A huge number of designers. Different prices. Various works. How to find an interior designer, your contractor for the design of an apartment or house? Why does a project cost 300 rubles somewhere? square meter, and somewhere - 3,000 rubles?
Choosing an interior designer
What should you pay special attention to when choosing a designer? Here's the one you need a list of what you should pay special attention to when choosing a designer.
1. Portfolio of the designer you have chosen:
You should like the designer's work. If viewing the work does not make you feel anything, this is not your designer. The atmosphere of your future home is in the hands of the designer. If you don’t like the works in the portfolio or they simply don’t evoke any sensations, then don’t expect them to design a better interior for you. A designer may have many awards, several diplomas, and be an excellent specialist, but if you don’t like the work, this designer is simply not suitable for you.
2. High-quality images in 3D graphics
The more realistic the 3D images (3D visualization) in the designer’s portfolio, the easier it will be for you to understand, even at the design stage, what your interior will look like. You should pay attention to the clarity of the transmitted materials and their lighting.
Compare 3D renderings of the project with photographs after renovation of the same object. This is what will show the quality of 3D visualization and the detail of the project.
3. Availability of photographs in the portfolio and video reviews
It's one thing to draw beautiful images and a completely different thing to bring your planned project to life. Ask the designer for photographs of completed projects. Ask to tell about the object in the photo. Find out what difficulties there were during implementation? What material did the designer use?
On a construction site, everything is never perfect: there are always problems, some inconsistencies, difficulties. The point is who will solve these difficulties: the customer or the designer. You definitely need to ask about this in order to understand how the designer organizes the work to implement the project.
Photos of projects are one thing. And it’s quite another thing for the designer to have videos with reviews of completed projects. With the advent of YouTube, finding specialists has become easier. Now, to look at a designer and understand how he communicates with clients and works with builders, just watch video reviews of interiors.
In general, the presence of a video with confirmation of a live already implemented
interior design is an indisputable confirmation of the results of the designer’s work. It is very difficult to fake such a video.
4. Price
As for the cost of designer services, most often it depends on how much the designer or studio frees up time for clients. A high-quality, serious project is not cheap - we won’t talk about this, since this is a constant that everyone already understands.
One of the most significant investments after purchasing a property is renovations. Therefore, the most important thing is to find out the cost of all repair work, ask the designer how he plans to work with this budget. Therefore, always look at the cost of the final implementation, and this cost should be reasonable. The designer’s task is to correctly allocate the budget, and not just draw everything beautifully.
It is clear that it is possible to imagine the budget for the entire project at once quite roughly. Therefore, we recommend discussing the reality of the proposed budget with the designer, ask him to show you estimates of similar and already implemented design projects.
Based on the information received, determine how much time you will need to free up for all these processes. And, depending on how much your time is worth, you can determine for yourself the adequate composition and cost of designer services.
5. Cooperation with materials and furniture factories
In Europe, it is accepted that by turning to a designer, the client saves money during renovation, since designers work directly with furniture and materials factories. Therefore, purchasing furniture through a designer is cheaper. In Russia, there is a stereotype (and there are indeed cases) that a designer is in “conspiracy” with suppliers and increases his cost by offering a service to the client. Therefore, ask: does the designer cooperate with furniture suppliers and will you save on materials? Which factories are they?
6. Comfortable in communication
You should feel comfortable communicating with your designer. A professional designer will work with you for a long time. It also happens that the project is implemented over several years. And throughout the entire time you will tell him about your lifestyle, share your characteristics. Therefore, mutual understanding with the designer from the very beginning and from the very first contact is very important.
7. Narrow specialization should coincide with your desires
Ask the designer what he does best and why he weaknesses. A specialist who is good at designing restaurants and residential interiors, both classic and modern, should alert you. There are no super specialists in everything. It is better for the designer to specialize in one thing and be a professional in this specialization. And your task is to find a designer whose specialization coincides with your needs.
If you are looking for a designer for a 250 m2 house, it is advisable to find a professional who has a lot of practice with such projects, rather than turning to a super specialist who does everything. A designer with your specialization will make the project better, faster, and offer best solutions, since he constantly does similar projects. And this is obvious.
