10 ms·

How to find the right designer

63 points by sgrove 15y ago

justinph 15y ago
Dribbble? Really? Dribbble is neat and all, but using it to find a designer is like picking a book by looking at the lower lefthand corner of the cover--it doesn't tell you anything. You might find a designer who is good at fancy effects in photoshop, but it won't tell you much about UX, architecture, coding experience, etc. Dribbble could be the start of your browsing experience, but should by no means be viewed as the go-to place.
- petervandijck 15y ago
  I'm not looking for ux/architecture/coding when hiring a designer.
- sgdesign 15y ago
  Dribbble will show you someone's process across multiple projects, and give you some perspective on their work through other designer's comments. I stand by my affirmation that it's the single best place to find a designer.
- thomasgerbe 15y ago
  Designers live and die by their portfolio.
- huhtenberg 15y ago
  - I hate cats - the hair, the smell... - Oh, you just don't know a good recipe Same with Dribbble. All good designers have links to their portfolios full of uncropped samples of their work. Most of good designers on Dribbble also have Pro accounts meaning that their "shots" typically have full-size versions attached to them and the shots are organized into the projects. Nobody is saying that one needs to pick a designer because of that one 400x300 shot that looks awesome. What the OP meant is that Dribbble is a great visual directory of a metric ton of really good designers.
  - sgdesign 15y ago
    Thanks for explaining my own point better than I could!
dreamdu5t 15y ago
What about designers who can code? I think that's a major consideration in hiring a web designer. If you get one who can't code, how well do they understand what is possible or easy in the browser? How well will they work with the coder you have to hire? A lot of times you can get a decent frontend person who designs and codes for less than you can hire a coder and a designer.
- flyosity 15y ago
  Depends on what you want them to code. Any great designer who works on the web can write HTML & CSS, else they're not a great designer. If you want them to know Rails, Python, or PHP and help you with middle-tier integration, then that's probably a more difficult task.
  - thomasgerbe 15y ago
    "Any great designer who works on the web can write HTML & CSS, else they're not a great designer." Couldn't disagree more. I've worked with so many amazing interactive designers at agencies who didn't know much about coding but because of the division of labor managed to execute some killer sites. I'm not arguing that designers like myself shouldn't know code but rather that amazing web designers who don't know code do exist.
    - flyosity 15y ago
      You can't design for the web (or for any medium) without knowing its constraints. If a "web designer" doesn't know HTML or CSS then how can they adequately design for the web as a platform when they don't know how it works?
      - jamesteow 15y ago
        Because they use the web everyday. At my old company, we taught designers contraints about web elements and what could typically be styled and executed. This relationship between front-end dev and web designer was pretty key. I never coded but because of my usage of the web, I knew the constraints. Those designers ended up designing some of the most used sites in the United States. When working at an agency, one rarely ever touches code because the client either has a team to deal with it OR there are full-time front-end devs. But hey, if those designers who multiplied revenue for ecommerce sites and increased viewership for content sites are bad web designers, then I'll take those scrubs anyday.
peng 15y ago
If you're looking to hire a logo or icon designer, Dribble is the place to be. However, crafting the perfect 300x400 teaser has little to do with web design. Do you want to hire a window decorator, or someone who will help you solve the hard problem of making your app easier to use? Think carefully. You might not want a real web designer. A graphic designer is certainly a safer hire--they won't futz with your codebase, anyway!
- sgdesign 15y ago
  The truth of the matter is that Dribbble has the best designers out there. And yes, that includes great user experience designers (http://dribbble.com/rogie http://dribbble.com/rogie), and even great front-end coders (http://dribbble.com/simurai http://dribbble.com/simurai). I think a lot of people mistakenly assume that a "user experience designer" has to create ugly mockups and clumsy prototypes. The best user experience designers are just designers that do their job well.
cuchoperl 15y ago
Where can you go to look for a UX/UI designer that can help with the usability of your website? Dribble is ok to showcase a nice logo, a nice button etc, but fails for non-cosmetic driven design.
mtgentry 15y ago
Coroflot.com and behance.net are good resources too. Generally speaking, talented designers (and hackers) enjoy working on interesting projects. If your idea is better than anything they're currently working on, they might work for equity. That's how I approach it anyway.
matt1 15y ago
Quick plug: I'm working on a startup called Lean Designs to help developers who struggle with web design create beautiful sites. In a nutshell, it's an HTML5-based WYSIWYG editor that exports to professional HTML/CSS. I invite you all to check it out: http://www.leandesigns.com http://www.leandesigns.com
- pchristensen 15y ago
  Even if you never become a customer, watching Lean Designs develop via its blog is amazing! It's too bad LD will be a huge success because matt1 is a programmer I'd love to have on my team.
shawnee_ 15y ago
There's a decent mix of dev/design talent on Forrst
michaelpinto 15y ago
As a designer I found the article a bit of a throw away. Firstly designer can describe a wide range of talent — anybody from a branding expert to an HTML/CSS production jockey. The way you'd search for each of those roles is quite different, it's like the difference between a Unix admin and a Object C programmer who knows iOS. I think the main problem that many non-designers have when hiring talent is that they don't understand the process of a designer, so they don't know how to manage a designer. I also think there's the sin of going the cheap route and then being unhappy with the results.
unshift 15y ago
i used this exact method to find the designer i hired about a month ago. overall, it worked out, but it was a frustrating process. i was aiming for some specifics: a female designer who was up to date on HTML5/CSS3 and ideally had some wedding stuff in her portfolio. i probably contacted no less than 25 people (through their websites) over the course of two weeks, and was met with either a lack of response, note saying they weren't accepting work, couldn't start soon enough, or for one reason or another i reconsidered. eventually i found someone who is now doing some really great work, but it wasn't a fast process. it's important to carefully check out portfolios, because while most things look good on Dribbble, a nice icon or logo doesn't necessarily translate into solid web design skill. i spent a lot of time validating pages (and pages linked in their portfolio), looking for design elements i liked and didn't like, and overall indications that they'd be good for me to work with. that way, once i hired my designer, i knew what to look out for (e.g. press the issue of validating HTML). all in all -- Dribbble was a good place to find designers, but i still had to do diligence on my end to find the right one for my project. that's basically echoing the point of the article, but it's worth repeating.
- sgdesign 15y ago
  Contacting 25 people before finding the right one seems like a lot, but you did have very restrictive criteria. I guess my point is that Dribbble is the best starting point, not because it makes the search easy (it doesn't), but just because it has the best designers. It's a bit like mining for diamonds instead of copper: diamonds are harder to find, but also more valuable.
- premchai21 15y ago
  I'm curious: are there reasons you were searching for a female designer specifically? (Unless I'm misinterpreting that sentence, that is.)
  - unshift 15y ago
    yup. i'm working on a site for weddings and wanted a female perspective

