[Mαxim]

Written with the help of Panda's previous thread.

OFFERING

I have seen a lot of newer users around here that fails to approach the graphics market in a proper way and hopefully with the help of this thread, it will guide them right. I myself have once upon a time offered a graphics service here, so you can be safe to know that I speak from experience. Most users who offer some type of graphic service here on the forum uses a thread design to show off their skills and to present their service in a smooth way. A thread design often contains some information about the person offering the service, some example of work, prices (not too often) and contact information. The typical width of a thread design is between 900 and 1150 pixels and the height depends on the content, of course, but it ends up at around +2000 pixels. Then you want to use links or buttons for both your portfolio and contact information in form of Skype or whatever you now have. Really make sure to provide a portfolio and don't make-up excuses why you cannot, your portfolio speaks for your quality and what to expect when ordering from you.

REQUESTING

When discussing with a designer about what you are looking for when it comes to your paid order you want to keep it clear. Approaching a designer with something like "I want a logo with the name Hades" and then you have the logo fully imagined in your mind but your designer has no idea, is a terrible move. You don't want your designer to have to guess how you want it because then it will not end up with a good result for neither of you. You know your order, make sure your designer knows it as well. If you, as a client ordering graphics from someone, presents a template with your order to your designer; then your order will be much easier to deal with. Both understanding what you are looking for, and getting started with it. You will save time for both you and the designer.

How not to request a paid order (logo example)
Spoiler (Click to View)"I like the color blue and the name is Hades Hosting, we will use the logo on the site."

How to request a paid order the proper way (logo example)
Spoiler (Click to View)Name to incorporate in the logo: Hades Hosting
Slogan to incorporate in the logo: With stability in mind
Type of service/product: Web hosting services
Main color to be used: #d55151 (indianred)
Preferred logo types: Rounded
Example of logos (stylewise) that I like: https://i.imgur.com/fMWnKYN.png
To be used on:
Print (Business cards, letterheads, brochures etc)
Online (Website, online advertising, banner ads etc)
Merchandise (Mugs, T-shirts etc)
Signs (Including shops, billboards etc)
Additional notes:
- Make two versions, one with the slogan and one without.

What to expect to pay?
How much you will be paying depends on two things; who will be making your order, and what you are expecting as a result. Some people who are offering services here on the market have a fixed price (meaning for example "Logos = $20") while some have a price that depends on the order. If you have a budget of like $5, $10, $15 (logo example) or such then you should not be expecting the best work you have ever seen. Paying that may result in that your order will not be fully made from scratch, and that is fully understandable. Having a solid budget and choosing the right designer, will get you what you are looking for.

If you want it cheap and fast, it won't be good. If you want it to be fast and good, it won't be cheap. If you want it to be cheap and good, it won't be fast.

Who to hire?
If you make a thread looking for someone to do your paid request, you will get various of users getting in touch with you. There will be the ones who only says "I can do this for you" and those who provide their contact information, portfolio and more. The later is the better one. It is always better with someone who can show their previous work and not come up with ridiculous excuses why they cannot.

How to find a designer?
There are two ways where the first on is where you contact someone who has a thread open saying like "Maxim's graphics service" or by you making a thread with the following; what you are looking for, how much your budget is and contact information. You do not have to be detailed with your order, however, you can use one of the templates below in order to get more designers contacting you because they will know that you know what you are looking for.

Option(1): Posting a thread in: Graphics Market
Spoiler (Click to View)

Option(2): Posting on someones graphic service thread
Spoiler (Click to View)

Option(3): Contacting someone using their contact information
Spoiler (Click to View)

Templates
These templates that I will present to you is absolutely not the only way to write one properly, but it is meant to represent a good example. I have pre-written a few with the help of Panda's old ones and some that I have made myself. They all have examples already written, and that is for you to understand what you should be writing in that specific tab. You can use these templates when using any of the methods above for you to find someone to make your paid order.

Web design template (Click to View)

Code

Organization name: Pandaz Church

Description of the organization and its target audience:
This is a website for a large (~7,000 member) multi-campus church (four campuses currently, with more to come) where people go to worship weekly.
The website is (should be) targeted mainly toward potential attendees. We especially want this to be a way for the potential attendee to find out more about the church, the different campuses (using sub-pages with a similar look and feel), the ministries (departments), the staff, and the service experience in a very simple, easy-to-understand and easy-to-find way.
For existing members, the site is a place to get news on upcoming events and sermon series, and a place for them to find a way to connect.
The site offers live streaming of services and events and archives of past services.

Industry: Religious

Existing website to reference; link

Number of pages needed: 5

Page descriptions:
We will likely need more than 5 pages, but the homepage design is what we need to solidify immediately. Once the homepage and other pages are complete, we will work with the designer one-on-one for more pages.
1) Homepage
The homepage should introduce our church and direct viewers to our different campus pages, the different aspects of the site (live stream, video archives, etc)
Our tagline is Gather. Connect. Serve. so the site design should center around that. What that means is: Gather - come and join us during our worship experiences (church services); Connect - build relationships, find a place to belong by joining one or more of our connect groups; Serve - serve as a volunteer in different areas of the church and serve the our community through outreach projects.
An additional element that we need on the homepage is a countdown to live events. Which happen on Wednesday at 7pm CST and Sunday at 10:00am CST and 11:45am CST.
2) Campus Page(s)
Each campus should have its own sub-page (except for one campus that already has it's own site), like a mini-homepage so campus attendees (or potential attendees) can visit to find out what is happening at their particular campus. The campus pages should be laid out exactly the same (hence the need for the campus pages to only be one designed page) with different information (their own service times, events section and/or calendar, news, etc). See example sites for more ideas on this. Here's an example of how a campus page could be set up. Notice how they are laid out the same, but with different info.
3) Live Stream page
This page needs to include a fairly large streaming player. It will also need a tabbed chat box. We'll likely utilize the churchonlineplatform.com framework for this. You can visit that site to see some of the technology.
4) Video Archives page
This page needs to have an easy-to-navigate way to watch archived services. It will include a player (maybe the same size as the live stream player) and an archives area where people can select what to watch. See example sites for more ideas on this, as well.
5) Ministries page
We need a page created that showcases the church's ministries. Similar to http://link , it segments the ministries into boxes that can be clicked. You would use some of the information from this page - http://link.
Other pages will likely need to be designed, but we need these done first.

