Who's your designer?

If you ever need a custom job done - whether it be something small like user rank badges, or something huge like an entire custom skin, where do you go to get it done? What designers have you worked with, and who is your favorite?
What are some of the best deals (in terms of prices) that you've ever got on a custom job?

 

I've always done the designing for my website/forums myself, so any work that has ever needed done I've just done myself. I guess it's the best deal you can get; only you know exactly what you're looking for!

 

And let me be one of the first people to say that Justin's design skills are excellent.

 

I don't have one. I just find a commerical style/template that is close to what I want and make adjustments as needed. Just wish designers would start using 24-bit transparent PNG files for gradients instead of archaic GIF files.

 

Omg you and me both. All my images are now saved as a 24 bit PNG file. Best quality you can get for a low file size. IMO.

 

Peggy's been good to me and she's very good at what she does. I had the skin for my DJ forum done by Colleen (you can find her @ DP) she's very talented and easy to work with too. Caddyman (on the vB circuit) has some awesome skills with graphics one of these days I'd like to put him to work.

Another designer I've worked with is Hank Davidson he's a DJ on my DJ board and an amazing talented graphic designer as a matter of fact he redesigned my logo for the new style that Colleen did.

Price really isn't an issue for me when it comes to design work. I figure hey I don't have the talent (design wise) I misewell pay someone who does have the talent and pay them well for their services.

 

Let me just second this. But I think you both already know that already.

 

I do my own design work.

I have started doing this Wayne. I find that png renders so much better than gif. I wish that vB would make all of their images in PNG rather than gif. I'd love to design a complete style in png with no gif images at all, but there are just too many changes to make in order to do so.

 

I do my own. Although I'm a bit green with programming. However I like to think I'm pretty damn good, so in terms of design and creation, I'm very comfortable, and down for helping others.

 

I generally like to do all my own artwork. Sometimes I lack the creativity so I'll make an open discussion thread and get some ideas from members to help guide me, or I'll allow them to submit their own graphics if they meet specifications.

 

I always hire a designer to create designs for me. When it comes to creating a custom design, I have absolutely no skill whatsoever. I do, however, have lots of money. This is great when it comes to getting the design to meet my exacting specifications.

 

You can say that again.

 

Care to share some?

 

But of course! :p

 

This is a designer that I've been looking into recently. I have seen two of their skins done on sites that I visit, and they are beautiful.

The only downfall is that there is a distinct similarity between the two skins of the forums I'm referring to. I was quickly able to identify ForumSkin as the creator, which I don't like. If my theme is custom, I don't want it to look too similar to another.

 

A lot of the pre-made skins on the various forum skin websites tend to be similar in some way, enough that you can tell they were made by the same company.

I think you need to find someone private and work with them in building the skin for you, rather than requesting a skin be made by one of these websites.

 

That's what you'd expect, right? The thing is, the designer I was referring to does do custom skins and not pre-made ones. It's just the style of these custom designs that is similar and identifiable.