[consulting] How do you find Drupal graphics designers?

[Josh]

As a classically trained print graphic designer who has been working with
HTML and CSS since 2001, I can tell you that the gap does exist. With the
advent of HTML 5, the canvas object, and a huge amount of widely available
fonts, the gap is closing fast.

Good news: Any great web designer can work with *most* Content Management
Systems. Nearly all of my sites go through a static page design phase were
we take the approved PSD and turn it into an HTML mockup with CSS files and
Javascript. This is rigorously tested on all major browsers. This static
design can be created by anyone with a flare for design and CSS.

The next step can be tricky, turning static designs into functional websites
(not just functional themes) takes a pretty savvy Drupal website builder.
For example, making a static jQuery rotator on a homepage is pretty easy,
but in Drupal you need to think through the Content Types, the View, and
ultimately, how the block gets created and if there are any arguments that
need to be considered. And once this homepage rotator is built, tweaking the
CSS to deal with the html that is output. (Though, the Semantic
Views<http://drupal.org/project/semanticviews>module can help with
this tremendously).

Shop around the big Drupal shops (any company that regularly posts to
the Drupal
Planet <http://drupal.org/planet>) and you'll find someone who will give you
the time of day and a decent estimate. If you are budget conscience or
simply want a custom theme, try the good folks at TopNotchThemes...

http://www.topnotchthemes.com/form/custom-drupal-design-theming

<http://www.topnotchthemes.com/form/custom-drupal-design-theming>Josh

On Mon, Nov 1, 2010 at 12:37 PM, larry at garfieldtech.com <
larry at garfieldtech.com> wrote:

> At the risk of pissing off designers on this list, I'd look for someone
> whose resume doesn't include much print work.  Print design and web
> design are very different animals.  It's *really* hard to be good in
> both, but a lot of print designers think that because they are
> (legitimately) good print designers it makes them good web designers.
> That's no more true than me being a good PHP developer means that I
> could be a first-rate Erlang or ML programmer my first time out.  I've
> known some really good print designers and really good web designers,
> but the overlap I've seen between the two is small.
>
> Also, look for someone that bills themselves as an interaction designer
> rather than graphic artist.  They're more likely to "get" the web if
> they think in terms of interaction and workflow rather than "art".
>
> *Dons flame retardant suit before the print artists find him.*
>
> --Larry Garfield
>
> On 11/1/10 10:46 AM, Don wrote:
> > Too funny. Yes, I get designers that want to change the layout of each
> page.
> >
> > I'm a good themer, it's bringing together an ensemble of items to make a
> > theme that I'm oblivious to.
> >
> > -Don-
> >
> > On 11/1/2010 11:22 AM, Matt Chapman wrote:
> >> Find people who have contributed themes that don't suck. Also, broaden
> >> your search outside the Drupal community. From the design side, CMS is
> >> CMS. Look at actual sites, not just portfolio screenshots. Hire
> >> someone who has their own blog that they designed, so you know they
> >> actually use a CMS regularly.
> >>
> >> But practically, I face the same challenge. It seems tome that a lot
> >> of designers still think it's 1995 in terms of user / administrator
> >> experience, as if the site is only going to change a few timers a
> >> year.
> >>
> >> I recently had to answer a PM at a design agency with "If you want it
> >> to look /exactly/ like the mock-up, then you can only use Lorem Ipsum
> >> text..." He got it, but I'm not sure the designer ever did... The text
> >> in question was from a social network feed that updated hourly.
> >>
> >> All the Best,
> >>
> >> Matt
> >>
> >>
> >> On Mon, Nov 1, 2010 at 7:59 AM, Don<donald at fane.com>   wrote:
> >>> I have a friend looking for a Drupal aware graphics designer. Finding
> >>> someone that's aware of how a CMS works, is a good designer and is
> >>> reliable is something that's always escaped me. Branding and impact as
> >>> well as user interfacing are important as well.
> >>> Any recommendations? Feel free to email me directly.
> >>>
> >>> -Don-
> >>> donald at fane.com
> >>>
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