DON'T BE A CLONE

A rant on the importance of differentiation.

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How to scale your design business using Webflow
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Thanks for watching the video!

[PilatesinSacramento]

Another idea for junior designers…just for practice: take a template that you like and recreate it from scratch with whatever web tool you use (WebFlow, WordPress, etc.). You’ll get great practice with your tools and you’ll have a deeper understanding of what it takes to create that design. Also, getting good responsiveness is not always easy. I think this is a stepping stone along the way to developing as a designer.

[bentleycreative]

Ran, I love this channel and all you do for this community, however, on this point I disagree.
As designers our job is to listen to the client and solve their problem, sometimes the problem is budget, sometimes its time and templates can help in these situations. Often a client does not need intricate interactions and integrations, they just need something that works. As designers, we should be thinking of solving the client's problem, not bolstering our portfolio or ego. If you take a template and use it straight out of the box, then sure, that's just plain lazy. But don't be shaming those who have used templates. They are also a great place to learn how to do stuff that's more complex than your current skill level, if you are still learning. We aren't all at Timothy Ricks level... yet.

[welling]

All the web tutorials featured on this channel look exactly like cloned, one-page templates.

[chriswilcox]

Templates have their purpose…but when you see designers sell their services as bespoke design, but just use templates, that is what devalues the industry. Their clients think they are getting something that they’re not, and then end up thinking the rest are ripping people off…

[matiasribero]

Ran I love your content but this is terrible advice and would do more harm than good to most people, unless as you said, someone wants to be a top designer, and that means also working with the top clients who are willing to pay for creativity.

However as a designer the job is to solve a problem, not to be creative. Every site looks the same because it has to, because users are not designers, they don't see 1000 websites everyday, people doesn't know if a template is a template or unique work. They need to know where everything is and easily how it works, nobody cares, not even the clients in most cases, just designers in an ego race to show who is more creative.

I agree on not using templates. But websites are a tool for something (to get more customers, to showcase a product, whatever), not to be a piece of art. The desire to be original comes from the ego, not because the site really needs it. A website doesn't need to be original. And in case you need to make something so creative and original (with a reason) then the path would be learning to code it yourself, not using a site builder like Webflow.

[oliverv.s]

A good clone can be better, than the original. Example League of Legens and Dota.

[noelr]

If you use templates, you're not a web designer/developer. You're a template installer and should stop calling yourself a designer.