Anybody know a creative way to find a good graphics designer?

Coroflot.com

Guru.com is ok too, but it has too much pomp and over hype of certain people imho. (too hard for emerging artists to get jobs)

We had a great experience (and got tons of great candidates) from http://authenticjobs.com/

Ditto on authentic jobs. It’s soooo much better than craigslist.

If you want a really creative way to hire I remember there was a classfied ad placed with several prominent design publications the caveat being that the text was in Zaph Dingbats! It was for something typographically-related obviously.

So one can craft a recruitment ad in such a way that it would require some ‘in’ knowledge to actually decipher – you’d get a more focused starting set than a standard ad.
i.e. If you were looking for an HTML coder you could place the ad but with ASCII code instead of letters…

As mentioned above, Coroflot is a great resource and they have a job board as well as online portfolios to browse. There are other quality portfolio sites out there that while not “job boards”, usually have online portfolios where you can find a designer’s work whose style fits the look you are going for, and you can contact them directly.

A couple that I have portfolios with are BeHance.net & CreativeBinge.com. BeHance has a job posting section.

Another good job posting board for graphic designers is over at FreelanceSwitch.com. It’s a great resource site for freelance designers/creatives and I am sure it attracts a more refined audience than Craigslist.

You might find some luck with Guru or other project bidding sites, but they seem to attract bargain-basement contractors, and the lowest priced are usually outside the U.S. As with anything, when price is the primary factor one usually sacrifices quality and expertise.