Ask HN: How do you go about finding designers?

Get friends who are artsy.

In all seriousness, I like working with a designer rather than hiring one. Part of it is how one sees design. Is design something you can just purchase? If so, isn't code just something you can purchase? I think that part of the reason we're here is that we realize that you can't just buy your way out of code problems. Code is important, it takes dedication and hard work not the fulfillment of some sort of spec list.

The same is true, in my personal opinion, of design. The design and interactions that users are going to experience are of a lot of importance. It's not that hard to find a designer who will work with you on a project. The key is to treat them like a partner rather than someone who is doing some lower form of work that you don't really need, but will make it look flashier to users. Even if you don't have money, it's possible to get people to come on if they're a partner in the project. I mean, artsy people really understand not getting paid (especially if you're in the same not getting paid boat). They don't understand being belittled and unappreciated - really, who does?

So, respect, partnership and working together can go a long way on random projects that probably won't amount to much. There are lots of sites like http://99designs.com where you can get people to compete on spec. It feels a bit cold to me - as if once a design is made, it's done. I prefer a more continual improvement thing.

I'm not saying 99designs doesn't serve a good purpose. It's just not my style. I also have a lot of artsy friends so it might be easier for me than you. If you can find someone who is good at graphic design and understands user experience, data layout, etc. it's awesome.

I hope this is not in poor form but I too am a freelance UI designer/developer. From the HN crowd, I did some work for raffi (designed FeedbackArmy and AfterTheDeadline). My portfolio is at http://mdolon.com/ and my blog is http://devgrow.com/.

Its a really tough question. I have tried many of the routes suggested above. Elance, 99design and carbonmade. None of the experiences were great - elance and 99design work well for one off projects such as logo design and both vehicles provide many cost effective solutions, but designers are often in other countries in different time-zones and may speak different languages and the result is often poor communication, difficulty setting/meeting deadlines and lack of real understanding and buy-in from the designer.

Carbonmade is higher end and really just provides portfolios of design work to peruse and contact information - I found the hit rate on making contact to be very low and ultimately ran into communication/timing/buy-in problems here too.

Short of engaging a design cofounder/partner/employee, your best bet is to use a site like carbonmade to try to find someone local and to meet face to face and establish a relationship with the designer - difficult unless you are in NYC or LA/SF or other design hubs.

I echo the sentiment that design is critical.

Good luck.

I like your stuff. We should work together.

Pick a designer/firm you like, work with them on a project or two and try to keep sending work if it goes well. If they're not available take recommendations. To throw out a couple of references, I've been very happy with domo (http://okdomo.com) and TwoGuys (http://weretwoguys.com/).