It’s a blast scrolling through Haystack for design inspiration. Along the way I’ve been making a list of some of the more interesting ads. Here are a few especially creative ones I wanted to highlight:
An ad instead of an image
These listings get creative by using the image space to create a billboard instead of showing off a portfolio piece.
Midnet Media in Columbus, OH. Love the use of the Haystack cards in the design. Very clever!
Multiple images instead of a single image
Free Haystack listings only include one image, but these guys got creative. Nice hack. Bonus points for working around the perceived rules.
Three Square Design in Boston, MA.
Joshua Mauldin in Los Angeles, CA
Using the logo for something other than a logo
Haystack has a space for your logo, but these creative folks used the space for something else. I love it.
Item 9 Consulting in Chicago, IL went with a stylized text message.
Phil Dokas in Ann Arbor, MI dropped his face in there.
Got a favorite?
Got a favorite Haystack listing? Drop us an email at contact@haystack… and we may highlight it on our next post. And if you’ve found work or a design firm using Haystack, please let us know so we can add you to the Haystack success page. Thanks.
Jason Fried wrote this on Dec 02 2009 There are 11 comments.
Jason Pelker 02 Dec 09
Thanks for the mention! Haystack has [cliche alert] changed the way I do business. I’m booking clients with bigger budgets who actually come to me. That’s a vast improvement on trolling Craigslist where hardly anyone replies to emails and when they do, they “have a limited budget” (read: spec).
I’m in the lowest budget tier on Haystack, but I’ve opted for the larger-sized listing. How are the higher budget agencies and freelancers panning out? What about the folks who are using the free listing size?
Anyway, last month was the most profitable since I went freelance eight months ago and I don’t think it’d be possible without this service. Keep up the good work!
JF 02 Dec 09
Jason: AWESOME . That warms us up inside! So glad to hear Haystack is bringing you good business. Thanks for listing. Continued success.
Jeppe S 02 Dec 09
That one’s easy; Mike Rohde.
Jesper Ordrup 02 Dec 09
Haystack is a super idea!
What’s up with all the sites I find failing to open. When I try opening their company websites they don’t load. I just tried :
www.makexhtml.com www.hire-a-designer.com www.getmefast.com
Maybe you could add a housekeeping routine on your site that removed dead entries?
Thanks Jesper
deb 02 Dec 09
@Jesper seems like all those 3 sites belong to one company. Bad bad server ;)
Blue Sail Creative 02 Dec 09
I have had the opposite encounter. I have gotten 3 hits or so from the Web site. I wish I got more and I guess I can play with my listing.
Any techniques that anyone has had particular luck with?
Jason Pelker 02 Dec 09
I’d really like to see some kind of stats feature implemented in the future, though. It would be very useful to see how many folks check out my listing, but then don’t click on my site link. It might help me then run some experiments to what imagery works best.
Blue Sail Creative 02 Dec 09
Yea stats are killer.
think of how much better the site would be if i was allowed to make my listing better with actionable data?
It’d be come the best site on the net for finding jobs easily.
Maybe even allow us to link up our google analytics accounts?
Richard Banfield 03 Dec 09
Haystack is working out for us too. We’ve seen some significant traffic to our site.
In total agreement abut the stats/analytics. We would love to see a very simple dashboard of # visits and # clicks on the contact details. Nothing fancy, just the meat.
Jared White 03 Dec 09
Thanks @JF, it was great seeing these listings. I just added a listing on Haystack and we put some fun annotations to our main client screenshot like a scribble on some cards and a little post-it with our contact number. It’s always good to get inspired by other designers and then enjoy adding your own twist to the mix.
Grant 05 Dec 09
I’m biased, but I reckon our listing stands out. It’s kinda facetious… see if you can spot the difference.
This discussion is closed.