[gammateam]

Here is an anecdote that maybe others can relate to:

We hired an expensive design firm that had done the work and designs of other companies in our sector. Those companies had decent UI and a good amount of users.

The company spends a lot of time doing something like a vision quest to accomplish branding, and UI designs take a long time.

The UI was nice to see come together, but it was clear their designer had no experience with this kind of product and target audience.

The branding and logos and typefaces are top notch. It is all congruent with a story and has good rationale behind it.

Now, the external development firm we work with also has designers in it. The work we do with them is billed at $60/hr when that designer is involved, so the designer is probably getting $40. In the scale of cheap vs expensive when it comes to designers, this is not considered cheap, but it is much less than the prior "enterprise design firm". Cheap would be the $5 talent in Pakistan on Fiverr. This designer is able to crank out UI designs in a day, we can review them and modify them midflight using collaborative tools, and I am much more satisfied.

This isn't my first experience with this, but my thoughts are that design is hit or miss. It just comes down to creative vision, experience, or the series of templates the designer has. Doing a contest or getting proposals will get you a better distribution of possibilities, and the designer's process and pipeline is more important. The $5 Pakistani can also be good. You just need an efficient way to get design samples.

[dhimes]

Here's another anecdote about using freelancers for this: When I wanted a logo for studyswami.com, I went to fiverr (or something similar) and asked several different designers for a logo. With all of these logos in hand, I brought them to a group of people who shared what they liked and didn't like about each one.

After a bit I had a decent idea, and hired an expensive designer and gave her a clear idea of what I wanted. She then did a brilliant job, producing three or four outstanding logos. I think the logo I chose is one of the best out there anywhere.

The problem with the expensive designers is that they are hampered by the limitations of creative brainstorming as much as anybody, yet is a big part of your cost. They usually give you a limited number of designs- like 3 or 4- to choose from, and you're 'stuck' in that circle of thinking.

So if you can clarify what you want for cheap you'll better use the talent of the experts, IMHO.

[ghaff]

And the expensive designers are better skilled to make it part of a branding system, consider issues like scalability from logos to tradeshow backdrops, etc. But, yeah, in many cases they can spend a lot of time developing concepts that are an immediate "No" from your perspective.

>hampered by the limitations of creative brainstorming as much as anybody

That's as good a way of putting it as any. Maybe they're better at thinking "outside the box" than someone within the company or off the street. But that hasn't really been my experience working with branding and design firms--especially if you already have at least some idea of the direction you'd like to take things.

[swaggyBoatswain]

I'm not sure studyswami is that great of a logo though.

First, it has too much detail going on. Should just reduce the number of green pages to one on each side, and increase the overall sizing. You should be able to make out all the details of a logo, 50px50px, from a distance of 24" from the monitor.

Second, all good logos work in a square-based format. Study Swami is closer to a rectangle. Perhaps trimming the overall size left/right would be better, the overall theme of it is good

Third, I think the center black line on the person is distracting. It doesn't really add value in my opinion, and both blue lines should be joined

Fourth, the color schema does evoke trust (blue and green), but I think a color gradient schema from top to bottom might work slightly better (perhaps teal, book pages uptop are lighter shade, book pages bottom are darker). Use of some shadows might elicit better effects

Fifth, I think the person should be a completely seperate color than the book, but that's just my opinion

Sixth, the curvature on the person could use some slight improvements with golden ratios. I think the person's arms should be going up not down, but again personal opinion

Seventh, I think the site overall, the text ligature and font-family should be something simpler like calibiri or Arial

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As a side note you do make good points though. Personally, I am not a great logo designer I just use 99designs.com, and modify the end result in .AI if I need too.

You can usually find great logos and portfolio templates from designers, but you need a strong creative vision and design aesthetic regardless

[dhimes]

Just an aside, not really to your overall point: The dark line down the middle of the person is simply the background showing through.

And I appreciate your comments on the site fonts. Those are entirely my fault.

[gammateam]

Yes, there are sites geared towards getting proposals first, with designers that are fine with that free work with the possibility of landing a contract.

This would have replaced your fiverr exploration and gotten to the same result of using any designer more effectively.

[mrhappyunhappy]

I take it you have a UX person on the team? Otherwise I feel bad for your company if you are using a UI designer in place of well thought out UX. No amount of pretty can fix a serious workflow issue.

[gammateam]

edit: Yes, we have UX.

[mrhappyunhappy]

I hope nobody takes this comment seriously. I don’t know a single good designer who uses a template for anything. They may draw inspiration from samples provided by the client but definitely no templates.

If you hire an enterprise firm who fails do deliver a product that fits your target market then the fault is on you for not doing your due diligence.

Contests are by far the worst way to go about making a design decision. You are asking a bunch of people to design something they put little thought into so they can make a big impression with little tact. Might be ok if you are doing a shitty logo but for a project that requires understanding your target audience you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

[gammateam]

Depends on what template means to you.

If a designer finds clients asking similar things, then the designer saves time by packaging their own work into something easily modifiable.

And yes it can also mean stuff they got off the net. Your level of discipline has no bearing on it, the client isn't supposed to know.