
The World’s Best Web Designers Are Unknown - danw
http://john.onolan.org/the-worlds-best-web-designers-are-unknown/
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pohl
Summary: author bemoans that the notion of "top web designers" in a magazine
appears to be based on a measurement of fame, and offers an alternative
measurement based on the impressiveness of their client list.

Not mentioned: basing it on their designs.

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Sapient
I had this exact same thought. The quality and size of a companies client list
has absolutely no bearing on the quality of their design work. In a vote, I
cant think of any mega-corporation sites which would even get a mention, let
alone a prize.

~~~
johnonolan
The post itself has nothing to do with quality of design. It's about how
successful the people and agencies are in business terms. And in business
terms money = measure of success.

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hvs
I would guess the same is less true, but still fairly accurate, about
developers. The best developers don't _talk_ about development (at least most
of them don't) they just do it. The open source movement, however, has exposed
a lot of them to the world. For all of the great, well-known developers in the
open source world, there are many, many more great developers toiling away in
anonymity in the closed source world.

~~~
iamwil
I've learned this too. Just because someone's well known doesn't mean that
they're a good designer or developer. A lot of great people are unknown, even
to themselves.

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jhancock
So how does one go about finding a great unknown designer? The only three
routes I can think of to find a designer (that I could afford) are:

1 - contest site, 99designs. Might end up with a good design but much of what
I see there is average at best.

2 - elance, et al. Hit or miss. Poor over hundreds of profiles and throw a
dart at one that looks appealing.

3 - search Google, blogs, message boards,..similar results as #2?

I'm building a new webapp now. In a few weeks, I'll need to engage a designer
as this time around I decided not even to attempt it (product looks like hell
if I do it). There are tons of PSD2HTML firms. Its hard enough to pick one of
those. How do I even find the right person to create the PSD, especially when
I would actually prefer a single person that can do the PSD and the HTML/CSS
work as this is someone I can go back to as I need incremental improvements.

From my perspective, this market is still tough to filter though.

~~~
enra
So how do you find a great unknown developer(or a lawyer, accountant, business
guy...)? By referrals and knowing people.

Would you consider finding a great developer(one that could afford!), from
some hotscripts-site(couldn't think anything similar to 99designs), elance,
google and message boards?

Great designers are just as hard to find that great developers or great people
in general. And usually they don't work for cents.

~~~
jhancock
I am a great developer, so I know how to identify other great developers. Not
so with designers. Sure, we work in the same economy but I'm not connected.

btw, I'm not looking for "cheap". I'm looking to find someone good without
going paying the overhead of an expensive firm.

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feverishaaron
Having a well-known client list is more a function of "knowing people" (ie
great sales) vs. merely doing great design.

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aw3c2
World's best people are unknown too.

