Where can I get a quality yet cheap webdesigner?

February 24, 2008 8:04 PM

Where can I get a quality yet cheaper as possible logo and web template for a web 2.0-oriented website?

I don't want any pre-existing template, I want something tailored for me yet I am planning on not spending much.

I know there are some "get your freelance here"-alike websites, but what I really want is a referral for designers who maintain an online portfolio.

I imagine not spending more than US$ 100 on that work. Am I too cheap? :-)

posted by fcoury to computers & internet (18 comments total)

Can you describe what you want in a logo? What it's for? You could post a request on mefi jobs.
posted by delmoi at 8:15 PM on February 24, 2008

Am I too cheap? :-)

Yes, I would say so. I consider myself an inexpensive web developer, and I would never do an entire logo and template for $100.
posted by gramcracker at 8:16 PM on February 24, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

It's for the website. This will be be for a Java-centric website with multiple content (code snippets, news links, blog articles, etc.). I will take a look at mefi jobs, thanks!
posted by fcoury at 8:18 PM on February 24, 2008

100.00 would get you a nice logo, but If you're asking for an entire site design 100.00 won't get you too far.

There are quite a few options for you, but I don't think you should be too quick to dismiss sites like elance, you'll get multiple bids for your project (maybe even under 100) and any designer on the site should show you previous work before you accept a bid. I've used sites like this in the past and you can often get a good deal based on exchange rates alone.

Aside from that I would perhaps check out any local design schools and see if you can get a student to help you out. They get something for their portfolio and you get a new design.

Good luck.
posted by ISeemToBeAVerb at 8:18 PM on February 24, 2008

OK. I agree I really am cheap. What would you consider to be a fair price for that kind of job?
posted by fcoury at 8:20 PM on February 24, 2008

Oh, you want a logo and a template? $100 is way too cheap. You could get a logo to go with some free template though.
posted by delmoi at 8:29 PM on February 24, 2008

What delmoi said. Find some cheap/free template and THEN pay someone $100 to make a logo that "fits" and customize the template a bit.
posted by rokusan at 8:33 PM on February 24, 2008

What would you consider to be a fair price for that kind of job?

You need to give specifics, what kind of logo, what kind of template, how many pages, should it look like X or like Y? Your profile says you're in Brazil, so that would also have an impact on the price, though I can't say whether it would make it cheaper or more expensive.

Suggestions: You could get something cheap if you let the designer pretty much do what he wants, once you give him a rough outline.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:36 PM on February 24, 2008

You're not "cheap", you just don't understand the true market value of design.

A logo from a designer who's worth the money you pay him/her will not be had for $100. A logo that looks decent/acceptable might be. $1,000 is more like a decent baseline for a professional logo. Then again, do you need a professional logo?

A decent website, on the other hand, can't be had for anywhere near $100.

If you get either of the above for $100, and they're of any quality whatsoever, you've successfully robbed someone who didn't realize what their time/money goes for everywhere else in the world.
posted by twiggy at 10:16 PM on February 24, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

You're not going to get a load of recommendations because no web developer with a decent reputation is going to do that much work for so little (even $1000 would be on the low side). You could probably find someone inexperienced in a low-wage region of the world by advertising on a freelancer site, and they might do a great job, but you'll have to take a chance.
posted by malevolent at 12:12 AM on February 25, 2008

RentACoder.com. It's amazing how little Indians will do decent work for. There's an escrow service that has a mutual arbitration, too, to ensure no one gets screwed.
posted by disillusioned at 12:24 AM on February 25, 2008

DesignOutpost.com might work for you.
posted by bprater at 4:07 AM on February 25, 2008

You are way too cheap.

Even outsourcing to another country, you are not going to find a lot of good options for logo and custom template design at 100. People in other countries work cheap, but usually not that cheap. You're looking for a "10.95 template" kind of person, who is probably going to hold your website in limbo for months. Good luck.
posted by shownomercy at 5:32 AM on February 25, 2008

Well, wait.

