Recommended Designers or Holding a Contest?

I need a new website for W3Counter, and I can’t design it. I need to reorganize the site and there are going to be lots of new service plans and features to show off.

I’m thinking of holding a contest at SitePoint, but I don’t know if I’ll get good results from this. I’m not 100% sure what content should be on the homepage yet, and designers entering a contest they may not win won’t take a lot of time to think through the functional/marketing aspects of the design for me if I can’t pin it down in the brief. Even though I’d offer at least $700-1000, which would bring in some of the better designers in the contest area, I’m still unsure if this will result in locking me into buying a design I don’t really want.

On the other hand, hiring a designer/agency with a decent portfolio is probably going to run at least 3 times that much to start. W3Counter doesn’t turn much of a profit right now, so that’s a lot of my own money to invest in the design.

What do you think? Contest or designer? Any recommended designers you’ve worked with?

Posted on January 15, 2008 in Business

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  • http://www.CleverTools.com Jason

    Dan,

    What I like doing is looking at past contests for web design held by other people at Site Point. Go through it and find people who did good work and contact them individually. Get their hourly and give rough idea of the job and see what it will take. Some will be US based and some will be overseas. I do not have a problem using either, but *if* you do it this way, I would only pay after a week of work or pay a small upfront start. Or, use a service like ODesk.com where the payment is a little more secure for you and the buyer. I’d hesitate to send $xxxx amount overseas as an upfront payment. Of course, you are smart and I doubt you would do that, but Odesk is a good place for both you and the designer to be protected financially.

  • andy

    You could always stipify in the brief that any designer/design chosen would have to be willing to make changes or alterations depending on the features being introduced, and that designs submitted would be tied into this agreement. Also you could offer 50/50 payment, 50% up front and 50% after you are satisfied the site design doesn’t need to be altered more. The feedback is probabbly crucial too, engadging with the designers and seeing how they work after your feedback has been given.

    I take it your not looking to rebrand w3counter and just to alter the way the front page looks?

  • http://www.CleverTools.com Jason

    I’d be weary with a 50/50 payment. Try to get them to do it lower if possible. You never know when a designer can simply disappear on you…

  • http://www.CleverTools.com Jason

    Dan, do you or any of your readers know a good user interface developer for applications who can take on some contract work? Please let me know.

  • http://www.dangrossman.info Dan

    Thanks for the feedback. I think I’ll wait a few weeks and see if 99designs is launched by then. If so, I’ll hold the contest there while there’s some buzz about the new site and more designers are taking a look.

  • http://www.CleverTools.com Jason

    What is 99Designs?

  • http://www.CleverTools.com Jason

    NM its a soon to be SitePoint product. Perfect. Looks interesting.