Ask YC: Finding a Website Designer | Hacker News Reader

Ask YC: Finding a Website Designer

9 pointsbkrausz11 comments

I searched for a thread like this to no avail, so forgive me if this has already been posted, but considering the incredible importance of site design, I was wondering how one could go about finding a partner for a startup. As a little background: I'm at Carnegie Mellon, which has great CS and fine arts programs, but I don't actually know where to find these types...do they tend to hang out on sites like HN? Are they usually more artsy or computery (not to stereotype)? Are there as many entrepreneurial types amongst them, as there are with CS majors? I'm worried because it's the one major aspect of a startup that I've yet to find someone capable of covering who's interested...any advice/recommendations?

Also, if anybody who's primary focus is design is interested, we're looking, email me if you want to know more. We're in the Pittsburgh area, but don't require that you be. College students are encouraged, since we decided not to pursue funding for the time being, and thus aren't offering salaries.

There are quite a few designers on here and they're probably more the "computery" type since this site doesn't appeal much to design snobs. I'd guess they are fairly entrepreneurial too. Feel free to ping me (myoung8@stanford.edu), I'm an entrepreneurial, unsnobbish designer and I can hold my own in Rails.

http://www.programmermeetdesigner.com/

You're one of the few other people on here from Pittsburgh! email me if you want to meet for food/drink sometime.

Hah. That's an oddly specific match for our dilemma. Have you ever used it?

I am at the same juncture now.

There are many talented designers on there. I asked for a bid for logos a while ago and got 15 bids that were up and down the line for quality. I just don't know how many designers on there are willing to work for equity.

The designers that I know don't hang out online. And many of the designers I know have trouble with basic business practices (invoicing). I'm partnered with one who is actually probably better at business than me, and easily much better at marketing, but they are hard to come by. I would check both the design school at pitt and CM (and art institute of Pittsburgh) and also the marketing school, for someone with design skills (or aspirations, depending on your need for great design, and your willingness to pay)

Krop.com seems to be the new hangout for talented creatives looking for work. Don't waste your time with craigslist, most of those designers are terrible (or worse).

generally, people you find on online forums are going to be bad. the difference is, if you find a designer in estonia on odesk, you'll pay 50 bucks for bad design. if you get a san fran designer from craigslist, you'll pay hundreds for a bad design.

go with people you know, or people friends refer you to.

craigslist is definitely one of the worst ways to find a good designer.

One of my favorite hangouts back in my purely design days was http://www.DesignersTalk.com

Hiring a Star Web Designer:

http://ourdoings.com/2008-02-12

CMU has an HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) program. Have you tried looking around that department?

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