Be careful when searching for a designer, and take a responsible approach to the process of selecting a contractor. Get to the bottom of the details and essence of the designer’s presentation. Pay attention to the designer's reaction to your questions.
8. Reviews
Of course, video reviews are a very rare case. But, if there is at least one such review, this is a high indicator. Not every customer agrees to a video review, so text reviews also need to be read. There is no such thing as too perfect. Therefore, if everything is written very well, then either the designer does not post everything, or the reviews are not real. A genuine review can always be understood by the description; real emotions in the text are difficult to fake.
9. Publications in the media, speeches.
A true expert is invited everywhere: to write an article, give a comment, or speak at an event. Professionals in their field share their knowledge, since it is very difficult to keep it secret and keep it to yourself. There comes a time when the owner of skills and knowledge begins to transfer them, because he wants to share his experience.
Pay attention to publications of works, articles by the designer, speeches. But it’s important to remember our first rule: not every expert is right for you. First of all, the designer must suit you in spirit; the designer’s philosophy and approach to design must suit you. You and the designer must look in the same direction and your views on design must coincide - this is the only way to create perfect interior for you.
Gerasimov Pavel
To find a talented designer who understands the client perfectly and is able to implement the most bold ideas, you need to work hard. Professional services cost a lot, but you should not rely on the minimum price list: reworking improperly provided services will cost even more. It's smart to find a high-quality professional or design studio and figure out how you can cut costs or get a discount. We've got a few for you useful tips who can help you find your dream designer.
Before you begin your search, take a few minutes to do some self-reflection—namely, examining your own way of working. The clearer you describe it to yourself, the easier it will be for you to choose a business partner to implement your ideas. Answer these questions for yourself:
- How deeply involved do you want to be in the creative process? Do you want to be aware of the smallest details or do you want to see the plan and the final result?
- Do you need a turnkey design or is just professional advice in one area (for example, choosing colors or zoning) enough?
- What type of perception are you - visual or kinesthetic? To make a choice, is it easier for you to see the project in a picture or to “feel” it in reality?
The qualifications and experience of the designer you need largely depend on the scope of work and the budget you set. If you are building a new house or planning a major renovation of your apartment, you will probably need the services of not only a designer, but also an architect. Often these specialists work in tandem. If you have successfully chosen an architect, then he will probably be able to advise you on a good designer. To carry out minor cosmetic renovations in a small apartment, you can do without a designer at all, unless you need his one-time consultations on certain issues.
Surely someone around you already has experience communicating with designers. It’s a good idea to start your search for the specialist you need by asking friends, colleagues, neighbors and loved ones. If your friends who hired a designer recently completed renovations, be sure to stop by and see the results of the project. But keep in mind that you may not like the interior, since everyone has different tastes. It is more important to pay attention to how accurately the assigned tasks were completed, the conditions were met, and whether the customers themselves were satisfied with the project.
Stay up to date: regularly review print and online resources about interiors and renovation. Descriptions and photographs of successful projects by various designers are often published there. If you like any of the proposed ideas, find its author and find out about his work in detail: look at his website, check out his portfolio, read reviews about him on the Internet. Don't be afraid to call high-end designers because everyone wants to showcase their best work. But there is always the opportunity to negotiate: find the optimal solution in terms of price and quality or get a discount.
Before starting any repairs, many people do “store reconnaissance”: they walk around the retail outlets where they sell building materials, furniture, interior items. It's not only good way ask the price and catch inspiration for your project, but also find a designer. Most shops involved in renovation or construction work closely with specialists in the field of design and architecture. Often, designers hold consultations right on the sales floor. Talk to them or find out their contact information from the sellers.
Before you meet with a potential designer, talk to them on the phone or Skype. Your manner of communication and professional answers to questions will help create the first (and sometimes the most correct) impression of a person. If it was unpleasant for you to talk to him, then it is unlikely that you will have further cooperation. Sometimes the experience and skill level of a specialist can be determined by a few phrases. If you hear vague or incorrect answers to basic questions, then why waste time on a personal meeting? But try not to make your conversation look like an obvious test of professional aptitude: let the tricky questions sound a little indirect and relaxed.
