Stepping Stones

Finding a Good Designer (Part 1 of 3)

Its easy to find a designer, but extremely difficult to find a good designer.  I'll mention some good places to search for a designer, a few tell-tale signs of good and bad designers,  and some basic questions to ask during the interview process:

Places to Look:

• CarbonMade - this is a site I'm happy to have discovered.  It offers designers a community to share their portfolio in.  Not all designers listed are looking for work, but the ones who are have green banners that say "available for freelance" so its easy to spot candidates.  When browsing the site look for designers with a large portfolios that contain a variety of visual styles.  Also, make sure to check that they have the skillset required to finish the project you have in mind (flash, illustration, 3-d, AJAX, CSS etc) Overall this is a great place to look for and find a good designer but it will take some digging.  The search features on this site could be improved. 
• DesignersTalk - Is a forum for designers and those seeking them.  I've been here a few times and found inspiration for design work and some potentially interesting people to work with.  Use with caution and always remember to ask to see a portfolio and some references.
• LogoPond - an awesome site for those of you looking for a corporate identity designer. Not only will you get inspired by the other logos on the site, but you'll also see (in many cases) who did the work.  Designing a logo is one of the most personal and challenging design tasks you'll face when starting your company.  This is a great place to start.
• Craig's List - Many people turn to Craigs List and its the first place I went when I started looking for a designer. My general advice would be to look at CarbonMade, DesignersTalk and LogoPond first, chances are you'll find plenty of candidates who seem like a good fit.  The hard part is narrowing one down...

Tell-Tale Signs of Good & Bad Designers:

General Word of Caution: design is a subjective thing, so theres no one size fits all formula.  Most designers just copy what they see elsewhere, while good designers add their own touch and invest a little bit of themselves in every job they do.  These are some of the very basic parameters I use for evaluating a candidate:

• The Portfolio: This is the first place to look when evaluating a designer. 
  
  • The Good: A well structured, well designed portfolio with a wide range of work represented...  Testimonials and personal information (a photo & bio) are also good signs that the person is open and friendly.
    
  • The Bad: Poorly designed portfolio...  The work itself may look decent, but if the designer didn't put an effort into his own portfolio (website) that should tell you something.  Pay attention to details.
  • The Ugly: No online portfolio....  Believe it or not I've been contacted through Craig's List by several designers who don't have anything online.
    
• Timeliness: After you've selected several candidates its time to contact them.  The
  
  • The Good: 1-2 Days to respond...
    
  • The Bad: 4-7 Days to respond...
    
  • The Ugly: No response...
• Flexibility: Once you start a conversation with a designer, ask him/her some tough questions, make some demands and see how flexible they are. 
  
  • The Good: Moderately flexible... a balanced approach is always best, you want to develop a relationship and that means giving and taking. 
  • The Bad: Bends at your will... this is a bad sign, it shows that there is desperation for work.
    
  • The Ugly: Overly sensitive... this is a ticking time-bomb, if someone takes trivial things and negotiation personally they won't take well criticism of their work, steer clear.  I've had some horrible experiences with sensitive designers, they really can't differentiate between constructive criticism of their work and a personal attack.
    

Important Questions to Ask:

1. How long have you been freelancing?

It all depends on what you're doing, but most likely you want someone young who has a few years of experience, but still has a fresh perspective and is keen to impress.

2. How many projects are you working on right now?

This is a good indicator of how 'creatively available' someone is at this point in time.  If they have more than 1 or 2 other projects going on at the same time its doubtful that they will do a good job for you.  Good design takes more than just time. 

3. How often will you update me on the amount of time spent working on my projects?

If you're paying your designer on an hourly basis (most cases) its important to receive frequent updates from him/her about the time spent working on your project.  I suggest at least a weekly update, otherwise you could be in for a big surprise.  Someone may seem very cheap at first, charging only $20-30 an hour, but it could take them two or even three times as long to produce good work.  The only way to avoid this is to get updates often and identify the problem early on.

