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Show HN: A better elance just for designers
- balele 13y agoSounds like a good idea. We used to spend lot of time on dribbble and other websites and its really difficult to figure out which designers are good without wasting weeks... How does the community curates?
- joaobatalha 13y agoI am not the creator, I posted this because we spent way too much time looking for a designer on dribbble, behance, and elance. Users look at the applications and then vote on whether the designer should be admitted
- dhawalhs 13y agoI would recommend www.folyo.me. I posted a job there recently and got 20 high quality leads.
- Mandatum 13y ago> "Posting a project on Folyo costs $99." Is a bit of a turn-off for small projects where design cost will likely only be $400-500.
- sgdesign 13y agoThat's actually on purpose. We try to encourage larger projects with a higher budget, because we don't want to compete with 99designs and other similar sites at the lower end of the market.
- sgdesign 13y agoThe self-curation is a great idea. It's something we want to implement on our own find-a-designer site (Folyo) down the road.
- mamcx 13y agoThat could probably work for developers. All the freelance sites I use have the option to link to github, stackoverflow and others, but not do anything with that.
- guptaneil 13y agoMy biggest problem with hiring designers like this is that it encourages designing for other designers, rather than for the customer. I want a designer that prioritizes something that's easy to use and obvious, rather than something that screenshots well for Dribbble. Sometimes those two goals can align, but not always.
- balele 13y agoI think you can solve that by taking into account customer feedback when curating the designers. That would for sure allign interests.
- sgdesign 13y agoThe way I see it, a site like this can help you get an initial selection of 10-20 "good for Dribbble" designers. It's then your job to pick the one that's also capable of making something that's easy to use, or rather that works well for your own needs. In other words, these services may not be able to magically find the perfect match for you, but they can at least get you halfway there.
- nness 13y agoHow would you go about preventing elitism from creeping in, given its self-curating nature?
- joaobatalha 13y agoI think that the self-curating aspect is probably better at preventing elitism than an invite based system. That way it is not so much about who you know but more about how good you are.
- nness 13y agoPotentially true, though I would imagine it depends on the size of the initial pool. Otherwise, if its small, I think you'll see bias in the selection of the early members which will carry forward.
- sgdesign 13y agoWhat's wrong with elitism? Isn't that exactly what you'd want for such a site?
- jaxn 13y agoI showed it to my wife who is a account manager at a branding / design firm. She is someone who would be a potential user of the site as someone looking for a designer. Her impression was that the site made her sign up and then provided no value. She showed me a very plain looking page that just said "I am looking for a designer." Now she is worried that the site is going to spam her forever. Hope that feedback helps.
- joaobatalha 13y agoThey have a waiting list right now for people looking to hire designers. I know the team and I can assure you they have no intentions of spamming you.
- munirusman 13y agoDoes it work for individual designers only or design firms can apply as well?
- grimmfang 13y agoI don't mean to offend but your sites theme looks like something I could pickup for $10 on Themeforest. Consider making it easier for users to see the way the system works, examples and use cases, as well as success stories (I recognize you are currently new). Additionally, consider changing your front page video to someone actually designing something. Also use margin-bottom: 0 on your about page to eliminate evil whitespace!
- kirillzubovsky 13y agoIf you are reading this and would actually like to hire a proven designer today, take a look at https://scoutzie.com https://scoutzie.com. We have a fabulous curated group of designers, many of whom are ready to start today. You can can browse through their portfolio work and past client reviews. Send messages to as many matching designers are you like; work with the one that matches you best. More on how Scoutzie works here - https://scoutzie.com/how-scoutzie-works/for-clients https://scoutzie.com/how-scoutzie-works/for-clients Cheers! ps. I am the founder, so feel free to ask me any questions.
- reganrob 13y agoHow do you feel about http://99designs.com http://99designs.com, in particular the competition model in regards to design? I've personally used them a few times with vary levels of success. It is particular useful for lightweight projects such as logo designs.
- gautamnarula 13y agoI used 99designs to get a book cover designed and I was very happy with the results. My designer was responsive, friendly, and made a wonderful design that went above and beyond what I was expecting. However, I was unhappy with how little the designer actually received. I paid $799 to run the competition, and the winning designer only got $387! Charging >50% commission seems highly exploitative, especially when all the designers who don't get selected receive nothing at all despite spending spending time creating designs.
- kirillzubovsky 13y agoSee my comment to the person above, /re why competitions are soul-sucking experiences for designers. Also, to your point about charging 50%+. Word is, 99Designs used to do very well, up until the point when the founder took on a huge VC investment and left the company. I guess since their business model is pretty much tapped out, they figured that raising margins would fix the slow growth.
- 13y ago
- logn 13y agoCan you also make a better elance/odesk just for programmers? Seriously; elance isn't it and the average hourly rate on there is about $10.
- PakG1 13y agoIs this possible? I get the impression that any such websites will always simply draw such rates, because that's what the market is willing to pay. I'm not talking about the market in general. I'm talking about the market that would be attracted to browse such websites. Anyone who's willing to pay more, they do things like browse github profiles. No?
- logn 13y agoI don't know any better than you. But my guess is that if you set a minimum hourly rate and also had peer reviewed contractors, that you would attract clientele willing to pay more.
- beerglass 13y agoDear Pixelfold team, the graph icon above "2. The community votes" on the site looks like someone's showing a middle finger! You may want to change it, considering the impression you want to create as a community of top designers.
- tehaaron 13y agoAnd the pencil icon above #3 "Great projects find you" looks like a penis. Sorry, but I looked over the page and definitely saw a graph and a piece of paper/pencil. I think there are a LOT of icons and illustrations that we can look at and see something unintended (not always a bad thing!)but just because this happens doesn't mean the design in question is bad.