
Ask HN: Use 99 Designs for website illustration - blegit
I am working on an MVP. I have a clear idea of what I want for the hero illustration. The idea is 3D style building, inspired by the intro of the Silicon Valley TV show.<p>My first inclination is to use 99 Designs, but then my second thought is finding someone I like on Dribble and hiring them directly. My third thought is that I should use some generic free illustrations... but then I think to myself how boring and generic those are, and my idea is very specific.<p>I&#x27;d love to hear some advice. Has anybody tried hiring a designer directly from Dribble? How do you go about hiring a good designer to start an incremental business relationship? Have you used 99 Designs with good luck? and lastly, any recommendations for free alternatives?<p>Thank you!
======
themodelplumber
If you can design the meta-project into incremental work, you'll have more
control points at which to measure the your own assessment of the work, the
working relationship, and tweak things as needed. IMO that's never a bad thing
when working on a creative project, for both parties. Subjectivity can mess
things up in no time flat, so those little increments can help you to take a
break, gather some needed perspective, etc.

One can take the position that an individual has a more weighty, significant,
and perhaps burdensome subjective stake in a creative project to the degree
that they take more time to decide how to approach it, who to hire, and where
to find them. Whenever that's the case for me, I find it helpful to engage
quickly, but in easily-managed increments. A single static image first, for
example, followed by a brief animation, followed by a longer animation, etc.
But there's also the question of time--how much time do your project-design
parameters give you, and to what degree does the illustration project impact
that timeline? If that becomes an issue, it's important to be able to say, OK,
here we go with generic free stuff because I need to move fast.

No specific advice about Dribble, but I've worked with a lot of different
designers and made some really good friends over the years. One alternative
that may be worth considering is checking with members of e.g. the software
user community, to see if someone who is learning the ropes in some 3D
software package, but who is generally design-talented, wants to give your
project a shot for their burgeoning 3D portfolio, for example. Good luck with
your project.

