I’ve written my app already. It outputs valid xhtml and I need a
stylesheet
to drop over the top. How hard is it for people to understand that?
It’s a small project, they’d have to do the main design/layout, and then
a
little custom styling for some specific elements which don’t appear on
every
page. That’s the point of CSS right? write once, use (almost) anywhere
throughout your site.
So I advertised on craigslist, and in a few web design forums (in the
jobs
section). I’ve had easily 100 replies (mostly craigslist), here’s my
breakdown:
80 offshore sweatshops, who would be delighted to butcher my site with
table
based, flash ridden “eye catching” designs
5 front page/dreamweaver users who would be equally delighted to charge
me
for pressing a few buttons
5 developers who dont even mention design, xhtml or css in their email
but
who still want to work for me
4 developers who genuinely get css/accessibility but who are clearly
developers and not designers. To say their sites look bland is an
understatement
3 design firms who offer everything I want, at a price I can never
afford
2 designers who say they have all the relevant experience but don’t have
a
portfolio
1 nigerian scammer
so what’s a developer with the creative ability of a 3 year old to do? I
can’t justify paying hundreds to advertise on a dedicated jobs board
(the
project is non-profit)
If thats the case have you tried one Aussie xHTML / CSS Userinterface
designer, living in the UK, looking for some small projects? A designer
who knows ruby on rails? Who is realtively cheap?
I’ve written my app already. It outputs valid xhtml and I need a stylesheet
to drop over the top. How hard is it for people to understand that?
It’s a small project, they’d have to do the main design/layout, and then a
little custom styling for some specific elements which don’t appear on every
page. That’s the point of CSS right? write once, use (almost) anywhere
throughout your site.
snip
so what’s a developer with the creative ability of a 3 year old to do? I
can’t justify paying hundreds to advertise on a dedicated jobs board (the
project is non-profit)
3 design firms who offer everything I want, at a price I can never
afford
Well, it is a classic to say “I know what I want” and to equally say it
is overpriced. Since when is turing an idea into reality cheap? Good
design is so accessible today to small firms and non-profits because of
the low cost of tools and ease of collaboration over the internet.
Still, it doesn’t cost next-to-nothing.
Either buy a template and put together out what is missing, & what needs
to change.
(Betty Crocker cake mix)
or
Hire the right craftsman with the right tools.
(Bakery)
Why can’t you just do the design yourself ?
Check out the CSS - Discuss wiki. incutio something or other is the
url address.
There are also two sites that offer up open source css web templates.
A number of sites exist with things like layout calculators and other
tutorials for fancier things like drop boxes, css menus, etc.
breakdown:
3 design firms who offer everything I want, at a price I can never afford
2 designers who say they have all the relevant experience but don’t have a
portfolio
1 nigerian scammer
so what’s a developer with the creative ability of a 3 year old to do? I
can’t justify paying hundreds to advertise on a dedicated jobs board (the
project is non-profit)
I believe it was Benjamin Franklin who said “originality is the art of
concealing your sources”
In other words…find a web site you like, copy the colors/design,
download their css file and conceal your sources.
I’ve written my app already. It outputs valid xhtml and I need a stylesheet
to drop over the top. How hard is it for people to understand that?
It’s a small project, they’d have to do the main design/layout, and then a
little custom styling for some specific elements which don’t appear on every
page. That’s the point of CSS right? write once, use (almost) anywhere
throughout your site.
…
so what’s a developer with the creative ability of a 3 year old to do? I
can’t justify paying hundreds to advertise on a dedicated jobs board (the
project is non-profit)
Get in touch with your local art institute, community college, four year
college, high school, etc and talk to some one in the graphic design
department. Good chance their students need projects to do to graduate
and/or need “work experience”. And good chance they might do it for
free
(or for trade or something) just to get it on their resume…
You may not have noticed, but we live in one of the safest,
most peaceful, times in human history. In the US, the three
leading causes of death are: killing yourself, killing yourself,
and killing yourself http://tinyurl.com/msxhq.
–
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.11.0/420 - Release Date:
8/16/2006
so what’s a developer with the creative ability of a 3 year
old to do? I can’t justify paying hundreds to advertise on a
dedicated jobs board (the project is non-profit)
I think one response was really great: have the designer send you image
comps and the hex numbers for the colors and you code-up the markup and
CSS. It’s very pragmatic, no?
I would like to add two other, hopefully helpful, suggestions:
Barter for services – if I had the time, I’d gladly exchange some
visual design work for a personal tutorial or two on RoR or something
like that. Perhaps there’s a designer who needs help setting-up a blog
and you can install and configure Typo for them?
Check out the communities that standards-savvy designers frequent:
– alistapart.com comes immediately to mind;
– perhaps post a question on the webdesign-l listserv;
– check out csszengarden.com, note the designers that you like and
contact them or visit their web pages… You might find someone who’s
willing to help for little cost
And at the risk of getting too high up on my
artsy-fartsy-designers-horse, for all but the most trivial of web apps,
if you care about usability; if you care about presenting a well
thought-out, elegant web application, do not “just” borrow someone else
CSS files; or slap together some CSS-widgets onto a pre-made template.
Web design is not just a pretty eye-candy layer over a bunch of code.
The design of Basecamp, for example, is a very well-thought out design
and not someone’s whim of colors and CSS-wizardry.
</designer’s rant>
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