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I've worked with a lot of designers and have found a dramatic disconnect between the value they provide and the cost of their services. It is staggering. Be su

by rch 16y ago

I've worked with a lot of designers and have found a dramatic disconnect between the value they provide and the cost of their services. It is staggering. Be sure to check around for services like 99designs.com (I'm sure there are others - try a search on HN too). Also remember that there are tons of graphic designers, at least here in Houston. The same guy being billed out at $140 an hour might also work at the Kinkos around the corner. You might even try to hire an independent at $30/hr at your local co-working spaces, AIGA meetings, Open Coffee, etc... You get cleaned out paying for the whole project by the hour, and a per-project quote is likely to be made-up nonsense. Just pay hourly, but pick a day of the week to review progress and cut a check. Be ruthless and switch designers if you don't like how it is going.

lesterbuck 16y ago
I really like the pay as you go idea. I guess that is agile design outsourcing? I used to attend the graduation portfolio shows at the Art Institute (of Houston, it's a chain), looking for designers that I might work with for web sites. It was depressing for the following reason: On one floor were the graphics arts people, with a stunning visual sense, expressed in physical things like little products, books, magazines, posters, typography, etc., etc. On the other floor were the multimedia designers, whose program required them to do something in every type of techie design there is: Flash, InDesign, videos, web sites, etc., etc. I didn't see the well developed visual sense in the multimedia work, and I'd ask the graphics arts people if they did web sites: "Oh yeah, I did one once." When will these schools wake up and pair the visual sense with the techie in one student? Maybe they should have students work as a team, one techie and one visual. If they could develop these skills sets in one student, we'd see designs like those in CSS Zen Garden. By the way, what designers have you worked with in Houston? (contact info in my profile)
- rch 16y ago
  Hi Lester - good to see you on HN. I'll drop you a line sometime... I still have your card someplace.

by rch 16y ago

lesterbuck 16y ago

I really like the pay as you go idea. I guess that is agile design outsourcing? I used to attend the graduation portfolio shows at the Art Institute (of Houston, it's a chain), looking for designers that I might work with for web sites. It was depressing for the following reason: On one floor were the graphics arts people, with a stunning visual sense, expressed in physical things like little products, books, magazines, posters, typography, etc., etc. On the other floor were the multimedia designers, whose program required them to do something in every type of techie design there is: Flash, InDesign, videos, web sites, etc., etc. I didn't see the well developed visual sense in the multimedia work, and I'd ask the graphics arts people if they did web sites: "Oh yeah, I did one once." When will these schools wake up and pair the visual sense with the techie in one student? Maybe they should have students work as a team, one techie and one visual. If they could develop these skills sets in one student, we'd see designs like those in CSS Zen Garden. By the way, what designers have you worked with in Houston? (contact info in my profile)

rch 16y ago
Hi Lester - good to see you on HN. I'll drop you a line sometime... I still have your card someplace.