My Dwindling Workforce
No sooner do I lose the plasterer than the graphic designer I've been using lately goes AWOL and I have to start hunting for a new one. Stress I could do without at the moment.
You'd think that finding either a plasterer or a graphic designer would be fairly straightforward. Just look in the Yellow Pages or search the web — there's loads of them out there. However, plasterers aside, finding the right graphic designer is not as easy as it might sound.
My approach to finding a new designer has been to troll the CSS Galleries RSS feed. Every now and then a nice looking personal portfolio site will show up. When this happens I check out the portfolio to see what standards they work to. Then I see where they're based (although it's not important, local is always better). Assuming all criteria are met I send an email to see what they're availability is and take it from there.
Well, I'm pleased to report I think I've found one. We're starting work now on a little project to get the ball rolling. Assuming all goes well and I get his permission I'll pass his details on. He's moonlighting though, so I might have to keep it hush hush.
It's funny noticing the parallels between renovating a house and delivering a web project to strict deadlines. Both rely on your workforce sticking around long enough to deliver!
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The best place i have found to get good designers and artist from is www.deviantart.com, they have a huge range of people and ones with fab fresh ideas (they are also often as cheep as chips), a post on the forum or though the areas that you are looking for yields so some real talent
I think I mentioned in the past how impressed I was with the experience a client of mine had with Logobee. They are based in Canada, though, but have a very well developed fee structure and seemed to turn aruound drafts quickly. Granted, this experience was second hand and just over a year ago now, but I did like their work.
Jake - try a company called indzine (uk based) - they have done excellent work before.
Drop me a note and I can give you the contact details.
Thanks
Chris