bluedesignstudios.com?

What does everyone think about bluedesignstudios.com? I am looking at their portfolio and it looks ok to me, but I have had problems with designers in the past wanting to do the bare minimum they can. Hell one did not want to change 60% of the images in the graphics for one tour page to the next. They did of course but I really don’t want to have to tell someone to do a decent job every day just to get a project done, and then have to go back and do most of it myself or pay another designer :thumbsup: :thumbsdown:

Their portfolio is ok yeah, but shopping for a designer should their portfolio not be "WOW COOL" ?

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Originally Posted by samebb

Their portfolio is ok yeah, but shopping for a designer should their portfolio not be "WOW COOL" ?

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Ya it should, but if you look at many of them you will see that things do not work out like that normally. Most designer fall in a rut and basically keep spinning out the same tours with different colors and names.

I would like to say WOW when I see thier work, but is a way its up to me to tell them what to do

I agree with Sam here. The one and only question about a design for an adult site should be "does it convert." We had some designs early on that were done by a non-adult designer and were appealing (to us, at least) but simply didn't convert.

That isn't to say that one should not test unconventional designs, just that when selecting a designer, going with one whose work is proven to be a moneymaker would be my choice.

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Originally Posted by gaybucks_chip

I agree with Sam here. The one and only question about a design for an adult site should be "does it convert." We had some designs early on that were done by a non-adult designer and were appealing (to us, at least) but simply didn't convert.

That isn't to say that one should not test unconventional designs, just that when selecting a designer, going with one whose work is proven to be a moneymaker would be my choice.

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I just want one that can follow instructions, and create what I have in mind. Its my job to make sure the designs convert, I know far more than any designer about converting traffic (this is my JOB)

okayyyyyyyyy...

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Originally Posted by gaybucks_chip

okayyyyyyyyy...

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This Job right now will be about promotional items (if that changes anything), not really tours. If designers could just crank out tours that really converted their would be little need for us at all. Some of the big design companies could run thousands of them, and I see little point for them to sell their work, basically cutting them out of the profit.

my experience with bigger designers is that they can not take directions that well. they tend to create their own take - and it's usually very different from my very explicit directions...

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Originally Posted by basschick

my experience with bigger designers is that they can not take directions that well. they tend to create their own take - and it's usually very different from my very explicit directions...

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Tell me about it, the last guys I worked with did not want to take direction really at all, and seems they only wanted to alter their own templates rather that create what I asked for. You would think after the 4th or 5th time I told them to Please read my direction, they would get the idea that if they want to be paid in full it might be a good idea to work WITH me.

At the end of all that, I still had to go back and change most of their work, and pay another designer to go back and clean it up. You should see the tour they created, then see really how much I had to change it. LOL they told me I asked for to many alterations, but if the would have lessened to me from the start it could have been so easy on them. I did pay them more to start with, and paid even more money to get them to step it up after that, but it was a long dragged out fight with them.

Any designers want to work for me now :)

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Originally Posted by maxpower

You would think after the 4th or 5th time I told them to Please read my direction, they would get the idea that if they want to be paid in full it might be a good idea to work WITH me.

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Wow, you're waaaay more patient and generous than we are. We will give a designer 2 tries and maybe exceptionally 3. If the process isn't very clearly moving in the direction we want, we just cut it off right there.

We had a disastrous experience with a well known design firm, part of a larger gay adult media company that would be known to everyone here. The "art director" told us point blank that he "didn't always feel the need to follow the client's directions when he had an idea he liked better." When we tried to explain that WE were paying his paycheck, he just got even more arrogant and started talking about his credentials and experience.

Just a couple weeks ago, we had another experience with a designer who was going to do a logo "update." He sent us a beautiful portfolio with some amazing stuff, but when we actually gave him the gig, he didn't read our directions and delivered stuff that was so godawfully bad we honestly came to the conclusion that the portfolio he submitted to us wasn't his own work.

However... all that said, I also agree with Patti that larger design firms almost NEVER do what you ask, probably because the person you're talking to isn't the person actually doing the design. These days, we almost insist in working with an individual designer rather than a company or team for that reason.

They where just the first company I every paid to create a tour to tell the truth (I am ok with PhotoShop myself so does not come up much) looking back I am sure your right, I bet over backwards to work with them, and they should have worked at least as hard to work with me too. I still have not found a designer I really love yet, and at that the time was worried about what I was going to do with a worthless tour.

I was looking at there portfolio and assumed they could do the work I wanted (why I paid them to start with) so I keep thinking maybe if I explain it better, offer more money, or if I was just more patient with them in the end they would come though for me. They did do a ok job I guess in the end, some people around here really liked the tour, but I was not happy and like I said had to go back and change more of it than I hope I ever have to do again with any other designers.

Im doing my own tours. Infact my most recent im so damn happy with. I have shown it to a few people who have also congratulated me :vanish:

It comes down to that age old saying. If you want something done do it yourself lol.

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Originally Posted by samebb

Im doing my own tours. Infact my most recent im so damn happy with. I have shown it to a few people who have also congratulated me :vanish:

It comes down to that age old saying. If you want something done do it yourself lol.

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I can not make my own graphics too, and I know I will basically have to construct the sites but damn I have to sleep at some point.

These designers really do drive me nuts, I was talking with a rep from bluedesignstudios.com about 24 hours ago thought e-mail because he said he had no way to talk on the phone or AIM/ICQ after a whole 3 e-mails that equated to less than 4 sentences they just stopped talking.

Its not like I even said anything that could be taken badly, I really don’t get these guys. Another designer Bass recommend said he would talk to me on ICQ about this JOB on Monday, its Wednesdays now and he have not logged on in over a week now.

Am I on some list someplace where all these guys just don’t have time to say more than 15 words to me, or is this just how they work?