Ready for CMD-N - But wait ...

Freeway
1

Hi guys,

now that we clarified who is a designer:

http://freewaytalk.net/thread/view/152261

and what’s the best start into a WebProject:

http://freewaytalk.net/thread/view/152361

it’s time for the next step, right?

I did the client-interview, wrapped this up in a 30 page written pamphlet (using pages) - the client agreed and contracted this outline.

I furthermore broke this 30 pages prose into the relevant parts, decided the number of pages and their sorting-order.

Cool - up to here no tech-specs - just nicely reading, writing and typing - trying to understand client’s profession.

It’s time (perhaps) to hit CMD-N starting a new project’s basics.

But what now? Choosing “a blank new canvas”, one of the “delivered themes” or even a marketplace template?

Including the thoughts of the two lists which are going alongside with this - the answer seems to be obvious:

“The blank canvas”

But what about themes or templates? Why should one need it and for what purpose? Or is there something fundamental I overlooked?

Cheers

Thomas

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2

In my business, I sometimes try to get the client to give me an idea of the look and feel of what they are going for by citing examples - maybe even right out of my own portfolio.

Other times the scope of the project dictates the style. Technical or fun? Big business or small business? Artsy/creative or clinical/exacting?

You likely have some kind of impression from the interview hopefully - but it never hurts to ask them to send you links from website designs they love.

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On 4 Sep 2014, 12:37 pm, Karen E wrote:

In my business, I sometimes try to get the client to give me an idea of the look and feel of what they are going for by citing examples - maybe even right out of my own portfolio.

If your business is the same than mine (Front End Development) I have to slightly disagree (faint crying if it sounds too hard):

Never ever let a user do your job. Cause in outermost all cases it ends up in a corset you’ve never planned to wear. Your portfolio is the reason, why you attracted someone doing the job with you. He expects that you serve him as you served the other clients - but not by imitate, it’s by innovate (the best we can).

Other times the scope of the project dictates the style. Technical or fun? Big business or small business? Artsy/creative or clinical/exacting?

You likely have some kind of impression from the interview hopefully - but it never hurts to ask them to send you links from website designs they love.

With the above shared two links and its related discussions, I learned a couple of things (that I probably even knew before):

It’s all about content. Jeffrey Zeldman once formulated it with:

“Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it’s decoration.”

For exactly this reason, I wrote 30 pages of interview summary. And here we are:

This content never fits in a template. I am forced to work from scratch - and I’m happy to do. I am happy to leave the constraints of themes and templates behind.

And even if I leave everything unstyled, using Times as default Font - it’ll look great. And it won’t make any difference if the business is a one-man show or a big business concern.

This is the reason, why I always wonder about the need and call for templates in Freeway - cause I was under the impression that we are designers - and even if we are NOT, we can write down an outline.

As I started a few moons ago with web, I was shocked about the pricing of this service. A client told me of an RFP round about 7000€. And I thought WOW. How can this happen?

Today I know, that a web-project is way more than just some images and words:

It’s a very little consultancy invaluable for a client when you do your job right. And if you do your job right - you maybe can write such RFPs yourself - even with a chance to get the job.

But not with templates.

Cheers

Thomas

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