So thats the first installment in my design series, the second installment Working with a Good Designer is coming tomorrow (hopefully).

 

Finding, Working with and Keeping a Good Designer (Introduction)

Over the past year I worked with 10 graphic and web designers. To me that seems like a big number for such a short period of time. That tells me that either I'm doing something wrong or that its incredibly hard to find and keep a good designer. 

The truth of the matter is that like most people the majority designers are just out to make a buck, and do so as quickly as possible.  They take on more clients than they can handle and end up jumping from project to project each time loosing their creative drive and end up sacrificing quality for quantity.  When you combine an overworked designer who is spreading his creative capacity thin and an entrepreneur who is passionate about his business and wants that to show in the design you get a dysfunctional relationship and most likely lost time and money. 

Having experienced this failure multiple times and learned from it I decided to blog about; finding, working with and keeping a good designer.  Stay tuned for the first of a three part entry about the often turbulent, but essential relationship between entrepreneurship and design tomorrow.      

My Project: EyeStride

EyeStride is currently my main project/business, and the first that I'm writing about on Stepping Stones. 

EyeStride is about sharing experiences online by considering the geographic context of what you do.  Using our technology anyone can turn their photos and videos into a walk-through virtual tours in minutes.   Imagine having your friends and family tag along on your latest vacation by walking through a virtual tour of your journey rather than just looking at a photo album of otherwise disconnected images and clips.

EyeStride also offers exciting commercial solutions (how we make money) allowing any business with a strong physical presence to create interactive advertisements that leverage their locations.  Essentially restaurants, retail stores, real estate agencies and many other businesses can use our technology to visually connect their location to Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and other map web applications.  Its a great way for advertisers to engage customers in an interactive experience that builds strong communicative links.   

Check out EyeStride's website (www.eyestride.com) and sign up for the private alpha test right on the homepage.   In a few months we're going to release our product for testing and we'll let you know as soon as its ready.

How Marketers Really Think

I saw this on Seth Godin's Blog (which I highly recommend to everyone) and can only say that its amazing how often we see products that are created with similar thinking... Microsoft's Zune!?

Hitchhiker: You heard of this thing, the 8-Minute Abs?

Ted Stroehmann: Yeah, sure, 8-Minute Abs. Yeah, the excercise video.

Hitchhiker: Yeah, this is going to blow that right out of the water. Listen to this: 7... Minute... Abs.

Ted Stroehmann: Right. Yes. OK, alright. I see where you're going.

Hitchhiker: Think about it. You walk into a video store, you see 8-Minute Abs sittin' there, there's 7-Minute Abs right beside it. Which one are you gonna pick, man?

Ted Stroehmann: I would go for the 7.

Hitchhiker: Bingo, man, bingo. 7-Minute Abs. And we guarantee just as good a workout as the 8-minute folk.

Ted Stroehmann: You guarantee it? That's -- how do you do that?

Hitchhiker: If you're not happy with the first 7 minutes, we're gonna send you the extra minute free. You see? That's it. That's our motto. That's where we're comin' from. That's from "A" to "B".

Ted Stroehmann: That's right. That's -- that's good. That's good. Unless, of course, somebody comes up with 6-Minute Abs. Then you're in trouble, huh?

[Hitchhiker convulses]

Hitchhiker: No! No, no, not 6! I said 7. Nobody's comin' up with 6. Who works out in 6 minutes? You won't even get your heart goin, not even a mouse on a wheel.

Ted Stroehmann: That -- good point.

Hitchhiker: 7's the key number here. Think about it. 7-Elevens. 7 doors. 7, man, that's the number. 7 chipmunks twirlin' on a branch, eatin' lots of sunflowers on my uncle's ranch. You know that old children's tale from the sea. It's like you're dreamin' about Gorgonzola cheese when it's clearly Brie time, baby...

If you haven't seen the "Mary" movie, I highly recommend you do :)

Hitchhiker: You heard of this thing, the 8-Minute Abs?

