Good Website Designers

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luxe

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Hi,

I am shopping for a website designer to do a simple 4 or 5 page website, focused more on design than functionality; I am more concerned about the look and feel being right than the workflow.

Googling web design is silly, as there seems to be a web company on every street corner.

I would prefer to use someone that is recommended and someone local for ease of communication and updates.

Do you know any good web designers / graphic designer teams I could approach for a small business?
 
Take a look at http://www.yougottohaveit.co.za/. Byron is a nice oke and a member of this forum. I'm sure he will help you out with what you need, their portfolio seems pretty epic to me.

Googling web design leads to thousands of people who resell templates.
 
Thanks for the recommendations so far.

Raevinn - I don't know what websites cost, but I know I am not paying $1000 to partydesigns.com for a website.
 
So that's around 8k? That sounds reasonable to me... Coding a full blown website from scratch doesn't happen over night and people qualified to this also aren't cheap for their work.

Don't look at the price you will pay for the site, look at what the site will do for you in a years time. Paying 10-20k for a decent website if it generates an additional 100k PA.
 
luxe said:
Thanks for the recommendations so far.

Raevinn - I don't know what websites cost, but I know I am not paying $1000 to partydesigns.com for a website.
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There site is suspended, that says allot about their "skills"

I am sorry to say but someone "developing" their own site in word press come on really :wtf:

Bob the plumber can also make a site for himself in wordpress and buy a template or use a free one
 
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byron_spy said:
There site is suspended, that says allot about their "skills"

I am sorry to say but someone "developing" their own site in word press come on really :wtf:

Bob the plumber can also make a site for himself in wordpress and buy a template or use a free one
Click to expand...

Wordpress and Joomla are both excellent CMS's and are used by people with real jobs and real deadlines. I've developed many of my own plugins and components for both systems and having them as a starting framework saves the client a lot of money and the developer a lot of time.
 
mcryan said:
Wordpress and Joomla are both excellent CMS's and are used by people with real jobs and real deadlines. I've developed many of my own plugins and components for both systems and having them as a starting framework saves the client a lot of money and the developer a lot of time.
Click to expand...

First of all not my intention too offend you, your website looks nice

If a client ask you why is your site in Word Press what do you tell them ?

So basically you are saying if someone does not develop a site in a CMS then he isn't someone with a real job and a real dead line ?

If I may what is your average cost for a basic 5 Page site in word press ? And how do you prevent SQL injections and various other security vulnerabilities ?

Yes I do agree they are very powerful, I make use of the following if the client wants to edit text

I develop normal html, asp or php site and then he/ she tells me ok this I wanna edit etc

I then make use of a custom developed app I made on a ssl encrypted server specify span tags link the ftp to the app they login it goes directly to what they want to edit, and he/she can edit it add pics etc 100% secure

I am not sure if you can say that about wordpress or joomla though
 
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If a client ask you why is your site in Word Press what do you tell them ?
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Wordpress is a brilliant CMS that allows my customers to add and update their own content, manage a blog and more while saving them money and saving me time. It also saves them money maintaining the site and updating it in the long run, if they don't do it themselves (compared to a static HTML website)

So basically you are saying if someone does not develop a site in a CMS then he isn't someone with a real job and a real dead line ?
Click to expand...

No, someone who would build an entire CMS rather than use an existing CMS for a small website - it's just a massive waste of time.

Otherwise, as mentioned i have developed a number of plugins that I use on my sites that improve security and a number of other features that I need for my sites.

I don't mind what tools a person uses to deliver a product but you can't imply that because a site is using Wordpress it isn't good.

Guess what MyBroadband runs on?
 
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mcryan said:
Wordpress is a brilliant CMS that allows my customers to add and update their own content, manage a blog and more while saving them money and saving me time.



No, someone who would build an entire CMS rather than use an existing CMS for a small website - it's just a massive waste of time.

Otherwise, as mentioned i have developed a number of plugins that I use on my sites that improve security and a number of other features that I need for my sites.

I don't mind what tools a person uses to deliver a product but you can't imply that because a site is using Wordpress it isn't good.

Guess what MyBroadband runs on?
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My BB runs on vBulletin 4.1.9 you cannot compare apples with pears, the guys running My BB are not mickey mouse, word press or any other joomla, mambo etc on the other hand you get some very sketchy people but be it as it may its your personal preference

Try to get access to my bb's admin panel ? Here is yours ready to be taken apart

As far as the waste of time is concerned

Its not about the quantity its about the quality do you want to be seen as the guy who does 10-15 sites a month or the guy who does one in 3-6 + months Unlike anything SA has seen before ?

What you do is up to you though we all have our favourites .........
 
