Wordpress? Is It A Cop Out?

[nellypope]

No offence to any Wordpress coders, I am a complete newbie in the web design world (as my recent posts have probably revealed) but a friend of mine, who works in marketing, informed me that no-one, who is anyone, is using html or Dreamweaver etc anymore apparently it's all down to Content Management Systems these days? is this true? My issue with Wordpress is that although the themes are numerous, I still cant get the idea out of my head that it's cheating? Wordpress built sites always look like Wordpress built sites (although I'm sure there's probably many that have been cleverly edited). My problem is that I'm a print graphic designer, I need a portfolio online and I'm not sure how professional it will look to any of my peers to have a template site? A bit like a graphic designer going to Vistaprint for their business cards, or a bespoke carpenter ordering a DIY kitchen from IKEA.

Maybe I'm just really out of touch and Wordpress really is the new black?

[nellypope]

. . . not that there is anything wrong with Wordpress, Vistaprint or IKEA just need to be able to convey the right message to potential clients.

Mr Pope needs me to earn some cash, apparently sitting around eating bourbons watching Judge Judy is NOT a career choice! ;-)

[AB Editor]

It's not a cop out.

A CMS is the way forward because it allows for quick deployment and is very easy for your customers (I assume you're a web dev) to manage themselves.

Other options are things like Drupal, or Joomla.

No one uses Dreamweaver anyway as it's often cited as adding odd bits of code in - yes you get what you want looks wise, but it's considered odd/messy code by some. Your mileage may vary.

You'll still be using html and css to code for a Wordpress site - but just not from the ground up. Additionally you might want to start looking into learning PHP.

[nellypope]

Thanks ed. :-)

You know Graphic Design used to mean, you learned Illustrator, Pagemaker and Photoshop, but with the introduction of webdesign the list has grown endlessly.

I understand that you can edit the themes in Dreamweaver anyway and include CSS etc? It seems everyday I have to add a new skill to learn to the list . . . getting too old for this lark.

[AB Editor]

Well, if you're on the graphics end I would suggest teaming up with someone full time. Find a solid, fast web programmer with a little back-end knowledge.

[Mosaic]

I have found that the themes and adaptability of themes offered by most web hosts now easily fulfills everyone's needs. In addition, Macromedia products have become exorbitantly expensive and seem to have an inbuilt obsolescence - my ancient (well, MX) Dreamweaver stopped being able to create photo albums and other functionality simply dropped away, and the price of the new version is astronomical.
If you use free templates from web hosts including wordpress they are good enough, but easily recognisable by brand - this is intentional. However if you subscribe you can do all sorts of clever and individual adaptions.
However, as Ed has implied, the real tie breaker in terms of who uses your site is content and how it's managed. A wonderful design painstakingly written in python and ruby will be of no use if it's content is outdated and never changes.

[Gromit]

Nellypope,

I am in the same boat as you. I am a print designer who now has to grapple with web design. I have been using Dreamweaver for years, but frankly, it is rubbish. I never use templates or default pages, but to get a good result is very hard work. I have looked at php but coding and programming is not what I really want to do. (and I doubt I could learn it).
The Ed's idea of trying to find a programmer to work with might be the way to go. I have done wordpress pages for people, and they can be customised, but like you, I wouldn't be happy trying to pass it off as my own work. Let's hope someone comes up with a good app that takes the programming out of simple web design but is sufficiently customisable to let us be creative.