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If there's one thing that YC companies are always looking for, it's a designer. If you're a designer, this is a pretty sweet opportunity to work with, or even

If there's one thing that YC companies are always looking for, it's a designer. If you're a designer, this is a pretty sweet opportunity to work with, or even join, a YC co.

philfreo 16y ago
this is pretty much true for web startups in general
rdouble 16y ago
In my experience you can get paid more (cash & equity) as a mediocre ruby programmer vs. a great designer. Do designers get compensated better now that they are so important and scarce?
- flyosity 16y ago
  I'm a UI designer who works on web apps during the day and Mac/iOS apps at night, and, in my experience, designing APPS compared to designing WEBSITES makes you far more marketable. And you make a ton more money. I don't do much iOS UI work nowadays (I work on my own projects) but my rate of $150/hr was comparable with my friends who do app UI work. Compare that to web design hourly rates and there's really no comparison. I think the bottom line is if you can tie your work to the actual bottom line of the company (more people signing up and buying the app) compared to just building marketing websites, you're always better off. The key is making sure the higher ups at the company know how big of an impact you make as a designer so they see you as a money-making asset rather than just another sunk salary cost.
  - rdouble 16y ago
    Do you actually do the UI programming for the apps, or is it Photoshop comps?
    - flyosity 16y ago
      I do UI engineering as well. Wireframes/UX diagrams -> high-fidelity mockups -> full implementation of the UI (Cocoa/Obj-C or HTML/CSS/JS). It's nice to do both ends as I can think about implementation as I design and start thinking about where hiccups might occur.
      - richcollins 16y ago
        You should charge more. iPhone devs that can't design charge $150
- hajrice 16y ago
  DISCLAIMER: I'm a both UI Designer and rubyist I remember when I would ask for $50/hour for design work, people would without hesitation go for it, some startups even asked why I charge so low....eh, I didn't know better. While I don't have much experience with rails consulting, from what I've heard, people who can do both rails and ui design can EASILY go for $100/hour. Then again, I have a friend who just landed an ~$80/hour work doing some simple joomla/php work. To be honest, it sorta made more sense to me(even though I'm both a designer and rubyist) that designers made more. My belief is that it's more common for designers to be much more unique than a rubyist. What do I mean? My theory is that it's easier to become another kick-ass designer who has a lot of people digging his work than it is to become a "popular" rubyist(I'd consider the guy who created will_paginate to be popular in the ruby world). Am I the only one thinking in this way? ... it might sound a little ridiculous to some people. :)
  - emef 16y ago
    Yeah I think it's usually easier to point someone to a visual portfolio of your work (as a designer) than it is to link to projects you've worked on (as a developer). Definitely seems harder to get noticed for being an awesome developer, but designers can easily show off.
  - spitfire 16y ago
    If you're skilled at solving a customers problem, $100/hr is far underselling yourself. For a skilled (very rare) designer who can solve a customers problem $300-500/hr is perfectly acceptable. Mind you the vast majority of "designers" out there are artistés designing whatever trendy bubblegum is fashionable this minute rather than solve a customers real problems.
    - joshwa 16y ago
      The vast majority of "design jobs" out there are from marketing types wanting whatever trendy bubblegum is fashionable this minute rather than solving customers' real problems.
    - ncbutters 16y ago
- dylanrw 16y ago
  I've found it's hit or miss. You really need to love what you do and jump on the teams that value you.

If there's one thing that YC companies are always looking for, it's a designer. If you're a designer, this is a pretty sweet opportunity to work with, or even join, a YC co.

philfreo 16y ago

this is pretty much true for web startups in general

rdouble 16y ago

In my experience you can get paid more (cash & equity) as a mediocre ruby programmer vs. a great designer. Do designers get compensated better now that they are so important and scarce?

flyosity 16y ago
I'm a UI designer who works on web apps during the day and Mac/iOS apps at night, and, in my experience, designing APPS compared to designing WEBSITES makes you far more marketable. And you make a ton more money. I don't do much iOS UI work nowadays (I work on my own projects) but my rate of $150/hr was comparable with my friends who do app UI work. Compare that to web design hourly rates and there's really no comparison. I think the bottom line is if you can tie your work to the actual bottom line of the company (more people signing up and buying the app) compared to just building marketing websites, you're always better off. The key is making sure the higher ups at the company know how big of an impact you make as a designer so they see you as a money-making asset rather than just another sunk salary cost.
- rdouble 16y ago
  Do you actually do the UI programming for the apps, or is it Photoshop comps?
  - flyosity 16y ago
    I do UI engineering as well. Wireframes/UX diagrams -> high-fidelity mockups -> full implementation of the UI (Cocoa/Obj-C or HTML/CSS/JS). It's nice to do both ends as I can think about implementation as I design and start thinking about where hiccups might occur.
    - richcollins 16y ago
      You should charge more. iPhone devs that can't design charge $150
hajrice 16y ago
DISCLAIMER: I'm a both UI Designer and rubyist I remember when I would ask for $50/hour for design work, people would without hesitation go for it, some startups even asked why I charge so low....eh, I didn't know better. While I don't have much experience with rails consulting, from what I've heard, people who can do both rails and ui design can EASILY go for $100/hour. Then again, I have a friend who just landed an ~$80/hour work doing some simple joomla/php work. To be honest, it sorta made more sense to me(even though I'm both a designer and rubyist) that designers made more. My belief is that it's more common for designers to be much more unique than a rubyist. What do I mean? My theory is that it's easier to become another kick-ass designer who has a lot of people digging his work than it is to become a "popular" rubyist(I'd consider the guy who created will_paginate to be popular in the ruby world). Am I the only one thinking in this way? ... it might sound a little ridiculous to some people. :)
- emef 16y ago
  Yeah I think it's usually easier to point someone to a visual portfolio of your work (as a designer) than it is to link to projects you've worked on (as a developer). Definitely seems harder to get noticed for being an awesome developer, but designers can easily show off.
- spitfire 16y ago
  If you're skilled at solving a customers problem, $100/hr is far underselling yourself. For a skilled (very rare) designer who can solve a customers problem $300-500/hr is perfectly acceptable. Mind you the vast majority of "designers" out there are artistés designing whatever trendy bubblegum is fashionable this minute rather than solve a customers real problems.
  - joshwa 16y ago
    The vast majority of "design jobs" out there are from marketing types wanting whatever trendy bubblegum is fashionable this minute rather than solving customers' real problems.
  - ncbutters 16y ago
dylanrw 16y ago
I've found it's hit or miss. You really need to love what you do and jump on the teams that value you.