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byron_spy said:
My BB runs on vBulletin 4.1.9 you cannot compare apples with pears, the guys running My BB are not mickey mouse, word press or any other joomla, mambo etc on the other hand you get some very sketchy people but be it as it may its your personal preference

As far as the waste of time is concerned

Its not about the quantity its about the quality do you want to be seen as the guy who does 10-15 sites a month or the guy who does one in 3 months Unlike anything SA has seen before ?

What you do is up to you though we all have our favourites .........
Click to expand...

The forum is vBulletin, the main site is WP as far as I know.

Agreed, quality is the most important thing. I have friends who use straight HTML and CSS without any kind of CMS but they produce a great quality site. Nothing wrong with that.
 
mcryan said:
The forum is vBulletin, the main site is WP as far as I know.

Agreed, quality is the most important thing. I have friends who use straight HTML and CSS without any kind of CMS but they produce a great quality site. Nothing wrong with that.
Click to expand...

Well if its wp them I am shocked but be it as it may everyone has preferences
 
byron_spy said:
First of all not my intention too offend you, your website looks nice
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If his website looks nice and is functional then his job is done. Potential clients going to his site would be impressed and hire him.
It doesn't matter if he has wordpress, joomla, drupal, osCommerce, created in MS Frontpage or done completly in vi, co what, it's his promotional site and the end result matters.

byron_spy said:
I make use of the following if the client wants to edit text

I develop normal html, asp or php site and then he/ she tells me ok this I wanna edit etc

I then make use of a custom developed app I made on a ssl encrypted server specify span tags link the ftp to the app they login it goes directly to what they want to edit, and he/she can edit it add pics etc 100% secure

I am not sure if you can say that about wordpress or joomla though
Click to expand...

Here's what I REALLY hate about people developing "custom" cms' like you're saying above.

There are enough cms' out there with API, documentation, developer docs, manuals, tutorials, screencasts, etc already made and you want to come along and throw your single man closed box into the bake....
It annoys the crap out of me .
You're going to desing the site for someone, they're going to ask for facebook integration and instead of them being able to add it themselves, they need to hire you to do it for them and you charge them 4 days work. That, for something they can have with about 10 clicks in Wordpress....

Then, you charge too much or aren't available to do it in their timeframe, so they approach someone else to do it.
That person then needs to try figure out how your system works in order to give the client the functionality that could be included with a couple of clicks in most other systems..

Why should the customer be held ransom by you to have a text change made to their website..
 
byron_spy said:
I am sorry to say but someone "developing" their own site in word press come on really :wtf:
Click to expand...

I develop websites & web apps in Java, PHP, Ruby, Python, etc. but most of my own websites are built in WP. WP can be a powerful CMS in the right developer's hands or/and If you know what you are doing & able to develop or modify existing plugins and make them secure.

Most of this can be once off. Normally when I develop a WP theme, I re-use the same functions.php file that tightens the entire site.

This thread is now at the risk of becoming a flame war regarding php's insecurity, CMS fanboys, etc. In the end - depends on who is doing the coding.
 
Be it as it may everyone has their opinion in what they do, I just hate the fact that around every corner there is a web developer opening up and claiming they are pro developers (PS: Wordpress) but they cannot even create their own theme or know what a API is

On a side note: Dont judge a book by its cover I am sure you guys know what you are doing in Word Press, just as much as I love my HTML 5, Jquery and CSS :)

Sbudah I never said Php has security vulnerabilities as you said any language is just as strong as the developer who created the app
 
rward said:
If his website looks nice and is functional then his job is done. Potential clients going to his site would be impressed and hire him.
It doesn't matter if he has wordpress, joomla, drupal, osCommerce, created in MS Frontpage or done completly in vi, co what, it's his promotional site and the end result matters.



Here's what I REALLY hate about people developing "custom" cms' like you're saying above.

There are enough cms' out there with API, documentation, developer docs, manuals, tutorials, screencasts, etc already made and you want to come along and throw your single man closed box into the bake....
It annoys the crap out of me .
You're going to desing the site for someone, they're going to ask for facebook integration and instead of them being able to add it themselves, they need to hire you to do it for them and you charge them 4 days work. That, for something they can have with about 10 clicks in Wordpress....

Then, you charge too much or aren't available to do it in their timeframe, so they approach someone else to do it.
That person then needs to try figure out how your system works in order to give the client the functionality that could be included with a couple of clicks in most other systems..

Why should the customer be held ransom by you to have a text change made to their website..
Click to expand...

You havent seen it so how can you judge ?

This is much easier than word press

Client log ins
Selects a page from a drop down
Edits Text
And save so who cant do this ???

Word Press
Log In
Umm post or page
Look for it
Edit it
Publish
So ??

95% of customers did not even want training on my CMS this is how user friendly this is

How much do you spend on customer training ?
 
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