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By happysnowmantech on
I'm a developer who in the past has mostly worked on the backend guts of websites, so I don't have much experience working with web designers directly, either inside or outside of Drupal. So here's what I'd like to know about working with web designers and theming: In the Drupal world, do most web designers actually do the work of building the theme? In other words, are my web designer and themer going to be the same person, or are they still fairly different skill sets where I would have to find someone separate to convert the web design templates into a Drupal theme (or learn how to do this myself)? What is currently the most common practice for Drupal website developers to work together with web designers?
Comments
In my experience, being a
In my experience, being a web designer in a Drupal firm is essentially the same as being the themer and working with the front-end of Drupal. I partner with a work associate who is more of an expert with Drupal development, while I work mostly with the theme.
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Preston So
Web/Print Designer
Monarch Digital, Colorado Springs
My non-updated non-Drupal site
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Preston So
I understand.
Lately I have to say that's the how I balance the hours in my day. While I can figure out and read PHP with ease (it's kinda nice if you know a little C) I don't know half as much about it as my associate who I contract out. He's faster, writes clean markup, and his template files are easy for me to rearrange as I see fit.
When you're in business - whether for yourself or otherwise, it's an asset to know who is most efficient at what. Sometimes it means taking a step back from one angle of the project you really like, but in the long run these small sacrifices take time and money.
I always tell contractors and subcontract out for things like Drupal dev that if they want to keep learning PHP, just make yourself a local copy of a Drupal install, and get started in your spare time. When it comes to work or larger open source projects, most people need you to be the best you can be: aware of your strengths, and aware of your shortcomings.
In essence: Know your shit inside out. If you don't, don't risk your client and find someone who does. No shame in that, it's pure and sensible.
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I don't think there would be
I don't think there would be any one dominant way of doing things.
I hire designers to produce the visual style (image files, a palette, typographic styles etc) and port it Drupal - i.e. I do the heavy lifting of actually building the theme and the designer supplies the design.
I can deign myself, but it takes me a long time to work it up, so its better for me to sub that bit out, which lets me get on with other tasks.
I know a couple of other guys who do both and are excellent.
Pimp your Drupal 8 Toolbar - make it badass.
Adaptivetheme - theming system for people who don't code.
Thanks for the responses so
Thanks for the responses so far. They've given me a bit more insight about what combinations of web design/Drupal skill sets I can expect to find, and which pieces I can/should sub out. I'm interested to hear more opinions on this topic, and I'm also generally curious about how easy or hard it is to find people with both strong web/graphic design skills and a high level of Drupal-specific theming expertise.
You definitely rarely find
You definitely rarely find people who do both. I personally have almost a year of intensive Drupal theming experience and seven years in general XHTML and CSS. It is extremely difficult from what I've seen to find people who are good at both.
___________________
Preston So
Web/Print Designer
Monarch Digital, Colorado Springs
My non-updated non-Drupal site<
___________________
Preston So
Very hard I say, of course
Very hard I say, of course you'll find lots of people who say they can do it, but in my many years in web development (8) they are rare and Drupal is no exception. There's a world of difference between a very basic Drupal theme and advanced theming - just as there is between knocking out a few simple tabs with Fireworks and producing a full theme comp in Illustrator.
At the end of the day I want a pro on the job at both ends of the deal - me with Drupal and my designer with Illustrator and his artistic flare. I tend to think that by combining both you're going to have to compromise somewhere (unless you find that rare gem that does know it all...).
Pimp your Drupal 8 Toolbar - make it badass.
Adaptivetheme - theming system for people who don't code.
At my company...
We have a team of 20 folks dedicated to front end development. These are the coders, in-between design and development, the experts in css, flash, jquery etc. We have recently started to look to them to take on drupal theming. They create the templates in xhtml/css based on the designer's concept. They also then implement that code into a drupal theme.
In smaller shops, there are always designers who are whizzes with css, but unless they have a lot of time on their hands, it takes a while to fully understand drupal theming. I would look to someone with more development chops to deal w/ the implementation of the design.
A savvy CSS/HTML coder can
A savvy CSS/HTML coder can quickly learn to build a basic drupal theme, but you can make drupal theming just as complex as module development. It all depends how much you want to customize. If you're going to have a huge website which needs complex forms, specially styled menus, different theming for many sections/pages etc.. you're going to need some php skills to get that done.
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