Malleck Design :: Blog

A Rant on Templates

May 10th, 2010 by Joe

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There are templates for everything it seems these days. From website templates, WordPress templates, business card templates, what have you. Designing these types of templates can prove to be a profitable stream of passive income for a talented and dedicated designer. And while I don’t have a problem with templates in and of themselves, I do, however, have a problem with how they are used. Sometimes.

Legitimate Uses

Templates serve a need, to be sure. The need, usually, is to quickly get a decent looking site/blog whatever up with minimal thought,planning, or budget. For people on a short timeline and a shoestring budget I can see how using a template can be an attractive option. For these website owners templates serve an immediate need and I think that this use is completely valid.

Another valid use of templates, in my opinion, is the time when a web developer who is lacking in design skills, or is working on a project that has no budget for design, buys and uses a template. This use of a template makes sense as long as the client knows that they are getting a template site that is being developed further for them.

Not so great uses of templates

Ok, I’m all for free enterprise, and you can run your business however you like. But I’m just going to say it: designers should not call themselves designers if they use templates.They should call themselves template installers, or something like that. I’m not talking about frameworks like Starkers or Thematic. I’m talking about marketing yourself as a designer, saying that you provide custom design work for your clients, and then charge them whatever thousands of dollars to instal whatever CMS your into and skin it with a template you just bought. At this point you are not a designer. You have just entered the world of glorified data entry.

I have a problem with this because, in my opinion, it doesn’t serve the client well, and it devalues the design industry as a whole. If a template is used on a client project and only changed slightly, chances are that there is that same template out there on another business’ site. I have actually seen a web design company use one template several times for drastically different businesses. Now, can you tell me that the needs of each of these businesses are being served by this practice? Is the integrity and power of their brand identity being reinforced, or watered down by the use of a generic template?

If a business claims to provide custom web solutions for clients and then serves them up with recycled template designs, that is misleading at best, and deceptive at worst. The truth is that most clients don’t have an understanding of the web industry. They don’t know what goes into building a site. They can’t tell weather or not what you have presented them is a template, not created by you, or an original design. This is not their fault, they shouldn’t need to be aware of these things. The web designer should be trustworthy enough to let them know that they are receiving a website that uses a template that was not tailored to their specific need. They should know that you did not design it and that you are merely changing a few things, like popping their logo into the header.

Transparency

I have to be completely honest here: I have used templates. A handful of times because the client specifically requested that I come in and do some development/design work to their existing site. This, in my opinion, is a legitimate use of a template, because both parties were aware that one was being used for this particular job. I always advise clients to avoid using templates for obvious reasons. A custom design can drive home a message and meet goals much better than a one-size-fits-most template.

Conclusion

I think that a designer with modest of design skill is better off creating their own original designs. For themselves and their clients. In the long run they will develop a stronger skill set and know that they haven’t deceived their clients into believing that they have given them a custom solution. They will stand out from their competition and be reliant on their own natural ability.

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 10th, 2010 at 11:36 pm and is filed under Business, Graphic Design, Web Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.