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Ask HN: Can someone refer me to a designer that doesn't suck?

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Ask HN: Can someone refer me to a designer that doesn't suck?

#1

Post by Zarathu »

I used to be a freelance web developer. (Before you ask: vim, Rails, MacBook Pro, and BSD servers - OpenBSD to store private data, and FreeBSD to scale; everything else is for failures)

The biggest pain about this, clients aside, is having to deal with the designers. I understand that they use a different part of the brain than I do, but some things are simply ridiculous.

From my experience in dealing with them, designers can either produce incredible work but be extremely difficult to work with, or produce eye pollution and be great to work with.

Does anyone know of a designer that produces good work without making you want to kill yourself? If you're a designer looking for work, send your portfolio to nick[at]whitepaperclip[dot]com

[edit] Web work; I don't want HTML/CSS coded.

My email is nick[at]whitepaperclip[dot]com

Re: Ask HN: Can someone refer me to a designer that doesn't suck?

#2

Post by henriklied »

I can name a couple. Both from Norway, both a joy to work with.

Ole Martin Kristiansen: http://piraja.no

Does outstanding work, plain and simple. I'm a Django developer, and I've worked with him on a couple of projects. Without prior knowledge to the way Django templates work, he was able to pick up very fast. Has good knowledge of Wordpress. (Full disclosure: I developed the system behind that site)

Simon Bognø: http://simonsays.no

As you can see on his site, I've already made a public recommendation. :-) Fantastic fellow, also does tremendous work. Has good knowledge of Wordpress, and was able to get an understanding of Django's templates quickly.

I don't really do a lot in the Rails space, so I can't tell you if they're a great fit there… But all in all I'd say they're great designers, and more important, great people to work with.

Edit:

Oh, and Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain of http://31three.com markets himself as a person who provides "Creative services for the design-challenged developer". Never talked to the guy, though.

Re: Ask HN: Can someone refer me to a designer that doesn't suck?

#3

Post by Zarathu »

henriklied wrote: post #2

I can name a couple. Both from Norway, both a joy to work with. Ole Martin Kristiansen: http://piraja.no Does outstanding work, plain and simple. I'm a Django developer, and I've worked with him on a couple of projects. Without prior knowledge to the way Django templates work, he was able to pick up very fast. Has good knowledge of Wordpress. (Full disclosure: I developed the system behind that site) Simon Bognø: htt…

HIRED!

(Well, that was easy. I wish I could up-vote this 100 times.)

Re: Ask HN: Can someone refer me to a designer that doesn't suck?

#4

Post by oneplusone »

I do freelance graphic design while not working on my startup. I don't have an online portfolio because I don't really need one. I worked for FreshBooks (http://www.freshbooks.com) up until a month ago. You can also take a look at my startup Guestlist (http://www.guestlistapp.com)

I specialize in interface design for web applications.

My standard rate is $75/hour.

Re: Ask HN: Can someone refer me to a designer that doesn't suck?

#6

Post by vaksel »

henriklied wrote: post #2

I can name a couple. Both from Norway, both a joy to work with. Ole Martin Kristiansen: http://piraja.no Does outstanding work, plain and simple. I'm a Django developer, and I've worked with him on a couple of projects. Without prior knowledge to the way Django templates work, he was able to pick up very fast. Has good knowledge of Wordpress. (Full disclosure: I developed the system behind that site) Simon Bognø: htt…

how much do these guys usually charge? with design you can end up paying $100-$100K for the same thing, and it's hard to know how much each charges

Re: Ask HN: Can someone refer me to a designer that doesn't suck?

#8

Post by Zarathu »

oneplusone wrote: post #4

I do freelance graphic design while not working on my startup. I don't have an online portfolio because I don't really need one. I worked for FreshBooks ( http://www.freshbooks.com ) up until a month ago. You can also take a look at my startup Guestlist ( http://www.guestlistapp.com ) I specialize in interface design for web applications. My standard rate is $75/hour.

Your app looks beautiful. Send me an email; it's in the OP.

Re: Ask HN: Can someone refer me to a designer that doesn't suck?

#9

Post by henriklied »

vaksel wrote: post #6
henriklied wrote: post #2

I can name a couple. Both from Norway, both a joy to work with. Ole Martin Kristiansen: http://piraja.no Does outstanding work, plain and simple. I'm a Django developer, and I've worked with him on a couple of projects. Without prior knowledge to the way Django templates work, he was able to pick up very fast. Has good knowledge of Wordpress. (Full disclosure: I developed the system behind that site) Simon Bognø: htt…

how much do these guys usually charge? with design you can end up paying $100-$100K for the same thing, and it's hard to know how much each charges

Definitely, I understand what you mean.

These two are not the kind of guys you'll find on crowdSPRING, but they're not the most expensive either. I can't provide you with any absolute "project total" numbers, but the first one I mentioned (Ole Martin Kristiansen, piraja.no) usually goes for about €75/hour on larger projects. In my experience, he's always worked quickly and to the point.

The second one is probably in that range as well, although I can't make any guarantees (and he's not currently on GTalk).

Re: Ask HN: Can someone refer me to a designer that doesn't suck?

#10

Post by lkrubner »

I'll mention some names in a moment. First, I want to offer an anecdote about the extent to which brains can be wired differently.

For awhile I was in a business partnership where I wrote code and I worked with a designer. One day a friend told us that she had started a new yoga studio and she wanted to show us her new business card, which was done in the shape of a bookmark - long and narrow. At the top was a photo, at the bottom was a quote from Hinduism. The quote was about acceptance and suffering.

The next day myself and my partner were at restaurant. The service was terrible. I jokingly repeated the quote about acceptance and suffering. My partner gave me a blank look.

"I'm quoting from that business card that we saw yesterday," I said.

"What quote?" she asked.

"The text at the bottom."

"I don't remember it."

"It was under the photo."

She then began describing the photo. She remembered in astonishing detail - camera angle, lighting, pose, shadows. I hardly remembered it at all.

It struck me that I had a good memory for text, whereas my partner had a good visual memory. And I've noticed that is fairly common division among programmers and designers.

The point of this story is that programmers and designers have brains that are wired in very different ways. I assume some of that difference in wiring is essential for any of us to be good at what we do.

Having said all that, I'd say the best designer I've worked with, and who is currently open to accepting free-lance work, is Darren Hoyt: http://www.darrenhoyt.com/

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