any *local* graphic designers want a small freelance project?

[acroyear]

This is a professional offer involving my workplace (and in fact, a project i'm on), there will be (agreed-upon) payment.

Basically, we have a web application implemented in Java (JSP/Struts), that does a small-scale version (some specific tasks) of our core application (written in VB6).  it involves a LOT of DHTML work, so familiarity with that will help.  It is fully compatible with Mozilla and IE6.  All of the colors and fonts are in external CSS files, or will be when I get around to finishing a clean-up.

What it does have, however, is a very rough look, color-wise, inherited from an earlier project's codebase it was built upon, and a lot of "stock" icons (small 20x20 or so) from various sites including those that come with apache httpd and the java "metal" look and feel set.  they work as reasonable placeholders during our "alpha" state, but aren't appropriate in the long run.  The fonts aren't perfect, mostly because I really don't know all the "names" of what's out there that might be appropriate.  Most of what the user will see will be tables of raw data, with bold and italic fonts as threshold indicators, and icons and basic form elements to do processing.  This is a real web application (as in an application that happens to use web technology), not a "brochure site" like most of the web is.

In addition to this main app, we also have a "dashboard" reporting and metrics application set written using technology from Business Objects's Application Foundation.  This system has some very particular requirements in "skinning"; its not as easy as just changing an html template or a css file.  One of the things we're trying to do is get our app in this package and our own web app to try to look relatively seamless (though we know pure seamlessness is impossible -- look at it as trying to get "my yahoo" and "yahoo mail' to be relatively the same even though there are necessary differences due to the data being presented). If necessary, we could do the work to get the dashboard system in line with the java-based web-app, but in working out the styles for the web app itself, the restrictions placed on us by the dashboard need to be kept in mind.

So what I'm looking for is someone who really knows CSS to help us with the overall look of the system, in terms of colors, fonts and minor layout changes, and someone to help with graphic design for actually making icons, buttons, and logos (all mostly manipulating the logos we already have) to fit that look (and still be appropriate to the actions they represent, which may be pretty abstract) and other semi-stock patterns of things like "tabs" for navigation (a-la amazon.com's navigation, assuming they haven't patented that too).  Preferably both in the same person.

They won't need to know DHTML/Javascript directly (I'm the one who's built all of that), but should understand how DHTML puts some limits on the CSS.  Even if they don't know all the technical details of "hovers" or "tooltips", familiarity with them for the purposes of selecting appropriate colors and patterns would be good; I can handle the technical implementation. Again, we use CSS for all mouse-over effects, not javascript, though using javascript for an image rollover isn't ruled out; whatever seems best I'm fine with.

This work would probably take no more than 2 or 3 days, a week at worst, to be done in or near the middle of march.  I would need to screen the candidate's portfolio, and preferably the person should be local to the DC area (the office is in Fair Oaks by the mall) so they could work with me directly.  An on-sight interview within the next week or two would be ideal so that they can see the system and decide how and what they could contribute to it.

Please send resumes to me at shelbyj at teoco dot com.

Comments

[sunnidae]

Hey Joe? What kind of crack are you smoking?

First you say that someone needs to basically design your look & feel FROM SCRATCH ...

Then you say it should take 2 or 3 days??

Whose resumes are you expecting to see in your inbox?

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

it's not from scratch. the pages, the general layout, the places where the icons (which are just little action icons like toolbar icons in word) will be placed, are all pretty much done (the main page is getting a functional rewrite because like all good webapps, the focus on the target market has changed 5 times in the last year as we demo the prototypes in-house.

I'm guessing you've not yet really looked at CSS and how flexable a web page can be when implemented using CSS and DOM over hard-coded html. to see the power this can bring, check out http://www.csszengarden.com/ for plenty of examples. the interesting bit: not a single line of html is different between the versions of that page. all of the design is in the CSS, and it all works in IE 6 and firefox (and friends). (side note: I'm actually annoyed that LJ went to so much work on their S2 system rather than making their layouts more CSS-compatible so that any CSS tool, including Dreamweaver, can hash out a new design).

this app is the same way: CSS-ready. its already templatized so changing the CSS will affect all pages at once to keep the common look. I could do it in 2 days if I had the 2 days to do it in. unfortunately, the constant demand on my time for dealing with other "mechanics" (as in, add this column to the table here, fix the search so it returns this too, the system should warn you before it times out and logs you out) keeps me from getting into the mindset i need to just do it. I also don't know enough about font names and styles compared to someone who's been in this field for a while. such a person would have a better idea of what to use to maximize screen realestate with word readability (there are a lot of numbers that the app is presenting, so keeping things readable at first glance is key).

as for the icons and graphics: there's nothing special about them, nor does there need to be anything dramatically artistic or original. just distinctive enough to represent the function they are the "button" for, which can be explained in a session and argued over a marker board.

a graphic designer has better ideas of what colors work for contrast-yet-pleasingness (how to stick out yet not be jarring) and how the tools work than I do (I find absolutely nothing in photoshop or paint shop pro intuitive in the slightest), and also can come up with more representative visuals for the abstract actions than I can. they also know more about how detail works in "small" icons -- how to fool the eye into thinking there's more detail than there really is in a 32x32 graphic, using shading and blended colors.

2 hours to hash out what we want on a marker board, and someone who knows their tools and the agreed-upon color schemes from the CSS work can churn out the icons in by the end of the day. i've seen it done at my old company. We used to have such a person at my current company, but they moved on and until now the company never really saw a need to replace them...the upper mgmt still don't see any permanent need, but those of use in the trenches are hoping this app work may convince them otherwise.

[sunnidae]

I'm not debating you, Joe. I understand CSS; I'm not talking about the implementation of the design taking longer, I'm talking about the design itself.

Having someone on-staff, who knows the corporate style and the way the decision-makers think, is a lot different than bringing someone in cold to put together a style-sheet and its assorted graphics for you. That's all I'm saying.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

we don't have a "corporate style". this is the only webapp in our system. we don't need it to be compatible in any way with, say, the company web page (a brochure-site to say the least). They would be working with me directly, as at this stage I *AM* the "decision maker" on it.

Yes, I'd love it if they put someone on staff for this sort of thing, but the company doesn't (yet) see the need.