Professional Website Design?

Does anyone have experience with having a website professionally designed? I’ve created a mock-up of what I want in Photoshop, but I lack the skills to turn it into an actual working site (with databasing and whatnot, of which I have no experience in).

Where should I be looking for such service? And any insight into how does the general process works?

With a photoshop sketch, it’s as simple as making slices out of it in Adobe Fireworks, and putting it all together on a web server.

I know there are some web designers here who’d gladly do it for you.

You could also try Craigslist. That place is pouring with local talent.

As a web designer myself, clients like you - who actually have an existing mock-up of the design they have in mind - are golden! You’re actually doing the hardest part of the job for me. For me (other web designers may be different), trying to come up with a visual design that matches some vague image in a client’s head is very hard. If you already have it designed in Photoshop, then it’s pretty easy for a designer with solid HTML and CSS skills to code the page for you.

It should not be difficult to find a freelancer to do this for you. Just put an ad on Craigslist saying that you already have a mock-up, and get some bids, and ask to see a portfolio of their previous work and get references! The process could be much different depending on who you hire, but in my experience, you would just send the designer your mock-up, give them a certain amount of time to code working site (days to weeks depending on their schedule) and then you would check it out, test it, edit it, have them make whatever changes you want, and then you should be done.

Also a web designer should be able to take care of setting up a hosting account for you. I will usually take care of that for my clients, and I also make search engine optimization a standard part of my package too.

Please take more careful consideration when looking on places like craigslist seeing as you said you required some database work (and I assume programming). Ask for some of their web apps as well.

And unlike what Casserole said, it takes a lot more than just exporting some slices and HTML from an app. If you want to get good quality, compliant code that will work across browsers, that is.

Whoops, I waited much longer to respond to this than I intended too. First, thanks all for the replies.

It hadn’t occurred to me to check Craig’s List, but in my brief search, it seems finding someone with database experience may be a bit trickier (unless I’m not using the right search terms).

To clarify, I need someone who can put together some sort of backend for my site–essentially just a form that I fill it out and submit, which is then added to the database, with the proper links appearing throughout the site. For example, let’s say I wanted to add a news story: I’d fill in a few fields, like headline and the story itself, click ‘submit’ or whatever, then bam, it’s on the site.

Where else aside from Craig’s List might I be able to find this? And any idea how much it may cost? Is that something you have experience with nyctea scandiaca?

Try including the search term “MySQL”.

What you’re looking for is referred to as a content management system. That’s your magic keyword, along with the web standards that go with like PHP or Python.

You could always try the yellow pages. My local book has a decent amount of listing under “Website Design”.

As for how much it’ll cost, you’re looking at a few hundred for starters and then it’ll go up from there depending on how complicated you want it.

Drop me a line. I run a team of developers who do this and have many contacts.

Depending on how complicated your site is supposed to be, you might be able to do it yourself using a simple, free, pre-made CMS like Joomla or even a blogging engine like Wordpress. Installation is very simple (1-click on some hosts) and configuration is mostly a matter of learning the theming system (a matter of hours) and adapting your Photoshop template to them.