Ask HN: German considering hiring a US designer (remote), got some questions

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5389150

by codesuela • 13 years ago

5 4 13 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Hey HN, I am considering hiring a US based freelance designer and have some questions about that:

1) I am willing to pay a reasonable but not excessive amount so I think wont be able to find someone from LA or NYC due to the cost of living there, which alternative cities/states would you suggest?

2) Where would you suggest I start looking? Elance, Odesk, 99 designs and designcrowd seem to be populated by Indian people providing discount services. As I am not looking for cheap but reasonably priced and skilled labor which is why I am extending my search to the US.

3) What would be a reasonable rate for remote work for a US based designer outside of the Bay area and NYC?

Any answers would be much appreciated.

mjn• 13 years ago

On question #2, HN has a monthly freelancer thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5304173

If you're willing to put in some effort to pursue an approach with low signal/noise-ratio, you could pick some random cities and post ads in Craigslist's gigs section, e.g. http://chicago.craigslist.org/web/. That will tend to get you a lot of small-time freelancers of varying quality, many of them art-school students and similar. If that's what you want you can get some great deals (at the cost of a lot of time spent filtering).

If you're looking for more established design firms, rather than Craigslist you might just try web searches with a city name appended, for stuff like [st. louis web design firm]. Will also require a bit of filtering to find something you like, but from a different starting pool.

Rates really vary, partly depending on what you mean by design. More technical designers who also do some coding tend to cost more, for example. Designers who have a good network and high visibility cost a lot more, especially anyone whose portfolio includes big-name web properties. Since the discovery problem is quite difficult (as you seem to be noticing), the price/quality curve is imo very inconsistent, with some great designers working cheaply because they don't have good networks or marketing, and some not-so-great ones charging a lot, because they're able to bring in so much work that they can get away with it.

damoncali• 13 years ago

1) The city does not matter. At all. Go by price and portfolio quality. Don't assume that designers in NYC and SF will automatically charge more. I used to live in a market where developers are in demand (Austin) and now I don't (Omaha). Guess what? My rates have gone up recently.

2) I would use google to search for "[US tech city] web designer" and browse portfolios online. Where [US tech city] is SF, Austin, Boston, NYC, Denver, LA, Portland, Seattle - it really doesn't matter - just pick a big city starting with the above.

I know some folks who have had some unbelievably good luck (repeatedly) using Odesk, even with US based designers. $300 for a website design kind of luck. There is a bit of a hassle in finding the good, cheap designers, but at $300, you can afford to miss a few times.

3) In my experience designers are all over the map in terms of rate, and rate is not a good indicator of quality. I've seen decent work from $25-125/hour or more, while most seem to settle around $85/hour. Don't be afraid of fixed price. It may cost more, but at least you know. Typically, it seems a basic web design - an overall theme (3 to 4 pages) will cost between $1,000 and $3,000.

4) Do not hire an agency. They are one of two things - a) very expensive b) very expensive and very bad.

The bottom line is to ask around for referrals, and review their work. I've yet to meet a designer who can come up with a wide variety of styles that look good. Usually, their work has a distinct feel to it (like an artist) and you're going to be stuck with that, so you better do your homework and like it.

And finally, my email is in my profile - I can recommend a good one in Austin.

hbg• 13 years ago

Check your email @ lavabit.

dynabros• 13 years ago

Dribbble.com would be a good starting point for finding a decent designer

Ask HN: German considering hiring a US designer (remote), got some questions

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