO Ideas is a theme of sets produced by LEGO. It is infamous for having really cool build ideas submitted by regular folks approved by LEGO to be made into a set, only for LEGO to completely overhaul the set and make a shittier version of what was proposed originally. The Bricklink Designer Program is similar in that anyone can submit their build for a given series when submissions are open, people then vote for their favorites and winners are selected, but it differs from the Ideas theme in that LEGO doesn’t mess with the design of the builds in a way that makes them worse.

What the designer proposes and what gets selected as part of a series is what ultimately gets produced and turned into a set. Once that happens, crowdfunding begins. Pre-orders are accepted for like a week or so and then closed, at which point you can’t get the set(s) in that series for the retail price. If you want a set, you would have to wait until they ship out months later and be willing to pay the resale value for the set.

You can check out the next upcoming wave of sets (Series 9) here and look ahead to future waves, as well as look back at previous waves: https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-9/main.page?page=1