Thread

So, I’ve decided I need to find a GOOD designer for one of my projects (just for a logo, not a site design).

In the last week I’ve had about a dozen responders and every single one of them looked like they were straight out of some early-90s clipart book.

Where do you find a good designer that understands the actual concept of good design practices and not just pulling random stuff out of a clipart book or using PAINT? 😊

Who have you used that isn’t prohibitively expensive?

(Hell, if you are one.. PM me or something ;p)

-G

I’d try a freelance board.

That’s where I’ve found all the stinkers.

It’s really hard to find a good designer, and there are a few good reasons…

The introduction of “templates” drove down the market, most people didn’t care if they had the same site as a hundred others as it looked good, and chances were it wouldn’t be found anyway.

The outsourcing trend grew extremely fast, to the point where there are companies offering “web designers” via all the freelance sites and job boards. Of the stuff I’ve seen so far most of these aren’t that bad but, very, very formulaic design that’s boring.

What you’ll find is that most good web designers will either charge you quite a bit since they’ve become established and have no reason to fight over pricing, or they’ve moved on to bigger and better things. I’m in the latter group, feel free to PM me if you’ve got an interesting project though.

All I’ve really got going is interest in is a fresh (and first) Logo for GeekLAN. Maybe I’ll post something in the job forum later in the week when I decide how rich I am.

A good place to post might be the EE job forum.  The EE guys tend to be designers.  This lot - not so much.

Although most designers will hate me for saying it - I’ve had pretty good results with Sitepoint’s Contest forums (I think it’s now called 99designs or something like that).

 
Hi Awpti,
 
http://logorama.com
 
I have sent a message reccommending the above site run by an American guy. He uses Xara which is a very old but powerful vector graphics program that is continually being updated.
 
Take a look at his portfolio and see if anything is of interest.
 
 
edit: spelling

Try running a contest on 99designs.com - I’ve run a couple of website design contests, and been very happy with the responses there.

Although most designers will hate me for saying it - I’ve had pretty good results with Sitepoint’s Contest forums (I think it’s now called 99designs or something like that).

Why would most designers hate you for saying that?  Looks like a great site to me.  I have a couple of projects I might be able to benefit from by posting there… looks pretty slick.

Although I always do wonder about the web design companies posting for others to create logos and what not for them…

wow, 99designs.com rocks, really!!
does something similar exists for website design??

@Developer13 - What is there to wonder about? I’ve got a designer who works for me, but doing it through 99designs, I can get 10 different design concepts to present to a client, for $250 - $300. I can pay more, and I’d probably get more concepts, and probably some higher quality ones too. It’s something I thought I’d give a go, and so far, it’s working fantastically.

@gunter - 99designs allows you to run contests for full website designs as well, although at the moment it’s just the design, not for coding as well (they did have it, but seem to have removed it).

Any designer that has made a significant name for themselves, or does design work as their primary means of income, will know this URL by heart: http://www.no-spec.com/

Essentially, sites like 99designs and other design contest sites, give the client all of the power - placing the designer a step above slavery and begging. The client gets X amount (usually between 10 and 20) designers to work for free and then they get to pick the best one.

It’s like, if someone came to this community and said, I’m looking for someone to code me a forum. All of you work on it, then I will pick the best one and pay him a couple hundred. What do the “losers” get to compensate their own time?

 
Hi Michael,
 
>>> What do the “losers” get to compensate their own time?
 
For new designers just entering the market they will get:
 
1.  much needed marketing exposure
2.  a qualified link back to their own site.
3.  they can hopefully (contest rules permitting) submit their designs to http://graphicleftovers.com/
4.  get feedback about becoming self-employed
 
 

In a perfect world… it would work like that, but it usually doesn’t for a number of reasons.

1. Most of these sites make you go by an alias nor do they maintain your ‘entry’ into the contest. You can’t link back to your own portfolio, because that encourages off-site communication, which enables you to get around the commission the sites charge the contest owner.

2. Even if I designed the site - I don’t want Johnson & Johnson feminine hygiene products linking back to me. Any legitimate company that will develop a long-term relationship with you, which is a designer’s bread and butter, will never agree to a link-back. Besides, it’s not hard to get incoming links these days, from relevant/related sources that Google will actually award you for, just do something worthwhile.

3. Rarely, rarely happens. I have actually seen a lot of these sites claim that the designers lose their rights to all of the entries, not just the winning entry. Besides, why not just submit the designs to graphicleftovers.com in the first place - eliminate the period of “I wonder if I’m gonna get paid for that 6 hours of work or not.”

4. The chump change made from these contests reveals very little about the possibility of being self employed. Sure, you can have other people tell you your work sucks and you’ll never eat again if you go solo, but you probably knew that before you started. On the other hand, by going and getting a job with a design firm (even a small one) you would make more money per hour, be guaranteed to be paid for the hours you worked, learn how the design business is much more than graphics - it’s about analyzing the company and it’s audience and being a psychologist with a paintbrush, and receive valuable insight into the business behind the design business.

Not trying to knock these sites really - I’m not a designer, I’m a programmer/entreprenuer who uses the hell out of these sites? Why - because I’m a bad person.

These sites give me all the power within the relationship, allow me to see the maximum number of design concepts for as little money as possible, and give me a final product for as little money as possible. Worst case scenario - I walk away with something I don’t want but I can release for free on my blog and instantly get a couple hundred inbound links (templates, converted to Wordpress templates are a couple hundred thousand).