WHY aren't there more consumer Internet VCs w/ graphic design skills? • Hacker News Board

Re: WHY aren't there more consumer Internet VCs w/ graphic design skills?

#11

Post by pieratt » Thu, Dec 31, 2009, 5:08 PM UTC

fortes wrote: post #9

pieratt wrote: post #6

As a graphic designer, I hope to be an exception to this observation. Just give me a few years. On a less personal note, it's pretty rare that you will find a designer who is also interested in tech startups or business in general. As someone who spends an inordinate amount of time reading industry blogs and such, you simply don't see that much cross over between the two. Which is surprising considering how business-…

Any industry blogs you'd recommend? I've got my share of tech blogs, but would love find some new hidden gems for design (especially interaction design).

For Interaction Design? I don't have much for you. Here's a couple that are somewhat in that vein:

http://uxmag.com/ http://www.minimalsites.com http://www.creativeapplications.net http://www.formfiftyfive.com

Re: WHY aren't there more consumer Internet VCs w/ graphic design skills?

#12

Post by chaostheory » Thu, Dec 31, 2009, 5:39 PM UTC

edit: (forgot to elaborate on which question I was referring to) "There just aren't that many designers out there, relative to other disciplines. Anybody who has tried to hire designers knows that it is super hard, harder than hiring engineers which is already hard."

I think the real question is: why aren't more graphic designers transitioning from print into web design instead?

IMO There are plenty of graphic designers for market demand, but there are very few qualified web designers

Re: WHY aren't there more consumer Internet VCs w/ graphic design skills?

#13

Post by omouse » Thu, Dec 31, 2009, 5:51 PM UTC

chaostheory wrote: post #12

edit: (forgot to elaborate on which question I was referring to) "There just aren't that many designers out there, relative to other disciplines. Anybody who has tried to hire designers knows that it is super hard, harder than hiring engineers which is already hard." I think the real question is: why aren't more graphic designers transitioning from print into web design instead? IMO There are plenty of graphic design…

Because web design sucks. Dealing with HTML and CSS directly is like dealing with assembly language. With print design you know exactly what you have to work with. With web design, you're designing for a multitude of browsers and clients.

Re: WHY aren't there more consumer Internet VCs w/ graphic design skills?

#14

Post by fortes » Thu, Dec 31, 2009, 7:12 PM UTC

pieratt wrote: post #11

fortes wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any industry blogs you'd recommend? I've got my share of tech blogs, but would love find some new hidden gems for design (especially interaction design).

For Interaction Design? I don't have much for you. Here's a couple that are somewhat in that vein: http://uxmag.com/ http://www.minimalsites.com http://www.creativeapplications.net http://www.formfiftyfive.com

Thanks. Knew about uxmag, but the others are new to me.

If you have recommendations for Graphic or Industrial design (or anything else, really) -- I'd love them as well.

Re: WHY aren't there more consumer Internet VCs w/ graphic design skills?

#15

Post by madh » Thu, Dec 31, 2009, 11:32 PM UTC

ggruschow wrote: post #5

Did he miss intrinsic motivation? VC seems less related to what designers like to do and think about. People often do tech work in order to build big things and make money, and VCs are right there in that game. Many engineers and programmers I've known speak of people who made a lot of money in the industry, and sometimes reference how they did things. I don't recall that mindset in designers. They've far more often…

Design firms also operate with a similar mindset. While they can (and do) make money, they are driven more by the work they do.

Re: WHY aren't there more consumer Internet VCs w/ graphic design skills?

#16

Post by dshen » Sun, Jan 10, 2010, 3:49 PM UTC

ggruschow wrote: post #5

Did he miss intrinsic motivation? VC seems less related to what designers like to do and think about. People often do tech work in order to build big things and make money, and VCs are right there in that game. Many engineers and programmers I've known speak of people who made a lot of money in the industry, and sometimes reference how they did things. I don't recall that mindset in designers. They've far more often…

First, thanks to all who responded to my blog post!

As far as intrinsic motivation goes, I did think about this, but in the end I declined to comment on generalizing about the motivations of a group of people. I chose to stay with non-motivational factors in my discussion because those could be analyzed more objectively. I did not feel right saying that one group of individuals thinks this way more than any other group, and certainly without a serious survey to really see what people want to do.

I do believe, like many other disciplines, that designers haven't been exposed to, or even given the opportunity to enter the investor business until recent years. Now that the discipline has been exposed to a new potential career path, I think we'll see that perhaps peoples' motivations could change simply because they have the exposure to a new possibility.