What is your favorite or most convenient/comfortable approach to selling web site designs -- do you build them from complete scratch for your clients, or do you prefer other methods such as basing design off a template and customizing, or a CMS like Joomla/Wordpress.
If a customer wants to use a template they bought or some CMS out of box solution, I usually like that over designing a site from complete scratch for them.

Hi subzer0,
Personally i have no real preference. On one hand utilising a template and customising it for the clients use saves designers alot of work, however on the other hand i get a real sense of satisfaction in creating something from scratch that looks good and loads quickly. Also its much easier to troubleshoot my own code rather than someone elses :)

Thats a very complex and variable question...
I prefer a client to have a design ready made, typically because im no arty farty programmer. However, sometimes a CMS plugin can be very useful in terms of content manipulation. Well... depending on the client's budget of course.
I've marked myself as an 'Other' simply on the fact I can flex between the majority of these methods...

I would like to use a good CMS and then work on developing it for their needs.

I normally sell most of my designs in Wordpress. It seems most people like to be able to edit all of their pages easily and this can be done with wordpress.

Well generally I work with people with limited budgets so template/CMS customizing helps keep my hours thus their costs down and keep things within their price range.
Heh... I am probably in the bottom rung of web developers but I genuinely enjoy what I do and like it when people who wouldn't normally get sites or could possibly get overcharged on sites when all they need is something simple and accessable.

I would say design from scratch, but CMS systems can be useful in some instances.
-mike

I prefer to use templates if they fit, but that's a client by client determination. I think you can vary templates enough to make them unique. If not, then design from scratch.

Design completely from scratch so you pin point the expected and wanted brand. Thus, you maximize the results. After design, hand craft the code, then validate, upload or implement into a CMS :D
:agree:

I think starting from scratch is the best choice; you get the most unique and creative work you can possibly get for the client. The poll is kind of conflicting because many people start from scratch and then implement the template to a CMS.

I always us a CMS now. Websites always grow, not skrink. Using a CMS from the outset saves lots of time in the future. I tend to stay away from Wordpress, unless the website will always just be simple text posts.
I either use a free template and customize it, for smaller jobs. Or buy a premium theme, or pay a designer to make a unique design for bigger jobs

I'm really sorry, but this poll is quite stupid.
Because I do this:
Design from scratch based on customer input
Sell them a template and help customize
Use a CMS like Joomla or Wordpress
I design a site from scratch, make it into a CMS compatible template and then use WordPress for the content management.

Designing from customer input sucks sometimes, it's hard for the client to describe exactly what they want to you the first time so you have to make endless revisions. I like selling and customizing templates because I can do my own thing.

I usually avoid starting off from scratch as it can be very time consuming.I prefer customizing off templates .Its easy and saves me lot of work.

For me it really depends on what the client is looking for. Most of the time they want something unique and specific and so I usually design from scratch. Although I do have a selection of my 'base templates' or layouts - two columns, 3 columns and such which I'll build from