Tip #7: Get to know the designer, his workspace and documents
If the designer has his own office or studio, be sure to check it out. Pay attention to how they are designed, carefully study the available diplomas, diplomas, certificates, and licenses. Sometimes the environment in the workplace can say a lot about a person and their work practices. But not all designers have their own offices - many work from home or in large companies, which often do not welcome the projects of their employees on the side. Invite the designer to choose the meeting place himself. If he successfully copes with this, he will receive a plus in his favor. But the main thing for you is his completed work: it’s difficult to trust a person without a portfolio. If there are projects in public places, don’t be lazy to look at them in person.
To accept optimal solution, the client should always have a choice. Even if you liked one designer the first time, get to know at least one more. Compare their experience, skills, achievements, communication style, approaches to work and, importantly, the terms of the contract. It's a good idea to give them a small test task. Thorough comparative analysis candidates will help you make the right decision.
", told Netology about the experience of searching for a designer, sincere approach, self-criticism and the ability to take responsibility.
What kind of designer were we looking for?
We were looking for a person with knowledge of retouching and wanted the designer, first of all, to be able to think. Mastering Photoshop was not that important to us.
We did not give the candidates a test task, because the applicants already had work in their portfolio. If something was missing (for example, they didn’t see a retouch in the portfolio), then they asked to send an example. I understand that completing a test task takes time. If a person is looking for a job and has visited 5-7 employers, then he will receive 5-7 test tasks, and each one requires 5-6 hours of work. It’s easier to discuss everything in the first steps of the interview, and if something is needed for a complete picture, then ask to send it additionally.
We started looking for a candidate through our friends and colleagues - these searches yielded nothing. When the hope of finding a specialist “on our own” disappeared, we posted vacancies on Headhunter, on the company’s social networks and on our website, as well as on the personal pages of employees. Headhunter received the most responses, but the resumes were of poor quality. In total, we looked at about 50 resumes and invited 10 people to the office for an interview.
The resume we posted on Headhunter
When we screened out candidates at the stage of studying resumes, we tried, if possible, to give everyone feedback: wrote answers with justification for refusal, gave applicants advice on how to develop in the profession.
If a candidate had few works in his portfolio, we told him so. According to the materials of some experts, it is clear that their strengths not related to web design. Then they were advised to develop further in an area of interest to them. For example, one guy had some great modeling work. We recommended that he grow in this field and choose the profession of a concept artist.
We told applicants who did not write cover letters that the employer draws primary information from them. A short motivational story and justification of the desire to work in the company increase the likelihood of a positive response to the resume.
When demonstrating his work, the web designer should explain how his solution improved the site or landing page. Therefore, we advised showing site statistics in the portfolio before and after the redesign. Someone was advised to simplify navigation in the portfolio. For example, one candidate did not have the ability to simply scroll through the work without returning to the main page.
Basic mistakes
The portfolio of applicants is the most pressing issue. It is not clear why they insert works into identical mockups. I’m very tired of studying all this - it looks beautiful on MacBook screens, but applicants probably forgot that I’m not a customer. It is important for me to look at specific elements of their design, and in this form it is inconvenient to do so.
You can't make mockups like this
The candidate sends a picture without explaining what problem his design solves. It is not clear to me what problem the specialist was working on, why he chose this solution, what he wanted to achieve. I see a beautiful website, but why it is so stylish is unclear. This approach is also found among fairly experienced candidates.
To present work to clients, the use of mockups is justified, but in our case it made it difficult to determine how competent the candidate is - on the web you need to see the screen, the degree of rendering and the problem that the designer was solving.
An interview is a meeting in life
At an interview, you see a person in action - how he communicates, whether he is ready to take responsibility. At this stage, many people had problems.
Some wanted unbridled creativity and moving mountains. This is a signal that a person is most likely incapable of planned, systematic boring work. You can move mountains after you learn how to solve everyday problems.
Such people want to create, but often there is no need to create - everything conceptual has already been done. Every second person was ready to come up with a new iPhone, but we don’t need it. I don’t argue that having ambition is good, but it must be backed up by something. Ambitions out of the blue look ridiculous.
