What kind of designing pro do I need and where do I find them?
May 20, 2018 4:01 PM   Subscribe

I need...a graphic artist? a website designer? or someone else? I made a Weebly website that has all the content I need, on all the pages I need. But it could look better. It feels like a simple job -- someone to just make what's there look better. Is that a thing that people do?

I am willing to pay for this, of course. But I literally don't know what person I need or where to find them. What's a reasonable rate to pay for this? I imagine this involves me giving this person my login. How do I know they're not going to, um, just wreck my site and walk away?

My site is seven pages:
-- a home page with text + slide show
-- 3 pages of text that almost never changes
-- 1 page of static images that I continally add to (my completed projects)
-- 2 pages of text that I update a few times a year

I'm totally comfortable working within the Weebly arena and am totally capable of updating the site via their tools (I've been doing this for about five years), so I really just want someone to make it all look better and then walk away.

Advice?
posted by BlahLaLa to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)
 
You need two professionals: a graphic designer with experience designing templates for responsive websites that use a CMS, and a front-end web developer to make the code alterations to implement that design. You might luck out and find one person who's great at both, but if either is any good at what they do, they're specialized enough that they don't market themselves as doing both.
posted by eustacescrubb at 4:52 PM on May 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Hmmm....so maybe what I need to say more clearly is: I like the Weebly situation, and I love that I can always go in there and update whatever I need. So I want someone to just go into Weebly and beautify what I've got. Meaning, a better combo of fonts or colors or maybe a different Weebly template would be a better way to present the info.

So I'm thinking I do not in fact need someone to design a template for responsive websites that use a CMS (I don't even know what a CMS is) because Weebly has already done that. And I don't believe any coding is necessary, since Weebly does all that. Do correct me if I'm wrong. I'm totally open to hearing that I'm completely wrong. :)
posted by BlahLaLa at 4:57 PM on May 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


I am not a web designer but I am an artist who has also designed stuff for print and who also has a couple of Weebly sites which I have tweaked to something that I can live with just by using what Weebly supplies - see link in my profile. I am wondering if you want to go down the road that is suggested above, or whether you perhaps (as you seem to be saying above) want someone 'with a bit more of an eye' to tweak what you have in terms of font size/layout etc. The latter is likely to be substantially cheaper than the former. Memail me if you want to discuss further.
posted by Chairboy at 5:02 PM on May 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Ideally, you're looking for a freelance graphic designer with Weebly experience.

(On preview: Maybe you're looking for Chairboy...)
posted by clawsoon at 5:04 PM on May 20, 2018 [5 favorites]


Response by poster: Thank you for the info so far. I will consider posting on Jobs and contacting Chairboy, but I also would like to know where one finds freelance graphic designers for jobs such as these.
posted by BlahLaLa at 5:09 PM on May 20, 2018




How do I know they're not going to, um, just wreck my site and walk away?

Because if it's someone's business, they're not going to want to do that. If you can find someone through your personal or professional networks, then they'll be somewhat vouched for. Either way, look for someone who has a professional portfolio. And make sure you back up your site before you let them in (it's not a bad idea to back it up on a regular basis anyway).

As for what you need: sounds like a job for a graphic designer with experience designing for websites. You could also hire a Weebly developer with design chops, but you'd need to be clear with them that you don't want a lot of complex code.
posted by lunasol at 5:56 PM on May 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


Also be realistic in what changes can be made with the content you have. A lot of the CMS providers (CMS stand for content management system) have beautiful example sites built with their templates but without the beautiful content (professional high quality photos, illustrations, etc.) your site can only do so much. A designer can create this for you or source it if you only have text, but that costs money.

Look at a few designer's portfolios/examples and pick one that specializes in website design with experience in your CMS of choice (Weebly) and has a style you like.
posted by Bunglegirl at 6:53 PM on May 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


Best answer: It's absolutely absurd that anybody would suggest hiring a designer AND a developer to make your personal website on Weebly with less than a dozen pages look good.

You definitely don't need that. If you were my friend IRL I'd sit with you for an afternoon and do this for free. Do you have any pals who work in digital content, or adjacent to websites in any way? It's not hard to knock together a simple design quickly with modern tools – particularly if you don't have tons of specialised content on your site.

I've not used Weebly itself but I'd be very surprised if it was an exception. You need a Chairboy, but like I say – this sounds like a small job. Be wary of overpaying.
posted by Ted Maul at 1:26 AM on May 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


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