Websites to find freelance designers?

[undressedmonster]

A co-worker of mine has a friend that is looking for a logo to be designed. I'm trying my best to keep her away from the cheapo logo-factory clipart type websites.

Are there any websites that freelancers can bid on posted jobs? Sort of like rentacoder.com but for graphic design.

[Ned]

Yeah, there are many, but you will likely have the same results as the logo-factory websites. Most of the designers bidding on these sites are "Design Sweatshops(TM)" in India. If she's careful, she may be able to steer away from the bad ones (first tip: don't hire anyone who doesn't know proper english, or calls you Sir/Madam).

Why don't you get her to post a classified post here, or on other Designer's Forum (ie, HOWDesign, GFXArtist, etc.)? You will find a much better class of design than on the bidding sites.

If you're still curious, here are some of the websites, which I would NOT suggest:

http://********afreelancer.com/
http://www.elance.com/
http://www.allfreelancework.com/
... and many, many more.

*EDIT: See, just to prove my point, you can see that one of the sites has already been BANNED on this forum! (Probably for spamming, or something)

[EC]

To add to Ned's comment, you could tell her to check out a site such as www.creativelatitude.com that has members that must adhere to a set of ethics to be listed on that site, she could then view various portfolios and get an idea of style, and send out 2 or 3 RFPs to those designers.

If she's only concerned about price, she'll probably end up pretty unhappy. Choosing portfolios first, and contacting designers directly (i.e. doing a bit of homework), I think she'd find that she just might find the right designer that can work within her budget.

Rather than getting the person that will do it cheapest. Which has trouble written all over it.

[Ned]

Oh yes... And some other portfolio hosting sites you could search are Portfolios.com, Creative Hotlist, or DeviantArt.

These are a whole different world than Freelance Auction sites. These are sites where a person can browse through designers' posted portfolios, and contact the designer based on their matching criteria, not where a person posts a project, then lets the hounds out to fight over it.

Only problem I have with these sites is that there is usually a fee to be paid to become a member. This rules out a lot of talented designers who have their own websites, and/or simply don't see it as a profitable investment.

[undressedmonster]

It turns out the client wants a logo (or at least a mockup of a close-to-finished one) in a week. So now thinking about it, she'll probably end up at one of those design sweatshops anyway.

It's a shame, she's starting up a business and left the logo part to the last minute. Great strategy, huh?

This is, btw, why I didn't just offer to do the logo myself. She probably wouldn't want to pay the price I'd set, anyway.

[greyghost]

Well, her kind of thinking of leaving her image to the last minute is a very common mistake. I personally believe poor marketing strategy is the biggest reason why new businesses fail.

How many new restaurant owners do you know that spent so much of their hard-earned money into remodeling a leased building, only to have nothing left for nice menus and advertising?

Image in this competitive world IS everything. But people like your freind's client are just the embodiment of folks that keep people like us in business when (if) they suddenly wake up and realize what they have been doing isn't working, and wonder why.

[Time4Golf]

It's a shame, she's starting up a business and left the logo part to the last minute. Great strategy, huh?

Isn't that almost always the case though

You get so focused on everything else, you forget about the image you are projecting.