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Comment by gmurphy | Hacker News Reader

I'd really love it if someone could make it as as easy to buy design help as it is to buy stock photography.

There is an astronomical difference between the effort required to buy tens of thousands of dollars worth of imagery, and the effort required to buy tens of thousands of dollars worth of someone's time. The former is a matter of a cart and credit card, the latter requires lengthy emails, contracts, legal approvals, timesheets, and all other sorts of mumbo jumbo and for most projects, is enough work that I often just don't bother.

Though those roadblocks are there to protect both parties, I suspect that there's an artificially large delta between cost and risk.

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>to buy design help as it is to buy stock photography

Buying designs is easy. Buying commercial photographer's time is in the same ballpark as a designer's.

"Design on tap" is something larger companies with a standing contract / retainer can have. If you reach out to a larger design firm in your area and establish a relationship, you can cultivate this sort of relationship.

My problem is that I already have (many) of those relationships, but because of these difficulty issues, I'm stuck in those relationships.

to buy design (...)

You don't buy design because it's not an asset. It's part of the process.

He didn't say "buy design" he said "buy design help." He's looking for a contractor, and just doesn't like dealing with the legal/accounting/recruiting issues.

That's true. Design is a process and a complicated one too. It's very hard to just buy 1 unit of design. That's precisely why many designers prefer to work on projects, rather than per hour. Once you've settled on a project and set the price, the complexity goes away.

I am going to write a blog post about this one day. You are not the first person suggesting this, but once you start digging into what's involved, the variability is huge.

Have you seen http://www.tweaky.com/ (only yesterday announced investment from sitepoint/99designs)

There are sites like 99designs - for a fixed price you get dozens (or hundreds) of designers working on your project, you pick the best one, and the author gets paid.

And the 99 others who did work for you too, did not.

99designs also minimizes communication and interaction. Yes, this makes things easier for you, but designers are basically left to guess in the dark. It's a spray and pray approach that really goes against the word "design".

Yes, there will always be a place for 99designs. On Scoutzie, we believe that there should also be a place where a designer is valued by his merits, can be given the opportunity to apply his creativity, and be paid for his work.

Once in a blue moon you may be able to get a decent design from 99, but if you browse around their site (which has been made really hard lately), most of the work is of mediocre quality. I doesn't do "design" justice.

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