How much would you pay for a premium world class Drupal Theme?
public
group: Theme development
tjholowaychuk - Tue, 2008-01-15 17:11
200+
32% (16 votes)
100+
8% (4 votes)
50+
14% (7 votes)
15+
6% (3 votes)
I would make my own
40% (20 votes)
Total votes: 50
Between 200 - 100.
Between 200 - 100. My vote is included
Are you a Drupal designer ? I might be interested in buying designs soon.
Our development company
Our development company 350designs has some of the best designers in Canada, we did how ever notice a huge gap when it came to finding premium 'out of the box' templates for Drupal
vision media
350designs
what would you charge ?
what would you charge ?
Show us some Drupal samples...
Depends. For custom
Depends.
For custom templates we charge around $2000
Landmark Homes is one of our most recent projects which is nearing completion, feel free to have a look
vision media
350designs
Gorgeous
Just wonderful. Does the $2000 include both the design and the Drupal templating? I would imagine it does; I always wondered how much a company like Lullabot charges to take a design and "drupalize" it.
Just do it, sure you make a
Just do it, sure you make a lot of money, look at the guys from joomla clubs, Drupal project really need some good themes, i would pay between 100 - 200 or more if its a good theme with support etc
To be honest I have not
To be honest I have not looked in to it much I just think it would be great to have some high quality and customizable themes available for lower-end projects. Do they really sell alot?
vision media
350designs
I would buy them.
I would buy them.
All due respect...
you're missing a zero on each of those poll choices.
That is what the 'I would
That is what the 'I would make my own theme' choice was for. Sorry :D
vision media
350designs
jwolf, my thoughts
jwolf, my thoughts exactly... :)
tj, I realize that you are just fishing for some info, but I was wondering if you have made any Drupal theme's yet? If it's something you are seriously considering, going through the process of contributing a theme and supporting it will give you a good idea of the demand, the amount of time it takes, and the complexities of catering to the various layout and configuration possibilities that Drupal users will expect.
Best of luck and don't forget to post up your work :)
I have. I worked for a
I have. I worked for a development company in Victoria which focused solely on Drupal for the last two years. Currently now I am partnered with the designers here at 350designs where all of our newly developed sites are built with Drupal.
Besides the point but yes I am fishing for information :P
vision media
350designs
I should elaborate.In my
I should elaborate.
In my opinion, the theme is extremely important and should not be undervalued.
I think it's a mistake to undervalue theme development for Drupal. Take a look at the themes available at drupal.org. You'll notice that 99.99% of those themes are lacking support for some basic Drupal functionality (e.g., WYSIWYG editor(s), custom content types, views, and etc.).
I think of a "premium world class Drupal theme" as a theme that not only supports the site's various modules and functionality but also establishes an identity for the company or organization which owns the site. Yes, a custom theme.
When the majority of people visit a website they most likely don't think "Hmmm.. this is Drupal and they are using x, y, and z modules" .
They probably think:
a) I know this is Acme, Inc's website because it has the company's colors and branding
and
b) where can I find what I'm looking for?
First and foremost, people see the aesthetics of a website. Creating a theme for a Drupal website is creating a design, a look and feel for that website; a unique identity. We shouldn't undervalue the importance of a unique identity and the functionality of a Drupal theme.
I agree completely. Many
I agree completely. Many people do not though, look at how many poorly branded sites/companies there are out there, sure we would all wish they were not that way but its just a fact that alot of people cannot or do not spend that extra money
vision media
350designs
Visit http://www.rockettheme.
Visit
http://www.rockettheme.com
or
http://www.joomlart.com/
The most popular joomla templates club, see how many members they got and make some calculation, they make a lot of money, if a webdesign company start to do the same with drupal, many drupal users will join
Creating a Drupal theme club
How about jump starting a process to help a theme club begin by having interested parties invest upfront? I would be more than willing to put money towards a quality theme that would be available for others to use as long as it had some of the elements I'm looking for and could be customized easily to make it more unique (swapping out images, adjusting colors, etc.).
Totally agree. I don't know
Totally agree. I don't know if it has something to do that Joomla has more users or maybe it's easier to theme for Joomla than for Drupal (I have no clue since I'm no designer), but I'd definitely suscribe to the equivalent of rockettheme.com, joomlart.com or pixelsparadise.com for Drupal if it existed.
