I’ve been receiving a lot of junk mail both at work and home lately. Of course this is nothing new except for maybe the misuse of the word junk mail.

What I should be saying is that I get a lot of scrap paper in the mail, because as soon as I get a stack of flyers and advertisments I immediately stick them in a pile to be wrote on and torn into something very unrecognizable as I’m sure others do when they’re too cheap to buy post it notes.

This isn’t to say that I’m impermeable to advertising or cannot be persuaded by a nicely marketed idea. In fact I have a bulletin board right above my bed where I post many of the items I find: stickers, assorted pictures and drawings. But above all, I have more advertisements and posters than anything else. I’ll rescue something from a telephone pole if I think it’s worthy enough, and whatever doesn’t make it onto the board makes it into a scrapbook. Even if I don’t keep something there’s still that defining moment of crumpling the paper or folding it when it makes it to the recycling.

You don’t need to spend a lot of money to get results here. In most cases a reasonable graphic should not cost more than $100, if that. Most of these objects are referenced from somewhere else, and we can all logically assume how complex a particular graphic will be. If you’d like a detailed 3D graphic of a T-Rex opening a can of beans, of course it’s going to take more time and cost more money, and if someone is taking more then 2 to 3 hours to create a bathtub and sink graphic in illustrator then you know you have a problem.

Most designers have all heard the bragging from their peers about getting a nice buck for their half hour of work. And although it sounds nice, it’s also the reason all of these jobs are starting to go to design outsourcing websites where designers are given a hard time.
I'm currently working on a project that before my arrival, resorted to this reverse auction style of hiring a logo designer. They paid for the designs up front. And after having 3 separate designers on their team attempt a logo, their best result still needed obvious work. Now after a few hundred dollars, they’ve obtained a brand logo that’s impossible to recreate at 16 x 16 for favicon and avatar use, and expensive to reproduce in print. Oops?

Find someone you like, who makes things you like to see. You don’t even have to know them, just take a stroll around the web and look at different designers who specialize in what you’re looking for. If you need business cards, look for someone who does corporate branding. If you want some skateboards airbrushed, find someone who knows what a skateboard is and can make something visually appealing when it’s been scratched to hell and going 7Mph.

After you’ve found your guy or girl, email them or skype them or follow them on twitter. We like to be liked, even if it doesn’t lead to work all the time.

Tell them what you’re looking for and what your budget is up front. That will lead to less confusion in the future when it comes to wrapping things up, and nobody pulls a “That’s not what I wanted” or “That’s not enough money for the work I just did”.

For more articles from Corey Russell, visit yourinkstain.com.