I really like the pay as you go idea. I guess that is agile design outsourcing? I used to attend the graduation portfolio shows at the Art Institute (of Houston, it's a chain), looking for designers that I might work with for web sites. It was depressing for the following reason: On one floor were the graphics arts people, with a stunning visual sense, expressed in physical things like little products, books, magazines, posters, typography, etc., etc. On the other floor were the multimedia designers, whose program required them to do something in every type of techie design there is: Flash, InDesign, videos, web sites, etc., etc. I didn't see the well developed visual sense in the multimedia work, and I'd ask the graphics arts people if they did web sites: "Oh yeah, I did one once." When will these schools wake up and pair the visual sense with the techie in one student? Maybe they should have students work as a team, one techie and one visual. If they could develop these skills sets in one student, we'd see designs like those in CSS Zen Garden.

By the way, what designers have you worked with in Houston? (contact info in my profile)