Design, Design, Design - Recommendations

wandererz

Any recommendations for a good WordPress developer or company that has a keen eye for great design & can actually execute?

I am tired of accommodating chancers who cannot deliver.
Everyone wants to develop from scratch (because, because, because) yet the output is absolutely crap.

I've now settled on a WP theme that has the colour combinations, features and functionality that i require along with additional plugins if required for customisation.

It's a small amount of pages, but just needs to be visually appealing.

Any recommendations of whom i should approach (along with an example?) please?

wonga77

Not to sound smart, but if you have the wp theme with everything you need then why do you need a developer?

M.T.D

Sorry wonga I missed your post while writing this but did not want to waste.

If you have already decided on a theme, colours, features, plugins etc. what do you want a developer for?

Many bought themes come with that much bloat, and built in user editable sections that unless you want to become really familiar with that theme or framework and use it in many sites it is not worth the effort.
While this may be good for the diy website owner, or somebody that has learned that framework and uses it for the sites they produce, it is not so good for the "good", your word, developer who will have their own set up that they are familiar with, that the can customise and optimise and offer ongoing support.

If someone came to me and said "I want a great looking website, with these features" I would say great, and want to find out more, If they followed it with "and I want you to use this theme, in these colours, and use these plugins" To be polite I would quote a high price and a long lead time in the hope that they would go away.

Before we do a website we first research the target market, find out what they want and what will convert them to buying customers.
Everything else comes second because no matter how "great" the site looks, if the search engines don't "like" it and send you visitors, and the visitors you do get don't "like" it, it won't generate sales.

wonga77

Precisely as MTD says. A few years back i was asked to do work on a large enough site built with VC. Foolishly I agreed, after a few days of tearing my hair out trying to figure out VC I took a step back and decided that in future I wouldnt touch anything I wasnt familiar with. So now its made up of genesis,generatepress or astra, sometimes BB and sometimes elementor depending on whats needed. I just dont have the time or energy to learn about some of the builders that are bundled into the themeforest themes.
OP you sound like you got burnt in the past but I think you may find it difficult to get anyone to take it on a project unless you let them build it as they usually do. just my 2 cents

Trojan

wandererz, you are giving off major warning signals that are repelling quality providers. If you are giving off these signals in your conversations with them, you'll only get low-end people willing to consider working with you.

wandererz wrote: »

I am tired of accommodating chancers who cannot deliver.

Warning sign #1: bad mouthing former providers (i.e. there is a strong possibility, even probability, that the client is the problematic one).

wandererz wrote: »

I've now settled on a WP theme that has the colour combinations, features and functionality that i require along with additional plugins if required for customisation.

Warning sign #2, and the red flag for me: client has chosen the specific technology, i.e. will micromanage the project, and sees the provider as a replaceable commodity.

wandererz wrote: »

It's a small amount of pages,

Warning sign #3: downplaying the scope and value of the project. Often a bargaining ploy, and often results in scope creep after the fact. It assumes the work is easy and quick.

wandererz wrote: »

but just needs to be visually appealing.

Warning sign #4: Use of the word "just". This is another downplay of the scope and value. "It just needs to be simple", "it just needs to interface with our EPOS", "it just needs to let customers book online".

wandererz wrote: »

Any recommendations of whom i should approach (along with an example?) please?

I think you should do the project yourself if you truly have the skills and knowledge to do so, or re-evaluate how important it is to you and approach some more experienced (and expensive) providers.

Find someone who is an expert and you can trust to take care of the details, and don't attempt to micromanage them. Good luck with it.

(Further reading)

Axwell

Great post Trojan and nail on the head - especially point 2. The client thinks all of a sudden they are the expert and is making all these decisions on what technology etc to use..yet is looking to hire someone to work on the project.