Need website designed from Template

Zascar

My father needs a new website designed for his business. Nothing to complicated, he is a Franchise Consultant so just needs a professional looking site to advertise his services etc. We plan to buy a template from TemplateMonster.com cause you can get really good quality templates for very reasonable prices. His current site www.efconsulting.ie - I put together using www.freesitedesigner.com - just to get some sort of web presence very quickly. Now we want a nice site done, so I need someone to put the site together for me, but we also need a logo designed.

Can anyone tell me of any irish sites where good web desingers can be found? Or, if anyone here intersted in quoting for the job, please post here or pm me with some examples of work and pricing etc.

Thanks.

MartMax

Designing websites is not really my thing but I can't stop myself trying doing it. I found that ready-to-go portal software are easy to use and save a lot of time rendering the layout, etc. I tried phpbb, mambo, xoops, php-nuke, post-nuke, etc.

I know they are portal/forum software (default theme not necessarily suits for corporate website) but they are flexible and theme/design can be modified easily. Latest, I am working on WordPress (blogging software) to design a company website. Found a nice and simple theme to start with. Now I have two WordPress sites running on my hosting, one is my blog page and the other is the corporate site.

After all, the above is all opensource and free.

tom-thebox

You will find the template monster sites if you want them anyway half decent will take just as much time for a designer to optimise as it would to create a new site.

Do others agree?

mneylon

tom-thebox wrote:

Do others agree?

Yes. A lot of the template monster templates are really badly cut and the HTML is horrific. You *could* use one as a basis for a design, but they generally look like template sites

tom-thebox

blacknight wrote:

You *could* use one as a basis for a design, but they generally look like template sites

Template Monster offers 1000's of templates created by various designers, if actually spend time looking through the site you may find a diamond in the rough.

mneylon

you might. but you'd probably get a designer to do a nicer job

tom-thebox

blacknight wrote:

you might. but you'd probably get a designer to do a nicer job

Of coarse you cant beat a custom design.

tomED

Apart from the normal problems in relation to the way the html is cut up etc... the other problems I have with buying templates, is getting your logo to fit in.

You say you will need a logo also, but if you chose a design you like, the tendency is to make a logo to FIT the design as opposed to the design fitting the logo.

I have done some in the past and found it great for new companies to get up and running, but I always try and disuade people form using them because of all the items mentioned here and by others.

Templates have got their advantages, price being the main one, but after time, they all start looking alike. Also in most cases if you want a unique template form these sites, you could pay from €1,500 upwards - where as you'd probably get a design house in dublin to do that for you!

My 2 cents

egan007

You are going to have trouble getting a designer to use a template anyway.
Just show him / her the tumbnail of the sites you like and they will develop a solition...

Zascar

Thanks for your replies guys, we are probably going to go with this template, anyone intersted in doing the work, please pm me and let me know approx how much you will charge and any other info needed.

Thanks

tom-thebox

Its alright, flash is very big. You should check out some of the free templates us hosts offer first.

Figment

Zascar wrote:

Thanks for your replies guys, we are probably going to go with this template, anyone intersted in doing the work, please pm me and let me know approx how much you will charge and any other info needed.
Thanks

I was looking at that preview and listening to the music and i was thinking to myself, what would realy make this design is if the globe spun.... And then it did.

Brilliant!!

Ardent

I bought a template recently from 4templates.com. At first I figured I would have to get someone to do up a website for me but I found a template that looked like what I wanted. Still a fair whack of tweaking required but a template provides a solid foundation if you are not a web savvy person.

Also, as poster above mentioned, you have to consider your logo and how/where it will fit when purchasing these templates - I had to do some creative slicing in photoshop.

GoneShootin

I find templatemonster excellent. I've used them a few times, and I found editing the sites to be a cakewalk.

In development
Finished

Its true that you need to be careful to pick a good one. By the way, I personally dont like the one you are planning to use. Its pretty dull. Try this or this on for size. Dont ask what it would be like to customtize tho Try to keep in mind what the design should suggest to the user. What does a Franchise Consultant do? Keywords such as help, new business, money spring to mind.

pencil

GoneShootin wrote:

I find templatemonster excellent. I've used them a few times, and I found editing the sites to be a cakewalk.

Its true that you need to be careful to pick a good one. By the way, I personally dont like the one you are planning to use. Its pretty dull. Try this or this on for size. Dont ask what it would be like to customtize tho

All fine BUT the flash on this one is 169kb - that's going to be slow even on broadband - best of luck having a modem user ever sticking around to see your website or ever being found in search engines!
http://images.templatemonster.com/screenshots/8200/8242.swf

And the flash on this one is 280kb - offering this as a "website design" is plain criminal!
http://images.templatemonster.com/screenshots/8200/8238.swf
When the complete site is finished - you'll need to posting floppies to the visiters of your website

Good "web designers" are hired for a reason!! You'll probably realise that after you implement one of those sites.

GoneShootin

They do also come with NON FLASH version mind you. I was pointing out the different ways of using images to sell the business rather than the ditchwater template he had selected.

I never use flash in any of my sites. Ever. If I want a flashy effect Ill use a DHTML image thingy, like I implemented here on the left side of the page. Seems to bork a wee bit in Firefox mind - didnt notice that before. Works as should in IE anyway

thedesigntribe

Pencil is bang on!

643kb - http://images.templatemonster.com/screenshots/8300/8329.swf

Terrible flash, any decent designer could do the same in under 30kb. Zascar dial up users will never see that - they'll be well gone before half of it is downloaded.

Spoiltchild - all it's missing is a swoosh