Ask HN: Where are all the HN designers?
Seriously. I know you're out there. How come if I want to hire a developer from HN, there are multiple threads full of candidates? But if I want to find a designer, what do I do?
I also think that a lot of designers are not as into the hacker culture as much. Many come from backgrounds far removed from the explorative, geek & techie culture and just aren't as interested in those aspects. I know from my own experience I was a huge geek as a teen and was as interested in computers, hacking and coding as I was with design. But when I went to college I'm pretty certain I was the only one in the department at the time that was even interested in working with the web and building things. Some were afraid of the web and stuck to print design, and some just didn't have the background or interest. Unfortunately even those that were interested in it could not learn what they needed since the design program did not teach much of anything to do with the web.
Ultimately I think because of this there is a lack of designers with web experience and the hacker/entrepreneurial desire to be part of the startup community. It's something that I wish would change and I try to encourage designers I know to get more interested in building things for the web... to be more entrepreneurial, more geeky.