Earlier today I had a short meeting with my boss and I took the initiative to introduce Artisteer 3 to him. Artisteer 3 is an excellent software; it is a site builder and CMS theme generator rolled into one. It’s also very easy to use and export. It is highly customizable and also suggests layout designs at the blink of an eye. It’s great for both end users and businesses, pretty much a WYSIWYG theme creator, definitely has that potential in saving companies a lot of time.
I discovered Artisteer about 2-3 weeks ago and have generated a few templates already. I’ve also installed it on a Joomla installation and I give it a thumbs up. After recommending the commercial but affordable software to my boss and showing him a trial version I had on my computer, he seemed interested in it but asked me if such a software renders my job redundant or less valuable.
I’m glad he asked that, so I’ll have something to write about today. The answer to that question has a lot to do with my entry yesterday about open source softwares and my belief in having an open heart and and open mind.
Last week I was chatting with a client and asked him if he already had a logo for his company. He said he did, but only had the jpg format of the image because his designer refused to hand over the native format of his logo for modifications and full ownership rights. In a situation such as this, it forces the clients to re-hire the same designer if an elaborate change or a high resolution image is required. Although many see the sense in this (“it’s my design, copyrights belong to me”) if I were a client I would not be okay with that agreement (“see, I paid for you to create that design so copyright belongs to me”). At some point we also had a photographer who sold his photographs to a site but refused to publish full-sized, high resolution images of his photographs.
What I’m getting at ultimately comes down to sustainability. Revealing information such as the Artisteer product or handing over psd files is the same thing; same mentality. It’s about education; it’s about openness (which is all the hype at the moment) and it’s about allowing the industry to grow in its full potential. Any great graphic designer shouldn’t worry about others obtaining that psd file to make changes to the graphic image. This is because any weak graphic designer won’t go far if they were to pass it off as their own creation; and any other great graphic designer won’t use another designer’s work. Similarly, any great photographer can always come up with even more and even better photographs. It is unethical and illegal for anyone to publish e.g. postcards from photographs that contain a license or copyright. All he needed was to display his license terms for users. Decreasing image resolution and size affects the photographer in the long run because it kills awe-factor of the image.
That said, my recommending a great software to my boss and to everyone reading my blog follows the same concept of openness. This software does not get rid of the web designer. Au contraire, it creates the possibility of offering another web design package to clients on a lower budget or non-fussy clients requiring a fast turnaround.
Although web design and development offers a product to the client, more than anything it is a web service. It’s not only about themes and layouts and pretty looking websites but it’s also about setup and support. So there’s a lot more to it than just generating a template.
I also mentioned education earlier. I found a great software and I definitely saw the possibility of using it to benefit the company in terms of profit. I was and am not threatened by it at all. Only someone who knows very little about what I do will see this software as a threat. It is important to know your industry, possess vision, and to acknowledge your skills. It is imperative to utilize the tools available around us and to be inspired by competition.
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WYSIWYG! I'm a simple person trying to live the simplest life possible - it seems to be the most difficult thing to achieve! I'm an internet enthusiast and I've been a webmaster since early 2007. I like: blogging, developing sites using open source software, social media, computer games, '80s music, comedy & horror, animals, crunching on M&Ms peanut and Smarties!
