Where do I find the web designers?

[Elin Grome]

No probs Evan

Bear in mind that Squarespace is simply a platform – the great examples there come from great designers – but at least youre paying for great design and not countless content specs, wireframes, custom coding, revisions…

Regards the “format”, well any decent designer with half a brain and a notion of dtp should be able to get their head around the tools…

…id add its not perfect, there some occasional bugs etc, but they are fairly minor and the support is quick and efficient…

…and i see soon you can even update content from iphone 😉

It’s all the those pesky details :p

[Chris Blair]

While wordpress is free and has millions of users, I’ve tried to learn it and found it’s NOT as easy as everyone makes it out to be. And I work on mutliple NLE platforms, as well as in Digital Fusion, After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, FrontPage 2003 and a few other media based software apps. I actually found it confusing. So prepare to spend a few days learning it before you can actually use it.

It’s certainly easier than Dreamweaver, Frontpage, Expression Studio and a variety of other web design tools, but it still takes a substantial investment in time and a basic understanding of website basics to learn it. True there are lots of great templates and many people use it for websites, but it’s really not designed for a full-featured website. Just try implementing flash video on it. You’ll need a bevy of plug-ins and some substantial coding knowledge to get it to work.

I also agree with using template driven tools from the web to start with. There are literally thousands of affordable resources like the ones mentioned in the thread. As the one poster noted, why reinvent the wheel and start from scratch when you can start with the basic structure of a site and customize it to fit your needs.

Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com

[Patrick Ortman]

Disclaimer: We’re not looking for new clients, at least until next month.

I agree that platforms that offer CMS tools are the way to go, We’re big fans of MODx and Drupal for higher-end sites, and WordPress for more basic sites.

I’m not sure Squarespace is a great solution for many companies, for a lot of reasons- not open source, almost all their stuff looks very similar and very bloglike, etc.

If that works for your business, great. But it’s the online equivalent of using the same print brochure templates and swapping out logos for your company. Or, the equivalent of using the same Motion templates and just changing some colors. Which, I’m sure, a lot of video prodcos do, daily.

———————
http://www.patrickortman.com
Web and Video Design

[Randy Wheeler]

Here are some more examples of Squarespace websites with some that don’t look like templates at all. I think you need to take Squarespace much more seriously than just a template website since you can add your own custom CSS to any part of the website. Many full-time web designers are using Squarespace to design and manage websites for their clients.

Squarespace looks to be a very solid business at this point, posted on their blog this month:

“We were honored to learn today that Squarespace has been included on the 2009 Inc. 500 list.

We are thrilled to be amongst a group of some of the most innovative and fastest-growing private companies in the United States. Our rank is #339 on the overall list, #32 on the IT Services list, and #23 on the NY Regional List”

https://blog.squarespace.com/blog/2009/8/12/inc-500.html

Here are some more examples that include some that have no template look to them at all. I used the Squarespace address to prove that these are websites designed using the Squarespace interface:

https://brinda.squarespace.com/

Here is what this guy had the say about using Squarespace to completely redesign his website from scratch. You can also see the “Powered by Squarespace” credit he has on the bottom right of his home page:

“I’ve been working on updating my website with some new work — and at the same time trying to make things a bit more ‘Web 2.0’ standards based. There have been alot of changes in online media — and it’s been fun to get up to speed with all the latest web technology.

This Squarespace engine is spectacular, and I’m amazed at what I’ve been able to put together in such a short time. I will be doing a more in-depth review of this service in the future.

Anyway, just a few more details to iron out, and I’m ready to unplug my old Flash-based site on Mediatemple and go 100% Square :)”

More Squarespace examples:

https://mzampino.squarespace.com/

https://kylemacpherson.squarespace.com/

https://aliceklar.squarespace.com/medialand/

https://leedteacher.squarespace.com/

Randy