It can be done for that amount of money, if we're assuming a rate of $25 an hour. But it depends what you mean by template and by logo. You can have a great logo that is simply a brandname in a typeface, for example. Someone with a lot of typography knowledge can do distinctive, nice typeface logos very quickly.

And templates, it depends - a flat HTML template? Pure CSS or tables? Template for a blog or CMS like WordPress or Drupal? Some of those are do-able and some are not; you really need to be more specific about what you're ordering here, exactly.
posted by DarlingBri at 5:51 AM on February 25, 2008

Someone with a lot of typography knowledge can do distinctive, nice typeface logos very quickly.

But not at $25/hr. At least not in the US. $25/hr is anywhere from 1/2 to 1/5 what most practicing professionals in the US will charge, depending on their experience.

Even a basic typeface-only logo will take time. Unless you're just going to type-out the company name in a basic font, at the default kern settings and leave it at that, there's still a lot of thought and review involved. Even something as mundane as the Microsoft logo took some time to refine. That little slash into the side of the first "o" probably didn't happen immediately. And they still got the f-t ligature wrong (imho).
posted by Thorzdad at 6:06 AM on February 25, 2008

My former employer Logoworks isn't $100 cheap, but they can hit a pretty sweet spot between potential high-quality design and affordability. The "Gold" package (see list of service packages) gives you six initial concepts from three different designers and the ability to pick one and refine it pretty much all you want.

I say potential high-quality design for a few reasons. The biggest one is that the process strongly favors clients who can communicate effectively and politely via writing. You can call in and talk to your assigned project manager, but they'll mostly be writing down what you tell them in the creative brief that goes to the designer, and that adds another place in the chain of communication where signal can get lost unless you happen to get one of the better project managers. And along with this, you often lose some of professional guidance you'd get talking to a designer in person (the designers *can* communicate with the client, but because many of Logoworks' clients have had no professional contact with designers and the operation/retail pricing encourages the customers to treat them like retail service workers, most of the designers and project managers have given up trying to explain their decisions and guide the customer and just do what the client asks). So *you* have to be able drive the process by writing and answering questions through a web form. MeFites are probably likely to be able to do this, but lots of people can't, and some of those people get poor work from Logoworks. There are other reasons this happens -- Logoworks margins are not big and that means they have to do volume and that means work can and does suffer. I think the productivity gains they get from some of their workflow tech and from spreading the concepting work over a number of different designers often works for many projects, though, and they really do have some very good designers working for the company and in their freelance community.

You also can sometimes get lucky and find people who either (a) have significant raw talent and are just starting out or (b) are on the ropes for whatever reason or (c) are living so cheaply they can afford to work for pennies and will do super cheap work. Even here, however, tread cautiously -- even the among the talented, amiable and hungry, asking for the 5th set of time-consuming revisions on a hundred dollar quick project squashes spirits and sours relationships.
posted by weston at 1:25 PM on February 25, 2008

You could buy something cheap as a once-off, but you know you're gonna want to tweak it 6 months down the road anyways, so it's not really going to be a once-off.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 3:03 PM on February 25, 2008

MTCreations,

I am a Java Developer and I think I understand the overall process of building a website, even tho I am not a designer, I have created a couple of websites. And trust me: I think, depending on the project, even US$ 3000 is too low.

I should have given more details on what I ultimately want, and I am sorry about that. What I want is just a first page template and some specific buttons/icons/etc. for being able to carry on with the website myself.

Regarding rent-a-coder, that's bad not only for design. I have bid and won a few projects, but what is paid is ridiculous, outrageous. They only appeal of rent-a-coder, at least for me, is if you mean to learn a new technology or language and don't want to do it by writing a Hello World look-a-like program. That way you can learn the tech/language and still earn some money.

Finally, the reason for such a low budget is because that website is not meant to be commercial, it's a place where people would exchange information about Java free of charge. More like a community website.

Thanks for your reply.

Best regards,
Felipe.
posted by fcoury at 12:37 PM on April 30, 2008