63 points by sgrove 15y ago

Dribbble? Really? Dribbble is neat and all, but using it to find a designer is like picking a book by looking at the lower lefthand corner of the cover--it doesn't tell you anything. You might find a designer who is good at fancy effects in photoshop, but it won't tell you much about UX, architecture, coding experience, etc. Dribbble could be the start of your browsing experience, but should by no means be viewed as the go-to place.

petervandijck 15y ago
I'm not looking for ux/architecture/coding when hiring a designer.
sgdesign 15y ago
Dribbble will show you someone's process across multiple projects, and give you some perspective on their work through other designer's comments. I stand by my affirmation that it's the single best place to find a designer.
thomasgerbe 15y ago
Designers live and die by their portfolio.
huhtenberg 15y ago
- I hate cats - the hair, the smell... - Oh, you just don't know a good recipe Same with Dribbble. All good designers have links to their portfolios full of uncropped samples of their work. Most of good designers on Dribbble also have Pro accounts meaning that their "shots" typically have full-size versions attached to them and the shots are organized into the projects. Nobody is saying that one needs to pick a designer because of that one 400x300 shot that looks awesome. What the OP meant is that Dribbble is a great visual directory of a metric ton of really good designers.
- sgdesign 15y ago
  Thanks for explaining my own point better than I could!

dreamdu5t 15y ago

What about designers who can code? I think that's a major consideration in hiring a web designer. If you get one who can't code, how well do they understand what is possible or easy in the browser? How well will they work with the coder you have to hire? A lot of times you can get a decent frontend person who designs and codes for less than you can hire a coder and a designer.