That is a good and interesting Project ....
Oh yes , I really appreciate your Idea of "Drupal templates club" and as a new-by to Drupal Theme design I put almost all of my efforts to get skilled enough to offer someday my service.
Cheers
Wolfflow
Great thread...
I wouldn't mind paying $1000 or more for a really good theme. However, I come from a region where often the entire budget for the project is $1500/- still I'd not mind paying $500+ for theme development. However, I am a graphic designer and I can design great themes, implementation is the problem. I don't have the expertise to create the code for them. So I was wondering how much would you guys charge to "implement" a theme that has been designed/prototyped.
I am also looking to collaborate on theme design projects if some one is interested.
Regards.
Vikram
See also
http://www.pixelsparadise.com/
I use Rockettheme
I have built several websites with Joomla and I have a 3 month subscription through Rockettheme. I think it's an incredible value for my 50 bucks, but I get more than just the raw template files for the money...
This obviously took some time and thought to put together, but if there were a Drupal template club of a similar service and value I would happily join at the "developer" level ($250+).
A proper HTML and CSS design
A proper HTML and CSS design that validates will not come under $1000. There is really no sane design buro that will design (and convert to HTML CSS) for under that price. Simply because it is not possible.
Converting that to a theme which serves all your enabled modules well, would cost at the very least another $1000. I've been developing with and for Drupal, mostly themes, for over 5 years now. And still I cannot develop a good theme for a client under $2500. (note the "Good")
That said, anyone who pays for a theme, no matter how little will want something uniqueish. No-one would pay $300 only to install yet another Garland. If you pay, you want to be exclusive.
Unique vs public
Good points. The development and design time for a "public" theme is far longer, as you have to handle all possible cases and combinations of common modules. But then you can sell a lot of "copies".
It's possible to narrow the focus
I know that this is what large-scale Joomla template providers do; they will create a theme that specializes in a kind of site that is designed to work especially with certain popular modules, for instance e-commerce or a community publishing site. And they will try to help you conform the theme to a module in their support forums if that is neccessary.
I do think that Joomla is a little more simplistic in the way that modules function within a site, though, so maybe this isn't as transferable an idea to Drupal.
If I'm going to develop
If I'm going to develop premium themes (which I'm investigating now) you bet the development costs will far exceed 1000,-. If a theme is going to be sold to the public, you need to ship a product that is 100% perfectly drupalized, like drupal, also including some widget like dropdown menus, and color module integration.
peach from All Drupal Themes!
Sure. As I said: "at the
Sure. As I said: "at the very least". Once you want to develop a theme, which gets close to e.g. Garland, in way of stability and support for 3rd party modules, you can add maybe another zero :)
My point is, that if you are going to sell such themes, they either are too expencive for a non-exclusive theme, or else, they will have to sold to so many people that you risk the Garland, or Kubric effect: Everyone has already seen another site, at least once, with that theme on it. The theme will become so general, that it is hardly interesting enough to pay for,
My experience, is that people who pay, no matter hoz little, want exclusivity, they want their ideas to be "heard" and implemented. Else they could simply search for a nice "free" theme alltogether, for paying for it, will add no extra value to their site.
To use Joomla for an example...
if there are enough templates/templating companies doing design, there won't be a Garland effect for "low end" themes. I think that the fact that there are so many low cost, varied, and specialized templates available to Joomla does make a difference for whether small businesses with much more compressed budgets choose Joomla or are willing to give Drupal a try.
I would hate to think that Drupal will only be appropriate for folks that have bigger development budgets, but maybe that is simply the reality here.
Theme != Design
I think the word "theme" is sometimes mis-leading.
Keep in mind the prices in the poll are for ready-made themes. This fills a totally different need than a theme carefully crafted for one website with a unique design.
As a designer I only create what tj@vision-media.ca calls "custom themes". The website itself is sometimes just a part of a global communication effort. To me theming is just the step needed to convert my design into xhtml/css/drupal. A theme is a bunch of files.
For those who don't need or cant afford a custom design, the theme is also the design.
Oh, and I don't mean commercial "public" themes are a lesser art. Technically they're probably more difficult to create! The design part just requires another approach than client work.
