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General Talk: The 1k Club

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      CommentAuthorbradm81
    • CommentTimeMay 26th 2008 edited by bradm81 on the 06th June 2008 at 18:08:06 EDT
     
    I'm not sure you can qualify the "best" in web design, but I was curious who exactly were among the best designers at OD. What I strive for in my designs is not quantity but quality. So I decided to try to answer my question by listing all the designers who have put out popular, high quality work on a consistent basis.

    So I'm coining "The 1k Club" composed of all those designers who have put out four or more templates, all of which have received at least 1,000 downloads. I looked through Chris' recent list of the 100 most DL'ed templates to make my list, so it's possible I missed some, but here's what I got:

    The 1k Club


    I think that's a pretty solid list of some of top designers here at OD, and I think they deserve some recognition.


    Now for a list of all the near-misses and coming-sooner's:
    Jay
    wfielder
    sacdesigner - only 3 templates
    JJenZz - only 3
    Nautica - only 3
    Arcsin
    dcarter
    donny
    bradm81
    NOWdesign
    kitten
    luka
    Graformix
    refueled
    arnaudville
    leveller
    Snop
    ainslie
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      CommentAuthorainslie
    • CommentTimeMay 27th 2008 edited by ainslie on the 27th May 2008 at 06:30:04 EDT
     
    How did you decide on the "near-misses and coming-sooner's"

    I have 3 over a 1000 and 1 at 885 and the other at 952. Not that it really matters.

    I'm not really sure how you would qualify the best in web design. So many people don't ever realise what "design" is.

    People win awards by being the "best" according to an "experts" opinion. Many designers who we may call good designers are very good artists and know little about design. If you see what I am saying?

    There's more to design that a pretty picture. It has to be functional and do what it was designed for.
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    if its quanlity not quantity why have a club to brag about quantity? Kinf contradictin i think. but don't get me wrong. I look Forward to joining.
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      CommentAuthorbradm81
    • CommentTimeMay 27th 2008 edited by bradm81 on the 27th May 2008 at 09:53:48 EDT
     
    @ainslie - You definitely belong on that list, and now you are. There was no rhyme or reason to it, just a list of folks that I felt could get there soon.

    @con - Well the whole thing should be taken with a grain of salt. This list I think shows those folks that consistently put out high quality work. Of course I had to quantify that in some way, which you're right, is totally contradictory. But once I made the list, I was impressed from what I know about the talent of the designers on it, so it seemed to have some significance.

    Also, it's not really about bragging (you'll notice I'm not in the club), just a way of recognizing some of the awesome work by OD designers.
    • CommentAuthorfernbap
    • CommentTimeMay 27th 2008
     
    That would be accurate if all templates had been submitted at the same time. Of course, older templates have more dls than more recent ones.
    As i said in another thread, quality, although being a factor, is not even the most important factor behind many downloads. The most important factor is how easy is it for the downloader to customize it and make it look original enough so that he can use it in his website or sell it to his customer.
    If quality was the only factor, some designers would be way ahead of any others, like dieter, for instance.
    And never forget one of the most important rules of marketing: "the public doesn't like to be surprised".
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    you'll notice I'm not in the club - I was gonna say, you should have put yourself down as well!
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      CommentAuthorainslie
    • CommentTimeMay 27th 2008 edited by ainslie on the 27th May 2008 at 16:35:36 EDT
     
    As has been pointed out there are loads of things to consider and no one design will be all things to all people.

    If the design fits the purpose it'll get downloaded however good or bad one person considers it.

    I always find that the more striking and graphically strong the design the harder it is to fit to another's brand as the designer's brand is very strong.

    This is why designers like Andreas are so good. His templates a simple yet outstanding.
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      CommentAuthoricyone
    • CommentTimeMay 27th 2008 edited by icyone on the 27th May 2008 at 19:25:59 EDT
     
    Posted By: ainslieThis is why designers like Andreas are so good. His templates a simple yet outstanding.
    Yup, I still use one of the first Andreas wp themes to this day.
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      CommentAuthorbradm81
    • CommentTimeMay 27th 2008
     
    I agree with what's been said about "flashy" designs getting a lot of DL's even though the backend code isn't as strong or the templates aren't as useful. But I think if you look at those designers in the club, it shows that really good design proves itself over an entire body of work.

    Lots of people can produce a flash-in-the-pan attractive template that gets a ton of DL's. But all those designers have consistently put out the highest quality with every template release, and it shows. That's why I decided to actually post the list, when I saw who the designers are. I think it proves a point.

