Design Markets
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- seed
What cities do you think are strong design markets? I am wondering if maybe there are some smaller markets that could be suprisingly strong for design. We all know NYC, SF, LA but if you are familiar with those areas maybe you could mention the amount of opportunities divided by the amount of competition.
Also do you think the market you live in has a strong influence on the type of work you are able to get?
- blastofv0
San Diego = scarce full time work, payscale is way low compared to cost of living, but there are sick numbers of startup ventures of all sizes going up all the time, so there's decent freelance work to be had
Boston = jobs here and there, but slim pickins, good pay, and some pretty good work going on from the design firms/agencies
- jaylarson0
Minneapolis.
- monkeyshine0
I would think Madison, WI would be a good, smaller market.
Nashville is terrible, which surprised me somehow. Mostly freelancers with a handful of small shops/agencies.
- seed0
This is just my impression, maybe someone has a differing opinion.
St Louis:
Most full-time web jobs that pay well involve doing very boring intranet UI work for large corporations. They pay pretty well compared to the cost of living though. There are almost no full time positions for agencies advertised. There are only a handful of interesting agencies. Maybe you can get work from them by contacting them directly but it seems those opportunities are rare. When I have seen agency jobs posted most payed very low compared to more corporate jobs.Most of the corporate jobs seem to be moving to the outskirts of the West County suburbs if they are not there already.
On the Illinois side there is nothing unless you want to work for the AF Base as a contractor and even then there are really no design oriented jobs and if you get one, probably doing UI for web apps, they don't seem to value design or any sort of user centered process anyway. The cost of housing is more affordale there compared to the West suburbs though. So many people commute and bring the $ back to Illinois.
As far as small business goes I heard someone put it as St Louis is a very blue collar town and that design is not highly valued by many.
I am getting bummed out now. I need to move.
- seed0
Someone earlier mentioned MN as a good design city.
I am sort of suprised about Nashville I would have thought there would be a lot of entertainment/ music industry work there.
- unclesize0
Denver is pretty good from what friends tell me.
Salt Lake City is horrible, a whole state full of smart, hard working and capable people willing to work for nothing.
Seriously, I grew up in SLC, the work ethic there is amazing yet people are paid less than half what you can make in say L.A.
I move to L.A. make 2x as much and work 1/2 as hard.
- designaked0
monkeyshine, I thought you were moving back to Bawston?
- designaked0
BTW, the market here in Beantown is picking up.
I was (and still kind of am) thinking about moving to Colorado. Word on the street is the corporate jobs in Colorado are starting to pick up rapidly...mainly due to the fact that a lot of companies are moving from CA. to CO.
- jevad0
There is so much work in CO right now it's not even funny. Companies hiring right left and center and more than enough work to go round....
- F_180
from what i gather, Denver, Austin, Dallas, Twin Cities, and Portland are all good medium sized cities with solid design markets.
- seed0
jevad, that's interesting I remember a couple years ago always hearing people say their was no work in CO. Is it just Denver or all over?
BTW, if anyone has info on particular cities good or bad I would love to see some detailed posts like the first one.
- monkeyshine0
designnaked, I am so on my way back to Baahhhstan. I'll aiming to be there by mid-March/beginning of April.
You're leaving before I even get to town? How rude is that?!
- mightyj0
Atlanta is a great place if your a flash desiger or developer. Seems like there are endless opportunities in that field. Razorfish has opened an offic here recently and also genex from LA has a satelite company here. If your in the southeast it seems to be the best place for design jobs moneywise comapred to living expenses.
- jevad0
Denver/Boulder are rife with work...dunno about anywhere else
- seed0
bump
- JazX0
sh*tloads of work in DC Metro (Maryland, DC, Virginia) area. Have heard good things about Dallas, Houston, Austin, Phoenix, etc.
- Sparkfuse0
Everywhere but Miami, FL
- madirish0
i second the DC market as being plump like a german beer garden girl....