What to avoid:
Do not want a classic corporate look or a traditional church look. This is for a thriving, growing church with a lot of young adults.

Inspirational websites:
- Link
Cool overall design. The homepage is easy to navigate and nice imagery. A little too dark in color, and not a big fan of how they present their campuses.

Notes:
Church sites are a different breed of sites. Very different from corporate sites and miles away from blogs, as well. I encourage you to really look at the sites I mentioned above. It is so important to capture the essence of what a church site is in this design.

Content management system:
Wordpress

Logo template (Click to View)

Code

Name to incorporate in the logo: Hades Hosting
Slogan to incorporate in the logo: With stability in mind
Type of service/product: Web hosting services
Main color to be used: #d55151 (indianred)
Preferred logo types: Rounded
Example of logos (stylewise) that I like: https://i.imgur.com/fMWnKYN.png
To be used on:
Print (Business cards, letterheads, brochures etc)
Online (Website, online advertising, banner ads etc)
Merchandise (Mugs, T-shirts etc)
Signs (Including shops, billboards etc)
Additional notes:
- Make two versions, one with the slogan and one without.

Thread design template (keylogger example) (Click to View)

Code

Type of service: Keylogger sales thread
Logo: https://
Name: Orion Logger
Slogan: "Your Monitoring Solution"

Section (1): About
- Text goes here

Section (2): Features
- Text goes here

Section (3): Screenshots
- Https://

Section (4): Price packages
- Text goes here

Section (5): Contact Information
- Text goes here

Signature template (Click to View)

Code

Type of service: Hosting service
Logo: https://
Name: Zeus Hosting
Website URL: https://
Slogan: "Your Hosting Solution"
Animated/Static: Animated
Slide (1): Logo & Slogan
Slide(2): Features (list them)
Slide(3): Website URL

[Տnow]

Great thread Maxim. Sticky incoming

[Motusora]

pls include this on the thread .

" how to know if the design was just ripped from internet "

[Mαxim]

Great thread Maxim.

Thank you

pls include this on the thread .
" how to know if the design was just ripped from internet "

It takes too much effort and reading from someone who's not familiar with graphics.
The best possible way to know if it is ripped from the internet or not is to always ask for the work files.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

[Manlosa]

Would be awesome if they can add an "estimated payment" too.

[Mαxim]

Would be awesome if they can add an "estimated payment" too.

If I think I know what you are talking about then sorry, no.
That has to do with each individual designer and not with Hack Forum's gfx marketplace in its entirety.

Otherwise, I have this: (which is the closest to what I'll be writing about "estimated payment")

What to expect to pay?
How much you will be paying depends on two things; who will be making your order, and what you are expecting as a result. Some people who are offering services here on the market have a fixed price (meaning for example "Logos = $20") while some have a price that depends on the order. If you have a budget of like $5, $10, $15 (logo example) or such then you should not be expecting the best work you have ever seen. Paying that may result in that your order will not be fully made from scratch, and that is fully understandable. Having a solid budget and choosing the right designer, will get you what you are looking for.

[ComputerJi]

Had a conversation with Novica about this a few days ago and how he is suffering from those ambiguous requests. Hopefully, Clients now will do it in a correct and neat way. Big thanks for making this thread, It's a therapy for the GFX marketplace.

[Rivalry]

'How much to expect to pay' bit should include the classic quote:

If you want it cheap and fast, it won't be good. If you want it to be fast and good, it won't be cheap. If you want it to be cheap and good, it won't be fast.

Lovely thread, otherwise.

[Mαxim]

Had a conversation with Novica about this a few days ago and how he is suffering from those ambiguity requests. Hopefully, Clients now will do it in a correct and neat way. Big thanks for making this thread, It's a therapy for the GFX marketplace.

Novica actually showed me your order (if it was you, can't remember), anyway, it was really detailed in the form of a pdf. Never seen anything like it.
No problems and thanks for the feedback.

'How much to expect to pay' bit should include the classic quote:

If you want it cheap and fast, it won't be good. If you want it to be fast and good, it won't be cheap. If you want it to be cheap and good, it won't be fast.

Lovely thread, otherwise.

Surprisingly, I have never heard that quote, however, I agree with it. Thanks for the share, added it.
Thanks.

[Mαxim]

This lil thread is still up for a read. 👍

[Xender]

Great thread that thoroughly explains how to use the graphics marketplace, this should be stickied since it can be incredibly helpful for clients.

[Mαxim]

Great thread that thoroughly explains how to use the graphics marketplace, this should be stickied since it can be incredibly helpful for clients.

Thanks for the feedback and all good, if people want to find this thread they will.
They always do.

[Mαxim]

This thread is a lil bit far back so I'll give it a boop. Otherwise, it's quite easy to find if you search for it.

[Saul Bass]

Cracking thread mate..

This should help us designers get a better briefing and also help
clients get better designers.

Top notch.

[⚡Meda]

I looove seeing threads like these pop up, it will definitely help new designers and clients to navigate their way throughout this section, great work, Maxim!