Yeah, sorry to get everyone
Yeah, sorry to get everyone confused. All I really ment was a 'templated' or non-custom theme, not a custom design/theme. Alot of people are arguing about uniqueness and I cannot agree more with all of those comments, but it is also not realistic for small businesses or occasional companies which are just dabbling to get their feet wet in the world wide web to pay $3000 on top of development fees.
vision media
350designs
The Cart Before the Horse...
I am always amazed how MUCH people are willing to spend on development and how little people are generally willing to spend on design and templating. Even me! I will spend thousands on setting up Drupal just right and then I will hack a standard template when I know for a fact that a magician can turn something that is somewhat recognizable (you can often sort of tell when you see a Drupal site) into something that really is branded by itself, as itself, and not merely as a Drupal site.
very true
we charge $3000(varies) for design / template but I agree it is hard to find clients who see the benefit of a good design.
vision media
350designs
Adjusting an existing theme
How much do you think it would be to give a unique look to an existing theme? For example, taking Minelli and adding a unique background, color scheme, and adjusting menu placement?
Forgive me if the question is stupid. I'm new to Drupal...so the question may be ignorant for a reason :)
It really depends..
It really depends on the "existing theme" you are thinking of using. There are many factors that can run up the time it takes to make a theme look unique, including just how unique you want it to be. If you are just changing background colours, fine and simple, but if you are dealing with a theme that is composed of many img's, then you have to factor that. Menus can be very tricky depending on how they were done and then there is the matter of what modules you are considering. It goes on and on.
To bring this question back to the original threads topic, sometimes it makes sense to take a generic theme and use it as a guidline. Personally, I like having an existing theme to start with and working in a new design. Then I don't have to remember all the DRUPAL functions. For this reason, I might be interested in looking at a pool of themes where I can dig through them and see if one of them is setup for the modules I am using.
As of today. It seems like a
As of today. It seems like a lot of the voters are do-it-yourself types...
$200+ 31% (11 votes)
$100+ 11% (4 votes)
$50+ 11% (4 votes)
$15+ 6% (2 votes)
I would make my own 42% (15 votes)
IMHO That trend will change though as Wordpress and Joomla users convert to Drupal.
Marcel
http://www.PrewrittenContent.com - Prewritten Content
http://www.WritingSchedule.com - Writing Schedule
I agree. Once better themes
I agree. Once better themes become widely available I think as you said wordpress/Joomla users will also start to convert just for that reason alone even. I am working a subscription based theme service which should hopefully be up shortly, I am a bit to busy to work on it now though.
vision media
350designs
Print Huge Edmonton Printing Services
Design Inspiration Gallery
The guys from themesnap.com
The guys from themesnap.com start with a theme called efficient and other one coming soon publisher, looks good, support by email and forums
Just converting...
just converting joomla template to drupal themes...
http://cf.isgreat.org
http://times.cmsindo.com
http://times.cmsindo.com/dark
http://gavick.isgreat.org
= drupaler's =
$500-
I voted.
We generally build our own by modifying current themes.
On contracting basis we pay $500- for a custom theme based on provided graphical comps (.PSD). If you have the skills drop us a line info@BottmanBros.com.
Drupal Theme Machine
Hello,
We offer Drupal themes for $295 here: www.drupalthememachine.com
Our custom themes normally cost around $2000 - $3000 here: www.realworksmedia.com
High quality designs and attention to detail have always been BIG things for us. Our intention for Drupal Theme Machine was to make our services more widely accessible.
I would be interested to read your comments.
Paul
Bids start at $999.99
I really agree with the prices missing an extra zero at the end. I mean, there's nothing wrong with $15 themes, that's awesome but I don't expect much from a theme like that. I'd be cautious that RTL CSS would be included. Print and alternate stylesheets are uncommon, and this is a shame too. Oh, mobile/handheld... don't get me started (why do people forget CSS can alter a site to be mobile friendly)... ugh.
Not entirely true
You can provide acceptable themes for $15, but only if you sell each of them to many, many people - so yeah, sub $50 are an option.
On the other hand if the theme is supposed to be site exclusive then you can find it as low as $500 for a fairly decent one (design outsourced to asia, south america, etc). Imho exclusive premium themes start around 2-5k.
Custom theme we charge some
Custom theme we charge some where between $2500 - $3500, based on the complexity. For a standard Drupal theme $1000.
Netlink Technologies Ltd
http://shyamala-drupal.blogspot.com/