help me commission a designer

October 21, 2011 8:56 AM

Where are the best places to find an exciting designer to commission a one-off design for a poster?

I'd like to find a talented designer to produce one off poster design for a really great creative project and I'm wondering where the best places are on the web to find someone. Not having commissioned work like this before I'm sure there must good places to browse portfolios, but which are the best? We have a limited budget but it's a great brief with the possibility of further collaboration with some great people. There's a sciencey/data angle and for reference we like work by people like non-format for example, and this. Just thought I'd see what the mefimind might comes up with...

posted by gravelshoes to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

I always see lots of inspiring graphic design on ffffound , but it's more a gallery of cool stuff, and less a portfolio browzing website. There's deviantart, but it's a lot of haystacks with some needles in it, maybe worth a shot. I think that graphic designer worth their salt in general don't need to hunt for clients so much, and are therefore less likely to be actively putting their portfolio on this type of places. Most good artist have their own website, and get clients through previous work showcase or word of mouth...
Good luck! I also like the style you linked too, i hope you find someone suitable for the job. personal favorites include Jessica Hische and Marjan Bantjes.
posted by PardonMyFrench at 9:59 AM on October 21, 2011

MeFi Jobs?
posted by seanmpuckett at 10:08 AM on October 21, 2011

Response by poster: Parsonmyfrench - Marjan Bantjes looks great but I doubt we could afford her. Always worth an email though (as I said, the brief is great!) I think you're right - we're probably looking for recommendations of individual designers who fit what we're looking for rather than large portfolio sites. I should put more references but I'm a bit pressed at work right now. An interest in ideas around science and data would be helpful, but it's not a data visualisation job or a science brief (sounds like a riddle, which I guess it is in a way..)

and seanmpuckett - yes it would be good to post but I think we need to identify designers we like through their work as we have very specific design requirements
posted by gravelshoes at 11:03 AM on October 21, 2011

In lieu of personal recs... You might take a look at Behance. It's mostly individual designers (as opposed to agencies), but I think the overall quality is higher than on something like deviantart, especially if you filter by Most Appreciated.
posted by ann_disaster at 12:54 PM on October 21, 2011