How Do I Find Good Graphic Designers for my Web Application Projects?

Question

While this isn't strictly programming related, it's something I've run into as a web developer on several occasions, and I imagine others have run into as well. For that reason, I hope this question can remain open.

As web developers, we know how to make our applications work. But clients/customers/visitors aren't necessarily happy with a system that just works, they want a site with some graphic personality. Something that "looks pretty".

Whether it's "trendy", "professional", "cool", or "grungy", there's always a feeling that a web site needs to give it's audience, in conjunction with the functionality of the site itself.

Unfortunately, a Google search for "web designer", returns a list of everybody in the world who owns a copy of MS FrontPage and/or PhotoShop.

So the questions are:

Where do you turn when you need a (talented) designer on your project?

What criteria do you use to determine if a designer candidate has skills, or is qualified?

Answer 1

37Signals recently launched Haystack to address exactly this problem.