Third World Design

I've been doing some corporate work lately, and promised to help the company find a designer to revamp their slide presentations and their website. Using my standard MO, I placed an ad on Craigslist. I was looking for someone local, someone I could talk with face to face, and on the same timezone, with some corporate experience. But unlike previous times, this time I was overwhelmed by the number of responses and their poor quality.

Until I came upon a response from a guy with an Indian sounding name and an astoundingly beautiful website. He's in Jaipur India, he said, and is available for any corporate design job. He's got a degree in computer science and one in design, and his portfolio looked great. I e-mailed him with my Skype name, and within 30 seconds got a call on Skype. "What time is it for you?" I asked? "3am..."

We chatted a bit, texted a bit, and concluded that he'd do the first job I needed (a presentation template), for $50, with 25% down, paid through Paypal, with 30 hour turnaround for the first design pass. The web site will be $30 a page. A new logo? $100...

Scary stuff.