

Show HN: A better elance just for designers - joaobatalha
http://pixelfold.com

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guptaneil
My biggest problem with hiring designers like this is that it encourages
designing for other designers, rather than for the customer. I want a designer
that prioritizes something that's easy to use and obvious, rather than
something that screenshots well for Dribbble. Sometimes those two goals can
align, but not always.

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balele
I think you can solve that by taking into account customer feedback when
curating the designers. That would for sure allign interests.

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prawn
That suggests that our clients know smart and usable design when they see it.
I actually think they're half of the problem.

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jaxn
Maybe what your clients want isn't high design, but good design delivered on
time, within budget, and incorporating the feedback they were given.

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kirillzubovsky
If you are reading this and would actually like to hire a proven designer
today, take a look at [https://scoutzie.com](https://scoutzie.com).

We have a fabulous curated group of designers, many of whom are ready to start
today. You can can browse through their portfolio work and past client
reviews.

Send messages to as many matching designers are you like; work with the one
that matches you best. More on how Scoutzie works here -
[https://scoutzie.com/how-scoutzie-works/for-
clients](https://scoutzie.com/how-scoutzie-works/for-clients)

Cheers!

ps. I am the founder, so feel free to ask me any questions.

~~~
reganrob
How do you feel about [http://99designs.com](http://99designs.com), in
particular the competition model in regards to design?

I've personally used them a few times with vary levels of success. It is
particular useful for lightweight projects such as logo designs.

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gautamnarula
I used 99designs to get a book cover designed and I was very happy with the
results. My designer was responsive, friendly, and made a wonderful design
that went above and beyond what I was expecting.

However, I was unhappy with how little the designer actually received. I paid
$799 to run the competition, and the winning designer only got $387! Charging
>50% commission seems highly exploitative, especially when all the designers
who don't get selected receive nothing at all despite spending spending time
creating designs.

~~~
kirillzubovsky
See my comment to the person above, /re why competitions are soul-sucking
experiences for designers.

Also, to your point about charging 50%+. Word is, 99Designs used to do very
well, up until the point when the founder took on a huge VC investment and
left the company. I guess since their business model is pretty much tapped
out, they figured that raising margins would fix the slow growth.

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jaxn
I showed it to my wife who is a account manager at a branding / design firm.
She is someone who would be a potential user of the site as someone looking
for a designer.

Her impression was that the site made her sign up and then provided no value.
She showed me a very plain looking page that just said "I am looking for a
designer." Now she is worried that the site is going to spam her forever.

Hope that feedback helps.

~~~
joaobatalha
They have a waiting list right now for people looking to hire designers. I
know the team and I can assure you they have no intentions of spamming you.

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grimmfang
I don't mean to offend but your sites theme looks like something I could
pickup for $10 on Themeforest. Consider making it easier for users to see the
way the system works, examples and use cases, as well as success stories (I
recognize you are currently new).

Additionally, consider changing your front page video to someone actually
designing something.

Also use margin-bottom: 0 on your about page to eliminate evil whitespace!

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beerglass
Dear Pixelfold team, the graph icon above "2\. The community votes" on the
site looks like someone's showing a middle finger! You may want to change it,
considering the impression you want to create as a community of top designers.

~~~
tehaaron
And the pencil icon above #3 "Great projects find you" looks like a penis.
Sorry, but I looked over the page and definitely saw a graph and a piece of
paper/pencil. I think there are a LOT of icons and illustrations that we can
look at and see something unintended (not always a bad thing!)but just because
this happens doesn't mean the design in question is bad.

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balele
Sounds like a good idea. We used to spend lot of time on dribbble and other
websites and its really difficult to figure out which designers are good
without wasting weeks... How does the community curates?

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joaobatalha
I am not the creator, I posted this because we spent way too much time looking
for a designer on dribbble, behance, and elance. Users look at the
applications and then vote on whether the designer should be admitted

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dhawalhs
I would recommend www.folyo.me. I posted a job there recently and got 20 high
quality leads.

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Mandatum
> "Posting a project on Folyo costs $99." Is a bit of a turn-off for small
> projects where design cost will likely only be $400-500.

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sgdesign
That's actually on purpose. We try to encourage larger projects with a higher
budget, because we don't want to compete with 99designs and other similar
sites at the lower end of the market.

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mamcx
That could probably work for developers.

All the freelance sites I use have the option to link to github, stackoverflow
and others, but not do anything with that.

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logn
Can you also make a better elance/odesk just for programmers? Seriously;
elance isn't it and the average hourly rate on there is about $10.

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PakG1
Is this possible? I get the impression that any such websites will always
simply draw such rates, because that's what the market is willing to pay. I'm
not talking about the market in general. I'm talking about the market that
would be attracted to browse such websites. Anyone who's willing to pay more,
they do things like browse github profiles. No?

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logn
I don't know any better than you. But my guess is that if you set a minimum
hourly rate and also had peer reviewed contractors, that you would attract
clientele willing to pay more.

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sgdesign
The self-curation is a great idea. It's something we want to implement on our
own find-a-designer site (Folyo) down the road.

~~~
dhawalhs
Thanks for Folyo. It was my first time hiring a designer and I am very happy
with the results.

~~~
sgdesign
Thanks, glad to hear that!

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nness
How would you go about preventing elitism from creeping in, given its self-
curating nature?

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joaobatalha
I think that the self-curating aspect is probably better at preventing elitism
than an invite based system. That way it is not so much about who you know but
more about how good you are.

~~~
nness
Potentially true, though I would imagine it depends on the size of the initial
pool. Otherwise, if its small, I think you'll see bias in the selection of the
early members which will carry forward.

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munirusman
Does it work for individual designers only or design firms can apply as well?

