Round 2 is officially underway. Huge thanks to everyone that has been helping us out, especially everyone that has put a pin in our map. Woo! So excited to meet you all.
If you are new to our site, thanks for stopping by. We are designing our way across the country. Stopping in cities and helping out small business owners with design work for the price of gas/food just enough to get us to the next town. The economy sucks, but we want to spread some design love to whoever we can. Help us spread the word if you can. We are also going to be talking with a TON of designers, creatives, artists, developers, students, business owners, etc. Be sure to check us out, we’re going to spice things up this round.
We will be in Henderson, TX till the 4th and then we are heading to Dallas. If you are in the Dallas area you should RSVP for the tweet-up August 5th, 6PM. It is going to be magical.
We’ve made a few minor changes to the site, as always if you have any recommendations, let us know. You can check out all the interviews we’ve done and will do over at fuelnetwork.tv. There is now an “interviews” link up top, so check it out. The Fuel Brand Network is really helping us out and we are looking forward to producing some very cool content with them.
8.02.2009
Good job you guys!
hope to see way more stuff… you should post what equipment or stuff you’re taking on your trip. and did you guys already got a scanner?
8.02.2009
Great question in the video, guys! As a full-stack web developer, I rely on a lot of code frameworks to make my job easier. Recently, I’ve become really well-versed in designing WordPress themes/templates, and am using it as a small site CMS. There are billions of templates available for WordPress, created by freelance designers, and larger firms. I design all of my own themes from wire frame illustrations to PSD layouts and finally to HTML/CSS (sometimes flash). I also offer some of my themes (especially the pro-bono work) to other WP developers for a price. I don’t think the sale of template designs hurts the industry at all. Although, I’ve got a really big slant towards open-source and collaboration.
My personal philosophy is: Creativity is not a trait with which one is born. It isn’t delivered in the form of divine inspiration. It is the product of conscious deliberation, hard work and acknowledgment of traditions and imitation. There is no such thing as completely novel work.
As a smaller firm, it’s okay that you don’t always create something unique every time. This is why you’re a small firm; you’re nimble and affordable. As long as there are no legal issues, you should be able to resell designs and tweak them for your clients in order to provide them with a better return on their investment.
As far as the impact templates have on design, I believe templates actually help the design industry. Templates act as design guidelines and can actually serve as inspiration to your own work. Collaboration helps to enhance art, not destroy it.
If you don’t believe me, check out what Cripsin Porter + Bogusky has to say about open collaboration on their beta site: http://beta.cpbgroup.com. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Developer link.
8.02.2009
You get what you pay for. If a clients wants to use a template, that’s their choice (we, as designers, should steer them away, but it’s their choice).
I like to look at this way: if there’s a blank white wall with a bright pink circle on it, that circle will stand out. That’s what design is supposed to do; make the clients business stand out and succeed.
Don’t get me wrong. Templates can be a nice starting point and something to learn from, but you should always consider what the goals of your design are, and make your own design based on that.
In terms of the industry, templates make design more accessible and cheaper (but again, this isn’t design at it’s finest because it’s not unique to the client). Because of this, templates are great for clients, but bad for us as designers, from the business side at least.
8.03.2009
I (nearly) whole-heartedly agree with Rafik. But to say that templates are easy and cheap to work with is a bit naive. Between using templates and designing from scratch, when don’t you have to personalize work to the goals of any client’s project?
As a web designer, I still think there is money to be made from providing design services, template or not. So, from a business perspective, I welcome clients that have templates. This just means they’re not only coming to me with template in hand, but also with a whole host of edits/revisions they’d like to make.
I’d like to make the argument that functionality is as much a part of the process as the intrinsic beauty of your design. Code frameworks help my design flourish, but I’m not redeveloping a CMS every time I deploy a site. Neither am I always at liberty to hire a photographer to do an original photo shoot on every project. So, I use stock photography to bridge budgetary gaps.
We study the work of master artists in school. Is it not clear that the work of others has a similar impact on our own?
I don’t think templates hurt anyone. There’s always going to be good design and bad design. The impact you have on the industry and your audience lies in the work you produce.