flyosity 15y ago
Depends on what you want them to code. Any great designer who works on the web can write HTML & CSS, else they're not a great designer. If you want them to know Rails, Python, or PHP and help you with middle-tier integration, then that's probably a more difficult task.
- thomasgerbe 15y ago
  "Any great designer who works on the web can write HTML & CSS, else they're not a great designer." Couldn't disagree more. I've worked with so many amazing interactive designers at agencies who didn't know much about coding but because of the division of labor managed to execute some killer sites. I'm not arguing that designers like myself shouldn't know code but rather that amazing web designers who don't know code do exist.
  - flyosity 15y ago
    You can't design for the web (or for any medium) without knowing its constraints. If a "web designer" doesn't know HTML or CSS then how can they adequately design for the web as a platform when they don't know how it works?
    - jamesteow 15y ago
      Because they use the web everyday. At my old company, we taught designers contraints about web elements and what could typically be styled and executed. This relationship between front-end dev and web designer was pretty key. I never coded but because of my usage of the web, I knew the constraints. Those designers ended up designing some of the most used sites in the United States. When working at an agency, one rarely ever touches code because the client either has a team to deal with it OR there are full-time front-end devs. But hey, if those designers who multiplied revenue for ecommerce sites and increased viewership for content sites are bad web designers, then I'll take those scrubs anyday.

peng 15y ago

If you're looking to hire a logo or icon designer, Dribble is the place to be. However, crafting the perfect 300x400 teaser has little to do with web design. Do you want to hire a window decorator, or someone who will help you solve the hard problem of making your app easier to use? Think carefully. You might not want a real web designer. A graphic designer is certainly a safer hire--they won't futz with your codebase, anyway!

sgdesign 15y ago
The truth of the matter is that Dribbble has the best designers out there. And yes, that includes great user experience designers (http://dribbble.com/rogie http://dribbble.com/rogie), and even great front-end coders (http://dribbble.com/simurai http://dribbble.com/simurai). I think a lot of people mistakenly assume that a "user experience designer" has to create ugly mockups and clumsy prototypes. The best user experience designers are just designers that do their job well.

cuchoperl 15y ago

Where can you go to look for a UX/UI designer that can help with the usability of your website? Dribble is ok to showcase a nice logo, a nice button etc, but fails for non-cosmetic driven design.

mtgentry 15y ago

Coroflot.com and behance.net are good resources too. Generally speaking, talented designers (and hackers) enjoy working on interesting projects. If your idea is better than anything they're currently working on, they might work for equity. That's how I approach it anyway.

matt1 15y ago

Quick plug: I'm working on a startup called Lean Designs to help developers who struggle with web design create beautiful sites. In a nutshell, it's an HTML5-based WYSIWYG editor that exports to professional HTML/CSS. I invite you all to check it out: http://www.leandesigns.com http://www.leandesigns.com

pchristensen 15y ago
Even if you never become a customer, watching Lean Designs develop via its blog is amazing! It's too bad LD will be a huge success because matt1 is a programmer I'd love to have on my team.

shawnee_ 15y ago

There's a decent mix of dev/design talent on Forrst

michaelpinto 15y ago

As a designer I found the article a bit of a throw away. Firstly designer can describe a wide range of talent — anybody from a branding expert to an HTML/CSS production jockey. The way you'd search for each of those roles is quite different, it's like the difference between a Unix admin and a Object C programmer who knows iOS. I think the main problem that many non-designers have when hiring talent is that they don't understand the process of a designer, so they don't know how to manage a designer. I also think there's the sin of going the cheap route and then being unhappy with the results.

unshift 15y ago

i used this exact method to find the designer i hired about a month ago. overall, it worked out, but it was a frustrating process. i was aiming for some specifics: a female designer who was up to date on HTML5/CSS3 and ideally had some wedding stuff in her portfolio. i probably contacted no less than 25 people (through their websites) over the course of two weeks, and was met with either a lack of response, note saying they weren't accepting work, couldn't start soon enough, or for one reason or another i reconsidered. eventually i found someone who is now doing some really great work, but it wasn't a fast process. it's important to carefully check out portfolios, because while most things look good on Dribbble, a nice icon or logo doesn't necessarily translate into solid web design skill. i spent a lot of time validating pages (and pages linked in their portfolio), looking for design elements i liked and didn't like, and overall indications that they'd be good for me to work with. that way, once i hired my designer, i knew what to look out for (e.g. press the issue of validating HTML). all in all -- Dribbble was a good place to find designers, but i still had to do diligence on my end to find the right one for my project. that's basically echoing the point of the article, but it's worth repeating.

sgdesign 15y ago
Contacting 25 people before finding the right one seems like a lot, but you did have very restrictive criteria. I guess my point is that Dribbble is the best starting point, not because it makes the search easy (it doesn't), but just because it has the best designers. It's a bit like mining for diamonds instead of copper: diamonds are harder to find, but also more valuable.
premchai21 15y ago
I'm curious: are there reasons you were searching for a female designer specifically? (Unless I'm misinterpreting that sentence, that is.)
- unshift 15y ago
  yup. i'm working on a site for weddings and wanted a female perspective