Who's your designer?

Discussion in 'Skinning, Design and Graphics' started by Nick, May 19, 2009.

  1. Nick

    Nick Regular Member

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    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?
     
  2. Justin S.

    Justin S. Regular Member

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    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!
     
  3. Chris

    Chris Regular Member

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

    Bundy Admin Talk Staff

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    I have worked with ForumSkin (their blog really isn't updated) in the past. They do awesome work!

    I was going to do some more work with them just recently and ran into some financial problems :( So I had to put it on hold for the time being.

    I would recommend them to everyone! :)
     
  5. Wayne Luke

    Wayne Luke Regular Member

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    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.
     
  6. lordtopcat

    lordtopcat Adept

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    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.
     
  7. Bundy

    Bundy Admin Talk Staff

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    (Going off topic a little also ;) ) I am with the both of you! I changed some of mine but not all. I really don't understand why more people don't use these?
     
  8. Dan Hutter

    Dan Hutter aka Big Dan

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    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. :)
     
  9. Tyler

    Tyler The Badministrator

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    Let me just second this. But I think you both already know that already. :)
     
  10. Peggy

    Peggy Regular Member

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    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.
     
  11. plazzman

    plazzman Adept

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    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.
     
  12. Imperial

    Imperial Adept

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    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.
     
  13. Chris

    Chris Regular Member

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    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. ;)
     
  14. Tyler

    Tyler The Badministrator

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    You can say that again.
     
  15. Dan Hutter

    Dan Hutter aka Big Dan

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    Care to share some? :D
     
  16. Chris

    Chris Regular Member

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    But of course! :p
     
  17. Nick

    Nick Regular Member

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    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.
     
  18. Tyler

    Tyler The Badministrator

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    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.
     
  19. Bundy

    Bundy Admin Talk Staff

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    The good thing about them you can tell them to do anything you want. You give hem all the ideas you want and don't want and go from there. If you say you don't want your forum to look like everything else I am sure they would do that haha

    If you look at the link that I used there there is a small cap of what my forum used to look like. It doesn't look anything like any of their other designs that I have ever seen from them ;)

    Well, their designs are far from 'pre-made', but yes the 'pre-made' skin places you can usually tell where they came from.
     
  20. Nick

    Nick Regular Member

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    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.
     

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