Ted Stroehmann: Yeah, sure, 8-Minute Abs. Yeah, the excercise video.

Hitchhiker: Yeah, this is going to blow that right out of the water. Listen to this: 7... Minute... Abs.

Ted Stroehmann: Right. Yes. OK, alright. I see where you're going.

Hitchhiker: Think about it. You walk into a video store, you see 8-Minute Abs sittin' there, there's 7-Minute Abs right beside it. Which one are you gonna pick, man?

Ted Stroehmann: I would go for the 7.

Hitchhiker: Bingo, man, bingo. 7-Minute Abs. And we guarantee just as good a workout as the 8-minute folk.

Ted Stroehmann: You guarantee it? That's -- how do you do that?

Hitchhiker: If you're not happy with the first 7 minutes, we're gonna send you the extra minute free. You see? That's it. That's our motto. That's where we're comin' from. That's from "A" to "B".

Ted Stroehmann: That's right. That's -- that's good. That's good. Unless, of course, somebody comes up with 6-Minute Abs. Then you're in trouble, huh?

[Hitchhiker convulses]

Hitchhiker: No! No, no, not 6! I said 7. Nobody's comin' up with 6. Who works out in 6 minutes? You won't even get your heart goin, not even a mouse on a wheel.

Ted Stroehmann: That -- good point.

Hitchhiker: 7's the key number here. Think about it. 7-Elevens. 7 doors. 7, man, that's the number. 7 chipmunks twirlin' on a branch, eatin' lots of sunflowers on my uncle's ranch. You know that old children's tale from the sea. It's like you're dreamin' about Gorgonzola cheese when it's clearly Brie time, baby...

If you haven't seen the "Mary" movie, I highly recommend you do :)

The Perfect Nap

Although we all work hard, and taking a nap almost seems like a sin to most of us sometimes its an unavoidable part of our day and can help significantly boost our productivity.  Recently I came across an effective technique for taking... 'The Perfect Nap':

1. Find a light object, something that you can easily hold on to.
• An empty bottle of water (my choice)
2. Lay down in your favorite spot in a way that you can hold the object off the edge of the surface you're laying on.
3. Passively hold the object.  Its easy to forget its there.
4. Fall asleep

The key to this trick is as soon as you begin to fall into a deep sleep your hand will let go of the object and when it falls you will wake up.  This usually happens within 15-25 minutes, which leaves you refreshed and with the exactly the right amount of sleep for your body. 

You'll wake up refreshed rather than groggy and ready to  start working again fast.  I've tried this a few times and its been very effective for me! Give it a shot, you only have your strength and concentration to gain :)

Dealing with Pressure

Recently, I've been feeling the squeeze from every direction; investors, potential customers, partners and dreaded public presentations.  Pressure is something every entrepreneur has to deal with at one point or another, its part of the game, but few know how to manage it well (myself included).  Recently, I've noticed a few behavioral traits that exacerbate the problem the avoidance of which help

1. Don't rush to talk about it - this is one of my biggest mistakes.  As soon as I start to feel extreme pressure, I rush to talk about it with someone.  This helps me offload some of the pressure immediately, but unfortunately I tend to do this with friends, family and people I love, creating a negative environment.  This is the worst possible things you can do because it doesn't help solve the root of your problems and only spreads it out among those who don't deserve it.  I'm trying hard to avoid this, and if you have a similar behavior pattern try to follow my advice; you’ll look like a stronger professional in no time. 
2. Look at the situation from another perspective - This is simple, but often overlooked when the adrenaline is pumping and your getting hit with pressure.  Try to take a step back and see what’s really happening to you.  There is always a silver lining to all situations; sometimes it’s obvious and other times you have to really have to zoom out of your mind and see the different angles.  That’s a hard thing to do when you're boiling, but if you can it will help you manage difficult situations and even spot new opportunities.

That’s it for now, since I don’t expect the pressure to stop anytime soon I’ll update this post with new advice, based solely on my personal behavior patterns and experience. Good Luck!