A little bit of bitching, a little bit of info dump and hopefully some feedback from the members.
I've got a side business that requires some web design. I can do it myself with a lot of effort, but the opportunity cost is high. So, the plan is that I don't, even if it's painful. I basically just need some custom design with the resulting html/css. Of course, I don't want to spend a fortune on this new biz which might never earn a cent, so I need it to be cheap(ish).
In the past, I've had some good web designers but the one I used for my last project has since got a day job and isn't available.
So, some things I have learned in this process and in the past:
Upwork/oDesk
Where did you guys find a good designer?
I've got a side business that requires some web design. I can do it myself with a lot of effort, but the opportunity cost is high. So, the plan is that I don't, even if it's painful. I basically just need some custom design with the resulting html/css. Of course, I don't want to spend a fortune on this new biz which might never earn a cent, so I need it to be cheap(ish).
In the past, I've had some good web designers but the one I used for my last project has since got a day job and isn't available.
So, some things I have learned in this process and in the past:
Upwork/oDesk
- You will get flooded with hundreds of Indian design company spam proposals.
- Never hire those! The ones with good front men will talk a good game. I have tried it several times in the past, and even last month, but I have never had a good experience with an Indian outsourcing firm. This seems to be accepted wisdom with friends that also have occasion to hire these guys.
- Eastern Europeans can be good, but they're also either quite a bit more money or seriously overbooked. My last job I invited a bunch of promising looking designers to interview from EE, they all declined.
- Put a little sentence in somewhere asking them to tell you something specific in their proposal, like "Tell me what your favorite motorcycle is." - You can filter everyone that fails to do it, as they didn't even read your job description.
- I had my logo designed on this site. It cost $500, but it was well worth it. It gets you a bunch of designers competing on your sort of rough idea of what you want, and iterating on your feedback until you get what you want. It's fantastic for guys like me who have a rough idea of what they want but don't want to supply reference and design specs and such.
- The guys doing the designs seem to be working this system hard - they're pretty good at it. The guy who did my logo in the end had a lot of completed jobs on his profile - all logos.
- Might be a lot more expensive than just finding a good freelancer.
Where did you guys find a good designer?