They're pretty bad, but you might consider:
http://www.freecsstemplates.org/
Just don't let the template you choose influence your decisions about what should and shouldnt be in site....let form follow function.
Ask HN: Do you design your own website?
11–20 of 74 posts
Re: Ask HN: Do you design your own website?
#12The most important quality for the designer is to have artistic taste. Try to objectively figure it out if you have it. Do you regularly get complimented on your clothing choices? Do you always match colors? Does your apartment look cool (if you did your own decoration)? If you're not sure, ask some non-family members for their objective opinion.
If you find out that you don't have much artistic taste, don't worry - most geeks don't. That just means you have to hire a designer, because yes, a good design is VERY important.
Re: Ask HN: Do you design your own website?
#13I'm comfortable with CSS and HTML but I'm not very good working from a blank slate so I tend to grab a plain HTML theme from ThemeForest (http://themeforest.net) and then modify it myself (usually: recoding it to use Blueprint, removing excess elements etc, changing some styles). I find their themes to be generally of good quality and amenable to such modification.
Re: Ask HN: Do you design your own website?
#14I should hire someone instead, but have not in the past. I grab a free template and modify it as best as I can. I have had a few users say they really like it, which always surprises me.
For the next venture I will be outsourcing the design to that it looks a lot better.
Re: Ask HN: Do you design your own website?
#15I design my own, but I realized on my last project that I spend way too much time doing it. So I have told myself that next time I will work with a designer. Patrick (patio11) had a great idea on one of his articles about getting a designer just to do one page and then take and modify that for the rest of the site. That of course depends on how complex the design is, but in general one could get the best of both worlds by going with that approach.
Re: Ask HN: Do you design your own website?
#16I designed my own website, but I'm sure tptacek will tell you that I shouldn't have done so. :-)
For whatever it's worth, I personally really like your site design. You likely don't remember my feedback on my difficulty navigating it, but I actually appreciate its simplicity and lack of overweening bells and whistles.
I'm far more likely to be in your target market (despite not being an actual customer) than your average "web app" guy; so I think you're on the right track.
Re: Ask HN: Do you design your own website?
#17I recommend picking up a few of SitePoint's design books--they're quite good and helped me pick it up quickly.
Also, I'm building an HTML5 canvas-based mockup tool called jMockups, which I plan to eventually have export to quality HTML/CSS. The mockup tool will be ready in two to three weeks. If you're interested in helping test it, sign up for the mailing list on the jMockups.com homepage. Cheers.
Re: Ask HN: Do you design your own website?
#18On my next serious project I'll look to collaborate with a designer. My problem is that I never know how to pick a good one, and what a "good" rate is.
Re: Ask HN: Do you design your own website?
#19I found this guide incredibly useful:
http://www.betaversion.org/~stefano/linotype/news/169/
It gives step by step instructions on building and refining a design.
Re: Ask HN: Do you design your own website?
#20I did a redesign on a couple, using some of the graphical elements and CSS originally created by someone else who did the designs for free but rearranging the page more to my liking. One I designed completely on my own looks pretty bland and crappy to me. Most recently, I started a blog and went ahead and used a free premade "style". So I do a combo of things, I guess. I like being able to arrange the page the way I want it but visual design is something I am quite weak at.