Advice On Hiring a Good Web Designer

Hi everyone!

I have been having an issue hiring a decent designer to complete a mock up of my homepage for a business I own.

I have done the wire frame myself and also added a brief of what i want done and a colour scheme to stick to as well as example websites I like.

However I have hired 2 people now over on Freelancer.com and both have produced me something that looks like it belongs in the internet archive from about 20 years ago.

The designs are dull, not to specification and have outdated text, graphics and pretty much poor all round. Certainly not something I could show to clients.

So I am not sure what I am doing wrong perhaps I need to up my budget to get a decent designer to place a bid, currently I set the project for £250 for just the home page mock up done with the intention on hiring the best designer to complete the full site.

Unfortunately I have had two bad experiences now with designers who don't seem like they have any artistic talent at all and rely on either templates or outdated ideas to complete their designs.

So does anyone have any tips on creating the perfect brief to send to a designer so they understand fully what I want and expect?

And, does anyone have experience hiring designers on Freelancer.com or any other sites and what is the best way to go about making sure I get quality designers bidding and not some guy with desktop folder full of templates?

All input is appreciated thank you!