I can tell the site really need the UI help, because the marquees only go in one direction. With my years of Geocities development experience, I can help you create marquees that go right-to-left and left-to-right.
This is awesome. I literally laughed out loud at my desk, turning heads. I really really hope you get a awesome designer/front end engineer, who also has a good sense of humor :)
You need a designer. One that can code, but that's still called a designer. I'm not sure if you can find that designer by advertising for a "frontend engineer with strong design sense".
Also, any good designer will balk at your request to "make it pretty". Design is not lipstick you can put on after the fact.
My suggestion: tell people that you're looking for a designer, and instead of "make it pretty", tell them you want to improve the user experience. Have them be involved early on. Making things pretty might be part of this job, but is not the only thing.
I'm not surprised to hear this reaction. Telling a designer to "make this pretty" is much like telling a programmer to "code this up". It's not really how good software is written.
Funny, this came up during a discussion of "UX" design a while back, where a lot of programmers (myself included) expressed concern about an emerging field that sees itself as the "user representative", standing between the domain and the programmers.
But I appreciate the concern on the other side... "pretty this up" doesn't involve a designer at the stage they can make the biggest difference.
I thought the 37Signals approach in "getting real" was a good one - use the "Three Musketeers". You want one good programmer, one good designer, and one good go-between who can do both - though cross training where all team members are at least somewhat capable of contributing to each role.
In the messy world of startups, though, I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of "pretty this up" work. Programmers working with essentially no funding will start coding, and eventually they'll get to the point where they know their creation looks ugly. At this point, they'll come to you needing it to look better.
Try to see this as a challenge. Plenty of programmers have joined organizations as they guy who will "code this up" and managed to bring the team over to a better understanding of what they can do. This may be a crucial skill for designers as well.
I for one eagerly await the release of "Grubwithus bootstrap" - which will help front end developers relive the dazzling veneer of the 1990s geocities era.
Earlier today I found a website that said "Recommended Browser: Netscape Navigator 4.04 or newer", now this... Afraid to view the source, feels like I'm disturbing an archeological excavation site.
As a designer I must say that I would NEVER apply for this position. Your ad doesn't illicit the sentiments of a company that truly cares for or understands design.
