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Ask HN: How do you go about finding designers?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you go about finding designers?

#21

Post by eddorre »

I don't know why this is question is asked so much, really.

Ask yourself this, "Where do you go about finding programmers?"

A good answer for this is usually at local meet up groups. Programmers don't have a monopoly on such things.

Some ideas for local meet ups:

http://refreshingcities.org

Full disclosure: I'm a co-founder of Refresh Portland (http://refreshportland.org)

http://www.ixda.org/ http://www.sigchi.org/ http://webdesign.meetup.com/

For example, we recently had Jared Spool speak for free at Oregon's chapter of SIGCHI, CHIFOO. It was free and jam packed with around 180+ designers.

I'm sure that there are a quite a few groups where designers go to gather and talk about topics that are important to them.

So, my advice is to go to a designer meet up and mingle. Even if you don't find a designer right away, just tell them about your project and they might know a friend of a friend.

Re: Ask HN: How do you go about finding designers?

#25

Post by mdasen »

marcusbooster wrote: post #13
mdasen wrote: post #12

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…

With all due respect, that is what hiring a designer is all about. The biggest complaint from actual designers about sites like 99designs is that design is an iterative process not an off-the-shelf product. Relying on your artsy friends for design makes about as much sense as relying on your techie friends to build a website. Maybe you can get a favor if you happen to have a connection, but it certainly doesn't scale…

I guess I was assuming that these weren't serious web sites. Like, the OP said that they worked on a plethora of projects which sounded, to me, like lots of little side projects. I think it's ideal to work with artsy friends on those just like you'd work with techie friends. If you're doing something serious, clearly it's an employment thing not a buddy thing. However, sometimes you're doing a nice little project in your spare time and it's nice to build it with a friend who has a good visual sensibility and if it doesn't take off you've both spent some hours working on something cool and if it does take off you can continue working together.

Re: Ask HN: How do you go about finding designers?

#26

Post by mediamaker_jc »

hajrice wrote: post #5

Hey, I'm a designer. hajrice@gmail.com I had a post on HN recently. Anyway, here's a few samples of what I've done last week. http://imgur.com/KRbNx.jpg http://imgur.com/w8S4A.jpg http://imgur.com/DlHDb.jpg http://imgur.com/qfhbv.jpg http://imgur.com/KedPg.jpg

I'm a UI Engineer and designer also with 3D animation and video production skills to boot. I'd love to work with fellow HN members. Check my work out at http://www.johncozen.com and let's connect. john@johncozen.com

Re: Ask HN: How do you go about finding designers?

#27

Post by kyoji »

oneplusone wrote: post #19

If you want somebody to make your website look good, then you are looking for an artist. If you want somebody to make it work well, give it an appropriate aesthetic for the subject matter, and add more polish in general then you want a designer. The first can be found on many sites including 99designs.com. Finding the latter is much harder. Lots and lots of networking is probably your best bet. As a ui designer I can…

Agreed, especially the sentiment that multimedia design is synonymous with Flash in the design world.

Interface/UX design is severally un-recgonized by large organizations like the AIGA, and most 'web-design' discussion centers around designerly portfolio sites, long pages mimicking print design, and of course Flash sites.

As a designer with an interest in CS I find myself constantly torn between two worlds, since most people on the design side don't care much for the CS and most people on the CS side don't care much for Paul Rand's or Pete Modrian's.

Re: Ask HN: How do you go about finding designers?

#29

Post by Sindrome »

blizkreeg wrote: post #15

I'm a left-brained person for the most part but by observing patterns and best practices on other well-designed sites, I literally learned my way through producing (above average to good) design for my projects. See ijiny.com and ekcoffee.com I don't suggest this if you're looking to move fast as it's not easy, takes time, and a healthy resistance to frustration but I feel good that I could produce something that loo…

I'm starting this process right now. I'm sick of being so dependent on designers. Design is everywhere these days not just on the web. This disposable coffee cup which I am going to trash in a few seconds even has fancy design on it. The coffee holder even has a advertisement on it.

Whenever I build something, no one cares about the code, features, or performance. All they care about is how it looks.

Re: Ask HN: How do you go about finding designers?

#30

Post by elight »

jseifer wrote: post #20

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/ ).

Seeing as Dave Browning (half of We're Two Guys) works with us (We Are Titans, http://wearetitans.net), I'll second that.
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