The process of designing a web site is often a long one and because time is money, this creative process can be a costly one.
By the time even a skilled and creative designer has come up with something that he is proud of and the client is happy with, weeks may have passed and this adds considerable weight to the cost of the overall project.
Your average creative type will be more productive when inspiration strikes and rarely because a deadline looms. Once it hits, a flurry of creative activity would generally result in several design ideas sitting in the client’s inbox where they remain until the client has time to review them.
Sometimes, this review includes several staff members and may even have to wait until next month’s board meeting but at some point, the client will communicate his thoughts and makes suggestions.
Any good designer worth his salt will take on board the client’s musings and successfully translate them into further digital visualisations.
Then, following the client’s appraisal, and hopefully approval, the preferred design is prepared for the coding stage where function marries form.
This technical development stage may take anything from a couple of days to several weeks, depending on the required complexity. By this time, the use of a web site template instead, would have, in all likelihood, resulted in a completed site already going live.
For the record, a template can be described as a pre-built web site without specific content. It is generally an off-the-shelf solution into which you insert your own product or service information, logo, images and contact details. Here at Bendigo Web Design, we have occasionally turned to Themeforest who have a growing repository of excellent templates. You can browse through some here. Select the WordPress category.
There are compelling arguments against the use of templates, but ultimately, if a limited budget and a rapid turnaround are your major concerns, using one could be considered an acceptable solution.