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Ask HN: Who designed the graphics for your web app, and where did you find them?

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Re: Ask HN: Who designed the graphics for your web app, and where did you find them?

#21

Post by FreeKill »

jlw253 wrote: post #11
vaksel wrote: post #2

Some simple stuff I do myself. For the more complicated stuff I started out with using digital point...but then I switched to http://99designs.com/ and haven't looked back. You get way more submissions so you have a much higher chance of getting something truly good.

We used 99designs just recently for logo work for www.neighborex.com. Was a great experience. Designers were easy to work with. Process was simple and painless.

How much did a logo like that cost you at 99? If you don't mind me asking...

Re: Ask HN: Who designed the graphics for your web app, and where did you find them?

#22

Post by [deleted] »

randallsquared wrote: post #15
bkbleikamp wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Understanding how Photoshop works and being able to make some graphics does not mean you will be able to design a usable web app. It takes practice - just like programming.

Not only that, it takes talent. I've been doing HTML/CSS for years, and I still have no idea how to design something great, because I can't visualize what I want -- I only know what I like or don't like after I see it.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Who designed the graphics for your web app, and where did you find them?

#24

Post by karmaVS »

RKlophaus wrote: post #17
unalone wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Silk is a solid set, but it's becoming extremely noticeable when it's used. Now it really seems jarring when I see it on a site: it looks skimpy. It's great for placeholders, but if you can get professional design work done, do it. Don't skip on expenses if it means looking more unique.

For icons I've been using the Crystal set by Everaldo, released under LGPL. http://www.everaldo.com/crystal/

I have a particular dislike for that icon set. Things that are shiny are too shiny and things that aren’t shiny look flat. It also has a bad case of Apple envy; but is nowhere near up to the OS X icons’ standard.

Re: Ask HN: Who designed the graphics for your web app, and where did you find them?

#25

Post by maxklein »

mstefff wrote: post #7

Myself. Photoshop is extremely easy to learn - mainly for regular web sites/graphics. Spend some time and read some tutorials. Get yourself very familiar with CSS. And begin scanning through CSS galleries to get inspiration. Sites like Vimeo are extremely easy to design. Don't waste your money.

Not everyone has time to spend learning how to use photoshop. I'd rather spend 500 bucks to get someone to do it for me than to spend two weeks trying to do it myself. I could make much more than 500 doing the stuff I know in those two weeks.

Re: Ask HN: Who designed the graphics for your web app, and where did you find them?

#26

Post by bkbleikamp »

maxklein wrote: post #25
mstefff wrote: post #7

Myself. Photoshop is extremely easy to learn - mainly for regular web sites/graphics. Spend some time and read some tutorials. Get yourself very familiar with CSS. And begin scanning through CSS galleries to get inspiration. Sites like Vimeo are extremely easy to design. Don't waste your money.

Not everyone has time to spend learning how to use photoshop. I'd rather spend 500 bucks to get someone to do it for me than to spend two weeks trying to do it myself. I could make much more than 500 doing the stuff I know in those two weeks.

Exactly - let the professionals do what they can. I am a designer and I could learn how to code a site in Rails or Python, or whatever, in a few weeks but the code would be a mess and the site wouldn't be optimized and I'd waste a ton of time figuring all that out later.

I'd rather pay someone who knows what they're doing and can do it right the first time.

Re: Ask HN: Who designed the graphics for your web app, and where did you find them?

#27

Post by SwellJoe »

karmaVS wrote: post #24
RKlophaus wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For icons I've been using the Crystal set by Everaldo, released under LGPL. http://www.everaldo.com/crystal/

I have a particular dislike for that icon set. Things that are shiny are too shiny and things that aren’t shiny look flat. It also has a bad case of Apple envy; but is nowhere near up to the OS X icons’ standard.

Agreed. There are better LGPL sets. We mostly use Nuvola by David Vignoni, though I've grown a little tired of its cartoonish looks, and David has since done better work (but none as complete as Nuvola...we paid for development of a couple dozen of the Nuvola set, so it's complete in ways that no other is for our purposes).

Re: Ask HN: Who designed the graphics for your web app, and where did you find them?

#28

Post by SwellJoe »

FreeKill wrote: post #21
jlw253 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We used 99designs just recently for logo work for www.neighborex.com. Was a great experience. Designers were easy to work with. Process was simple and painless.

How much did a logo like that cost you at 99? If you don't mind me asking...

We've done two logos at 99designs now. I blogged about the experience in a couple of places...with the winning entry being discussed here:

http://inthebox.webmin.com/the-new-face-of-webmin

We used a prize of $500 for each logo. In both cases, it was the highest paying contest on the site when started. In the second case, a $750 contest started soon after, but it didn't seem to impact our results negatively. The cost of running a contest is $39 (it was only $30 when we first used them).

Re: Ask HN: Who designed the graphics for your web app, and where did you find them?

#30

Post by RossM »

randallsquared wrote: post #15
bkbleikamp wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Understanding how Photoshop works and being able to make some graphics does not mean you will be able to design a usable web app. It takes practice - just like programming.

Not only that, it takes talent. I've been doing HTML/CSS for years, and I still have no idea how to design something great, because I can't visualize what I want -- I only know what I like or don't like after I see it.

That's how I seem to be:- I can create nice elements of a design, but it always comes together to look out of place. The group I work with have a designer in our team who handles design for all our web apps.
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