Template Design Standard (suggestion)

some of the templates designs for Modx I’ve seen are kind of sillly and cheesey (no disrespect)

this is a good example of what is not IMHO a professional design http://www.tattoocms.it/templates/fire.html
its cool don’t get me wrong, stands out, very bright but more for a child having fun on the web

Since Modx is to be the next best thing since sliced meat, I’d like to see the template designs match as well especially since the preferred design method here is CSS. Therefore, I’d like to recommend that all those who design templates for Modx make them as artful master pieces as you can vs just putting up any old template just because it has some pretty colors on it. The designs should be more unique as everything with Modx signature says unique, silly and colorful is not unique its cheesey. I hope these words do not offend they are mere ways of making a point all templates are as good as any on some level but I ’d like to see Modx signature templates that make people want to scream for more. Also if you are not a truly gifted CSS master then you have no busniess making templates ok now i’m really going to get punched for this he he.

What makes a really nice Modx template ? ? CSS of course (no tables), positioning of menus, content, etc overall design make it snap, make it a real art work not just something where the menus are in the same place with the same look. I realize it’s a lot to ask but I’ve seen some incredible templates made for other CMS that are quite extraordinary. Why not make it a go with modx ?

- disclaimer: these are only suggestions, eye candy fades in time, CSS is much more

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I hate to think what you would say about my Mondrian template! Sometimes a girl’s just gotta have fun! (or a guy.)

Wow bugsmi0 there’s a lot of potential to be taken a bit harsh, and definitely not in the MODx spirit. But since you state that it’s not meant to be negative or offensive, we’ll take you for your word.

MODx is about enabling anyone to do whatever as simply as possible and have fun while doing it and learning. There’s no reason to take everything so seriously. MODx is not about supplying templates; it’s about supplying a framework on which you can build sites based on any design. Aesthetic preferences will differ by country, culture and age group. So there’s no way we can "vet" what’s good or what’s bad. We try not to judge there.

I assume you plan on releasing the first "MODx Masterpiece" to demonstrate? I’d honeslty love to see it.

First: www.tattoocms.it is not the official template repository for MODx, it’s only my little contribute, nothing more.

Most of tattoocms template are only experiments (like Portalx and Lights), other templates like Fire are only a Joke, like Susan said, nothing serious

MODx it’s not a Blogcms but if you only need a simple ’funny’ blog, you can use a ’’sillly and cheesey’’ template like Fire

If you are not a designer or a coder you can download a template to change background image and colours for your personal website or you can download a template with scriptaculous Fx, only to understand how it works.

A good template in MODx is more than a ’’skin’’, it’s design+tv+chunk+snippet not only css, menu and background images.

When you make a professional website for a client you need more than a free template with news, menu and content, you need a custom design with custom colorous, logos, Flash and snippets.

I have to say I liked the Fire template just for it’s boldness and brightness of colours - but then I suppose I’m a 26 year old child having a bit of fun on the web, lol!

I’d have to disagree with the comment about CSS masters only making templates though. This is an amazing community where nobody should feel ashamed of posting something they’ve created. We all work as a collective to provide advice and improve on what’s already there - I’d hate to see that be diminished in any shape or form.

The templates that have been made available provide a great learning base for people whose templating/graphics skills aren’t exactly brilliant (like me), and I picked up some great tips on using scriptaculous FX from studying some of Banzai’s examples.

Quote from: rthrash at Mar 16, 2006, 11:28 AM

I assume you plan on releasing the first "MODx Masterpiece" to demonstrate? I’d honeslty love to see it.

Me too!

Dude, I dare to say I totally agree with you. If something is going to boost this CMS, that is professional template design.

This problem of "childish" template design is indeed very common among CMSs’. If you browse through official templates - i.e. - or Wordpress you’ll find one or two which are worth using, the others are just rubbish. The same applies to what I’ve seen around in ModX.

This site’s template (http://modxcms.com/) is very nice and professional, also the default one for ModX is good, and that’s it.

Of course functionality and business logic in ModX is amazing, but that’s not enough.
Thanks to the authors for their tremendous work.

Guys, I do understand your desire to see templates, which is definitely important for end users and a market that needs a plug-and-play experience. The truth is that we’re just not there yet and it’s not a primary focus.

Given that disclaimer, though, we’re making progress. In our next release you’ll see a new, totally unique custom template by a well known designer that has templates running on tens of thousands of sites and blogs. In totally unrelated news, I’m also happy to announce that Andreas Viklund is joining the core team.

Think that situation might change in the coming months?

Quote from: rthrash at Mar 16, 2006, 04:42 PM

In totally unrelated news, I’m also happy to announce that Andreas Viklund is joining the core team.

WOW! That’s just awesome!

Quote from: doze at Mar 16, 2006, 04:57 PM

Quote from: rthrash at Mar 16, 2006, 04:42 PM

In totally unrelated news, I’m also happy to announce that Andreas Viklund is joining the core team.

WOW! That’s just awesome!

That’s awesome. Now I’m starting to think, why am I being selected into a testing team, considering all this great people are in the team already? lol... But I’m good at... ehmm... let see... I know a lot about... Ehmm... Hehehee...

Anyway, great news

This is fantastic news

Quote from: Djamoer at Mar 16, 2006, 05:06 PM

Now I’m starting to think, why am I being selected into a testing team, considering all this great people are in the team already? lol... But I’m good at... ehmm... let see... I know a lot about... Ehmm... Hehehee...

Lol! You said what I was thinking (garryn runs off to learn more stuff ... )