[consulting] Managing look at feel...

[John Sechrest]

In this case, the details for the client are all clearly defined.
A) drupal is already up on one site
B) The other site is a marquis site
C) The drupal site needs to match the "look and feel" of that 
   site....

   This is not a client negotiation question, but a business
   process question....

   I agree that the interation look is required in client negotiation.
   And that you just have to build it into your billing process.

   But do you start technically on a full css rewrite from scratch
   or do you try to use existing themes and squish them into 
   doing the "right thing"?




Dan Robinson <dan at drob.org> writes:

 % This is exactly our experience.  Even though it is very sub-optimal from
 % an engineering and management point of view (creates a bottleneck at the
 % beginning of the process) it is the process that most customers
 % understand and expect.  In our experience the decisions around what the
 % website will look like are very important (and emotional).  Showing them
 % an "out of the box" design and saying "it will all look different after
 % we finish the themeing" doesn't work. 
 % 
 % Dan
 % 
 % >On Wed, Dec 14, 2005 at 08:16:36AM -0800, John Sechrest wrote:
 % >  
 % >
 % >>Would you start developing a theme from scratch?
 % >>Would you use an existing theme and get "close enough"
 % >>Would you outsource a theme design to someone else? 
 % >>    
 % >>
 % >
 % >We have tried different models. And the one that works best for us is to
 % >hire a designer to make a TIFF with the design, receive a written ok from
 % >the customer, then pass it to XHTML+CSS and then make the Drupal theme.
 % >
 % >That makes the whole process very expensive, but designers here (in Spain)
 % >prefer to begin with a new design and the written ok from the customer is
 % >very important for me. And, also, the customer knows how the final design
 % >of the site will be before you begin to code.
 % >
 % >  
 % >
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 % 

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