Ambition is good, but it must be backed up with something
The problem with the design labor market is that people cannot correctly estimate the value of their work. All you have to do is go to Headhunter, look at the resumes of other designers, and, depending on your skills, adjust your salary expectations and make them correspond to the market. Many people want a big salary for working in one place for five years and essentially doing nothing.
There are people who consider themselves professionals, make mistakes and fundamentally do not admit them. This is inadequate. A true specialist is always ready for constructive criticism and can learn from it and draw useful conclusions.
Previous place of work and education
Experience is a double-edged sword. Sometimes specialists with a great portfolio turn out to be weak designers with high demands on employers.
There is also the phenomenon of hostages of environment and experience. These are inflexible people who find it difficult to move away from their vision and reconsider their approach to work. In our tasks, we often need to look at ordinary things in a new way and think outside the box; not everyone is ready to do this. In the world of such people, the system works, they are comfortable in it, and have no motivation to change.
Many candidates lack developed soft skills. You can have the strongest professional skills, but if a person does not know how to work in a team or manage his time, then he will lose out to other applicants.
Perhaps the specialist lacks experience in something, but you can always improve it if you wish. A lively mind and a thirst for solving new non-standard problems can often compensate for the lack of purely professional skills. Design “gurus” can be too narrow-minded and blindly follow the methodologies they have once mastered.
Diplomas of completion of specialized courses are an additional signal. I understand that if a person graduated from IKRA or went to Britanka, then this is an indicator. Although he may adhere too strictly to the methodologies he learned there. This will hold him back from developing some new ones, non-standard solutions. On the other hand, such a person at least tries to study something and moves on; he has a goal for self-development.
What does an employer want to see in an interview?
In addition to the candidate’s sober assessment of his abilities, adequacy and mastery of general skills, the following points are important to us.
- Ability to quickly establish new contacts, communicate and work in a team.
- The ability to explain and defend your point of view.
- The desire to develop in systematic and systematic work, without losing a fresh perspective and the ability to look at routine processes in a new way.
To find out how well an applicant fits these requirements, we ask him open-ended, direct questions. We do not ask any riddles with a triple bottom. The simpler and clearer the answer, the better.
We also pay attention to the manner of dialogue, whether a person avoids questions. In theory, if someone has gone through several interviews, then he should come to a conclusion about how to behave at meetings with an employer. You find out that a person has been looking for a job for 2 weeks and has had 4 interviews during this time. You think: “Why are you behaving like this again? You went through all this, why don’t you change your behavior?”
Self-education and self-analysis are necessary for a designer, not only in terms of design and interfaces. You need to be able to analyze your actions and the behavior of people. And this applies not only to designers, but also to any other specialists.
1. If the company does not have an HR specialist, take special courses that will give you an understanding of what, how and why to ask applicants.
I received special training at the agency, so it was easier for me to conduct interviews. I knew how to build a conversation with candidates. Very often, applicants and employers act intuitively and, instead of a professional approach, are guided personal experience. You can't hire the best specialists that way.
2. Choose candidates who are close to you in spirit.
Work experience and reasons for leaving previous projects do not play a primary role. The main thing is a person’s ability and desire to learn, the ability to manage their time and work in a team.
3. Communicate openly and sincerely with the candidate.
Avoid stress interviews with several applicants at once, without specially created awkwardness. Of course, you need to prepare for the meeting and think through the questions, but you don’t need to create super interview systems or lie detectors.
Our experience has shown that live texts on employee personal accounts work best. This, of course, can be used not only when searching for a designer, but also any other specialists.
5. Always give feedback.
Job seekers will be grateful to you, and you will significantly increase loyalty to your HR brand. Here is an example of a response from a candidate to whom we sent a reasoned refusal. He wrote on the VKontakte wall of the Ulya development director:
If the application is stylish and beautiful, but not functional, it is a failure. If he clearly fulfills the assigned tasks, but is unremarkable in appearance, success awaits him.
My previous article about how people admire graphic design, forgetting about functionality (Dribbblisation of Design), sparked a serious discussion: someone supported and gave their examples, someone disagreed and put forward counter-arguments. I'd like to re-emphasize my point, explain what prompted me to write that blog post that isn't really about Dribbble at all, and what criteria we use when recruiting our team.
