Let's not forget the most important thing here. What is the site supposed to accomplish?
Too often people try to impress colleagues rather than to do what is best for the client.
I do mainly video production and am far from being an artist or designer. Years ago, I had a debate/argument with a fellow video producer from the boston area. He was ranting online at how bad the commercial for the local car wash was. . . . .especially when sandwiched between national spots which is often the case with cable spots.
He complained about the guy's spot being cheesey, low budget, shot on video, and he had aired the same spot for 4 years.
Comparing a low budget spot to a national spot with a
budget surely 100 times the amount. Didn't seem fair. Could he do a better job on the spot? Sure! Could he do so with the cients budget or lack there of? Doubt it.
The fact that the guy was airing the spot for 4 years. . . proved one thing. . . .it WORKED. The goalof that spot was to get MORE customers to the car wash. . .. not to impress fellow video producers etc.
Templates certainly have their place. I am starting to do websites for hotels in teh Dominican Republic. Not the all inclusive, mega hotels with 500+ rooms, but family owned places with 12-50 rooms. Most of these people have never had a site, or had one that was ugly and not promoted at all. Their rooms rent for about 25 bucks per night. . . .so you can guess their budget for websites is almost nothing. . .
Should they not be allowed to have a website if it will not impress the most seasoned designers out there? Should I not even consider templates as that is "cheating". Or. . . .should I make a "decent" looking site and actually spend more of my time marketing the site and getting visitors/customers for them?
When the clients budget permits, I will do custom design or most likely farm the design part out to somenody with talent in that area.
For now, I will try and help these people increase their business which is the reason they want a site in the first place.
How many times have we seen a great . . . .whiz bang. . .site designed in flash. . . . very cool. . .extremeley modern. . . . but nobody could find it?
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