Designer / Developer Partnerships?

[Rashomon]

I’ve been a developer for >20 years, and I want to go into freelance. The problem is that my design skills are very raw. Therefore, I believe I would greatly benefit from partnering with a good designer. I have some questions, though:

1)      What percentage of pay is typically fair for both parties and how does one decide? To me, development seems more difficult and time-consuming than design, so I could see a larger split going to the developer. However, I could be wrong about the time and difficulty. Plus, it’s crucial to have good design. I just want to be fair to both parties.

2)      Is it common for one party to find the work and then negotiate the dollar value for farming out the work? For example, if the designer finds a client, would he/she then offer a dev a certain amount without disclosing how much he/she is getting from the client?

3)      What are the typical roles of both parties? I read an article that said that the designer usually works more closely with the client than the developer, which makes sense.

4)      What else should I know about partnerships?

[administrator]

Hi,

1. Depends on the time it takes to the portion of the work. That said, most of the time, the backend development is worth more.

2. Farming out the work is very common. 

3. Depends on the scope of the project.

4.Keep it loose. Not binding relationships until you really know your partner.