Misconceptions about interface design
For a long time, many people did not understand and underestimated the importance of interfaces for applications. Designers complained that their fellow developers asked them to come up with only visual beautiful picture for almost already finished product. They even came up with a nickname for themselves - “Photoshop monkeys”. However, they initially understood that design is not just work in a graphics editor and therefore immediately set about finding a new team.
Many have worked tirelessly to clear away this misconception and make it clear that design is not what a product looks like, but how it works. Steve Jobs put it best:
Most people are mistaken in their belief that design is just the outer shell. Actually this is not true. This is not how the product looks or feels. Design is how it works.
Slowly but surely, app development companies realized that those who put interface design above all else were superior to the competition. Apple is the most striking and successful example.
Many vacancies for interface designers began to appear, because many companies knew and understood that without good design they risk losing competitiveness. Since this was new to them, they were vague about their needs and turned to sources like Dribbble to find “good designers.” But the complexity of the concept of design is not revealed on Dribbble, which is where the “circle of misconceptions” lies:
The consequences of such a cycle are disastrous for the development and understanding of design, because they cultivate the myth that only the aesthetic component is important. Employers hire graphic designers, confusing them with interface designers, and imagine the product will be a runaway success, but this does not happen.
Graphic design doesn't work on its own
In the previous post I analyzed the following stages of creating an interface:
- Statement of the problem.
- Determining the necessary elements and connections between them.
- Interface design.
- Graphic design.
None of these processes exists separately from the others. Graphic designers who know how to design great interfaces understand the need for all of the above steps to work together in an integrated manner. Experienced designers The interfaces I was lucky enough to work with specialized in one or two processes and were very good at the rest. It would be a mistake to pay attention to only one stage, because working with all four together will bring the best results.
Choose a designer according to your tasks
When I'm looking to hire a designer, I look for someone who has an excellent understanding of two of the four processes above and is eager to master and learn to work with others. Recently I was looking for a designer with this profile:
Before you say: “We need a designer!”, think about what kind of specialist you want on the team. For a startup, the strategy chosen by the manager determines the criteria by which a designer will be hired for the team. If you want to hire a person who is excellent at all four processes :), you should know that such people are extremely rare:
Graphic design is closely intertwined with interface design. It is necessary to take into account animations, changes in states and data. This is not a design for printing. Appearance and functionality must be comparable. If you are a graphic designer and want to learn more about interface design, I recommend reading Dan Saffer's book Microinteractions.
Some argue that graphic design is the most important thing, because it is pleasant appearance attracts people's attention. I don't agree. There is no doubt that graphic design is very important, but people are attracted to something that has value - what this product is for, what benefits it will bring, in other words, they are attracted to the fruit of the work of interface designers. From time to time, we've seen the success of unassuming products (like Craigslist) and the failures of aesthetically beautiful products (like Color). Beautiful things attract attention, but they will not be able to hold it if there is nothing worthwhile besides the graphic component. All levels of design are important.
Don't believe what they say about Dribbble, it is used for other purposes
Let's talk about Dribbble after all. My previous post was not an attack on it as a product (I would really like to hear the opinion of Dan Cederholm and his team), I focused on more general issues. It is necessary to destroy the “circle of misconceptions” about the concept of design.
The main thing for me is not what people say about Dribbble, but what they use it for. When you develop products of this nature, you cannot predict how they will be used, because as the project develops it adapts and evolves. They say that Dribbble is a place where you can create, demonstrate your work and share your impressions of it, the so-called “Twitter for designers.”
All these phrases are meaningless to me. If this is a site about the design process, then where are the sketches and rough sketches? On Dribbble, mostly perfectly executed and polished works are presented, pixel by pixel. If the main message is visual inspiration, great, but then it looks more like art than design. In this case, Dribbble is not the right place to find designers to join your team. Talented artists, good illustrators, no doubt. But not designers.
I believe Dribbble should act as a way to attract employers to a site that contains your thoughts, sketches and illustrates your work process.
Being popular on Dribbble doesn't mean you're a great designer
Of course, there are great designers on Dribbble and