    We might make the exception of kendahlin who had three iterations of one basic template, but still, he's done something only 7 others have done, so I won't knock him for it.
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    I dunno if this works out, over the past few months it's almost impossible to get more than 300 dls lol. You can check my profile and see how over time the DLs go down and down and down.
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      CommentAuthorainslie
    • CommentTimeMay 28th 2008 edited by ainslie on the 28th May 2008 at 08:00:59 EDT
     
    @SeanPollock: I wonder why that would be, Any ideas?

    It could just be that the older templates have had more download time. What do you think?
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    If you have a template people like, it will get downloaded lots.

    For example Granite Glass by odt has been downloaded about 1200 times in roughly 3 weeks. And in the time it spent on the homepage (roughly 2 days, as we're approving 3 per day now to give more time higher up the page) it got ~400 of those downloads.
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      CommentAuthorainslie
    • CommentTimeMay 28th 2008
     
    I don't think you should worry too much about how many downloads you get.

    Do it for the love of it bakie
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      CommentAuthorbradm81
    • CommentTimeMay 28th 2008
     
    Posted By: Christopher(roughly 2 days, as we're approving 3 per day now to give more time higher up the page)

    I noticed this. A good change I think, thanks. Now to finish my next template to take advantage of it...
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    For the navigation, have the current "selected" page use the current huge :hover state (which I love!) and for the general hover on the links just change colour or something a bit more subtle.

    Yeah the huge nav hovers look pretty cool, but I can see people getting frustrated with them after a while as they're quite large and distracting.

    (just my opinion of course)
    • CommentAuthorfernbap
    • CommentTimeMay 28th 2008 edited by fernbap on the 28th May 2008 at 14:12:05 EDT
     
    Quantity versus quality. People have realized that submitting 5 pieces of trash gets the same dls as submitting one quality design.
    People come here looking for something new, and all they see is endless variations on the same themes.
    This should be thought over. (stirring the hornet's nest?). Many templates here are just the same CSS over and over with some different images. Easy to do, almost no work involved.
    Talk about allowing sponsored links...
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      CommentAuthorbradm81
    • CommentTimeMay 28th 2008
     
    @fernbap - I think if you look at those designers on that list, you'll see that to consistently get a high number of downloads, you have to do much more than slap a new coat of paint on an old theme (with the possible exception of kendahlin). All those are top-notch designers who only submit high quality templates. That's why I posted the list.
    • CommentAuthorfernbap
    • CommentTimeMay 28th 2008 edited by fernbap on the 28th May 2008 at 14:38:40 EDT
     
    hey, don't get me wrong, i was not referring to the list, but to the reason why the downloads are going down. Of course they are going down! And allowing sponsored links only makes it worse:

    You submit 5 pieces of trash - you get 10 sponsored links
    You submit one quality design - you get 2

    What do you think will happen?

    Yes, i agree the list is top-notch designers (you included. Your Faulkner template is pure genious) and i have an enormous respect for them. But, unfortunately, those are a minority.

    This website should be directed to freelancers, amateur designers and top-notch designers who agree on giving something back. That is NOT what is happening.
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      CommentAuthorainslie
    • CommentTimeMay 28th 2008 edited by ainslie on the 28th May 2008 at 16:01:07 EDT
     
    I think the boat has been missed, but hey, your opinion is welcome. bakie

    Nice template. Looks good. I like the rollovers. Maybe the text should be a little bigger for my liking.
    • CommentAuthorfernbap
    • CommentTimeMay 28th 2008
     
    what template are you referring to?
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      CommentAuthorainslie
    • CommentTimeMay 29th 2008
     
    bradm81's new template. See his comment above.
    • CommentAuthorfernbap
    • CommentTimeMay 29th 2008
     
    oh, THAT link! Hadn't noticed it :D
    I like it too. But perhaps the right gradient is too smooth, making it look like a large rounded area, which i think is not the purpose
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      CommentAuthorarwen54
    • CommentTimeJun 2nd 2008 edited by arwen54 on the 03rd June 2008 at 00:08:35 EDT
     
    yeah...doing it for the love of it...that's the key...
    sometimes it's a design you least expect to be popular that gets downloaded the most..tongue
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      CommentAuthorOutsider
    • CommentTimeJun 3rd 2008
     
    Christopher nailed it on the hovers. At first they're cool and gimmicky but are really distracting.

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