Template versus Custom web design |
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Imagine I'm a web designer and my name is Michael Angelo. You come to me for a web design, I rush off with furrowed brow to design the mother of all websites. I return with a design fit to be hung in the Sistine Chapel. One problem, though, you don't like it, and it doesn't remotely suit your purposes. Are you surprised? The fact is, nobody designs in a vacuum, unless you're a starving artist on the left bank of Paris. OK, maybe there are a few exclusive designers out there who live in this rarified world, but for the rest of us...There are templates. Certain website development firms, who claim to craft custom websites only, will have you believe that somebody offering his services cheap (at least compared to the development firm) means that you're going to get a template design. Is that a terrible thing? Are you getting ripped off? Well, it depends on the initial template design and the developer's ability to customize it. If the template design is poor to begin with and the developer has no ability, then you're probably going to get a lousy product. Wait a second, couldn't I say the same thing about a custom design? For instance, if some guy develops a custom design from scratch and he has no ability, then aren't you going to get a lousy design too. This brings me to the following point: Nobody designs from scratch. Even the big Madison Avenue developers, charging Madison avenue prices, base their work on templates. Now, have I ever developed websites from templates? All the time, I say. When someone wants a website, there has to be a point of departure. It's not an immaculate conception. So how do I establish that point of departure? By asking my customers questions. For instance, I ask them to show me a website they like. I ask them what colors they like. I ask them to show me their logo if they have one. When I have that information, I have a point of departure, which is another way of saying... I have a template. So when somebody says, we don't use templates around here, we're custom designers, that's when you should start rolling your eyes. |
The myth of custom design
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