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.
If you're a designer, this is a pretty sweet opportunity to work with, or even join, a YC co.
Do designers get compensated better now that they are so important and scarce?
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. :)
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.
I have no doubt sites like national geographics website cost over a million. Just like a good iphone app costs $200K+ good design costs, and is exceedingly rare.
example: winkreative
I guess I'm more wondering if companies are really paying designers 6 figs + equity for salaried positions. Or if it's really early stage startup, if the design salaries achieve parity with the programmer salaries.
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.