CSS - https://tailwindcss.com/ Components - https://tailwindui.com/ Logo - https://pixlr.com/editor/ Icons - https://heroicons.com/ - https://lucide.dev/icons/ Animations - https://www.framer.com/motion/ BG patterns - https://heropatterns.com/ - https://dev.to/bybydev/top-10-svg-pattern-generators-16h
Otherwise its just React
1.) Imitating a good design can take a lot of developer hours. Many landing pages have fancy css effects and support many screen sizes and it can take quite some time to build.
2.) Finding a good designer is not easy. I have tried hiring on most freelancer sites with very poor results. The applicant pool is typically of low quality.
So I am wondering if others have found efficient/effective ways of going about #1 or #2, either by using certain tools or templates or by having a more clever hiring method.
In any case, I suggest looking into frameworks such as Bootstrap or Tailwind. Of course, there are also high-level solutions that don't require as much coding, e.g. WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, etc. WordPress plugins can make it very easy to apply fancy CSS effects without writing any CSS.
As for finding freelancers, I agree that's also a difficult task. I don't have any magic bullet there, other than to prioritize people with good, timely communication skills, and to avoid people on the low end of the price range since they will usually be less experienced.