My first inclination is to use 99 Designs, but then my second thought is finding someone I like on Dribble and hiring them directly. My third thought is that I should use some generic free illustrations... but then I think to myself how boring and generic those are, and my idea is very specific.
I'd love to hear some advice. Has anybody tried hiring a designer directly from Dribble? How do you go about hiring a good designer to start an incremental business relationship? Have you used 99 Designs with good luck? and lastly, any recommendations for free alternatives?
Thank you!
One can take the position that an individual has a more weighty, significant, and perhaps burdensome subjective stake in a creative project to the degree that they take more time to decide how to approach it, who to hire, and where to find them. Whenever that's the case for me, I find it helpful to engage quickly, but in easily-managed increments. A single static image first, for example, followed by a brief animation, followed by a longer animation, etc. But there's also the question of time--how much time do your project-design parameters give you, and to what degree does the illustration project impact that timeline? If that becomes an issue, it's important to be able to say, OK, here we go with generic free stuff because I need to move fast.
No specific advice about Dribble, but I've worked with a lot of different designers and made some really good friends over the years. One alternative that may be worth considering is checking with members of e.g. the software user community, to see if someone who is learning the ropes in some 3D software package, but who is generally design-talented, wants to give your project a shot for their burgeoning 3D portfolio, for example. Good luck with your project.