[RexGrammer]

So unfortunately I am a 'anti-talent' at design and I want to make a website...

Obviously the solution would be to find a nice template, but that's the problem!
I can't find a good personal website template (All of the ones I found are some business site templates), can anyone help me? Maybe link some personal sites templates or propose a new solution to this problem...

If it's of any importance I'm using ASP.NET...

This post has been edited by RexGrammer: 10 December 2011 - 05:40 AM

[Slice]

When it comes to design, a free template will never look as good as you want it to. There are a few main reasons for this:

• it was not made with your site in mind
  
• if it's free, the creator probably didn't spend much time on it

The best thing to do when you really don't want to touch the design, is get a friend or someone you trust to do all the HTML/CSS for you. This doesn't always work(problem 2 again) but I've had some friends who have made me some amazing designs for little or no money.

What is important, most of all, is that it is built with your site in mind.

P.S Realised this was posted a fairly long time ago, but thought it was an interesting topic. So RexGrammer, did you find anything?

[Shane Hudson]

There is nothing wrong with using a template (though I do prefer not to), for example the Html5 Boilerplate is still a template, it just has no graphics!

Personally I am terrible with design, so always work alongside designers. But if you are after a predesigned template then Theme Forest is particularly good. Otherwise, see what design elements you like on other sites and get inspiration from them!

[ocb]

There is also templatemonster which has good templates.

Or you could go to elance and hire a designer.

[Lemur]

There is a large scale difference between a designer and an artist. What most people consider to be a good design would not always be considered good art, and vice versa.

The first step to improving is realizing this key distinction. Good design can be taught, good art cannot.

The beauty of design is that there are multiple rules and standards that are absolutes, and by observing them your designs can take extreme leaps forward. Rules such as the rule of thirds and the golden ratio alone can make a substantial difference, combined with whitespace you're on a good start.

Now since this always manages to come up with newer designers, don't use layer effects, gradients, patterns, or anything of the such. Keep it simple. You're only allowed to use simple colors, no more. Focus on the base before you try and add flourishes.

Many a new designer will attempt to add everything they can to a design in order to mask their own weakness, and it's a surefire way to get the wrong types of attention.

This post has been edited by Shane Hudson: 10 January 2012 - 02:25 PM

[floppyspace]

Quote

So unfortunately I am a 'anti-talent' at design and I want to make a website...

Do not worry, I was very glad to hear there is a big difference between a designer and developer.

I have designed a few sites from scratch,but for my own(just the header shows I have the design ability of a walrus with a paintbrush),also the site is private so you will not get much further than that page.

Wordpress was the way to go,free,easy to setup,has plugins so you can do the funky

code

thing.

Let me spend more time in building/structuring it rather than create it.

Also if the theme becomes boring just slap on another.

But do look around for hosting and the ratings because mine is c**p.

From netcraft there were around 555,482,744 (that responded) sites in the world and wordpress 'claims' 70,208,388 sites.

But one thing to note is you do initially feel cheap using it at the beginning because "are we not meant to be learning programming".

Hope my blah brings you to the darkside

This post has been edited by floppyspace: 09 January 2012 - 05:00 AM

[RexGrammer]

Thanks for clearing some things up Lemur
@Shane Hudson Thanks a million for the HTML Boilerplate.
@SliceI delayed the design part of the site (until I get enough $ to hire a designer ) and started doing some functionality

This post has been edited by RexGrammer: 09 January 2012 - 05:26 AM