Bobby Anderson

While design frameworks will take a lot of the blame for the majority of new websites looking 'samey', a framework is nothing more than a guide and set of rules that you can either choose to follow or not - there are some fantastic, creative sites out there built with frameworks but unfortunately in a lot of cases there is also a serious lack of creativity too.
 
 
As well as frameworks, the blame can also be put on clients and sometimes even the designers. Clients may love that look that their competitors use, it's up to the designer to persuade them to go another direction because having a site that looks exactly like your competitors isn't going to help their brand or selling points stand out. Designers are guilty of it for the same reason if slightly different that they'll see a nice site and think 'oh thats how its meant to be done' and copy the same layout over and over and over … which is how we end up with over used and sometimes unwarranted trends.

Here's an article called 'Sole traders, digital products and the EU VAT reform' that may shed some light on it

While design frameworks will take a lot of the blame for the majority of new websites looking 'samey', a framework is nothing more than a guide and set of rules that you can either choose to follow or not - there are some fantastic, creative sites out there built with frameworks but unfortunately in a lot of cases there is also a serious lack of creativity too.
 
 
As well as frameworks, the blame can also be put on clients and sometimes even the designers. Clients may love that look that their competitors use, it's up to the designer to persuade them to go another direction because having a site that looks exactly like your competitors isn't going to help their brand or selling points stand out. Designers are guilty of it for the same reason if slightly different that they'll see a nice site and think 'oh thats how its meant to be done' and copy the same layout over and over and over … which is how we end up with over used and sometimes unwarranted trends.

I've only really skimmed this thread and taken note of your requirements, I don't know what your own personal history is on the web but £1000 in this industry will not get you an awful lot these days. I think you'd be lucky to even get the site designed for that price never mind developed as freelancer rates range from anything from £200 a day for a designer to £500 a day for an experienced developer.
 
Realistically to get a system that works the way you want it to with all the required features across all browsers and devices you're going to have to add another 0 at the end of your budget. I'm not saying that you couldn't get the site done for £1000 but it won't be up to the standard you'd have hoped for. The old saying of 'you get what you pay for' rings very true in these kind of situations.
 
EDIT - so to answer your question, £1000 is not just cheap for this website - it's cheap for any website.

Hands up anyone who has ever had a client come to them saying " I need a site to be built similar to (insert massively successful and expensive site here), and I have a budget of £1000."

Awesome, thanks to everyone who voted for the site

Congratulations to Bobby Anderson for winning WOTM July 2014! Great site, Bobby
 
Here is the winning site: http://everydaydesigner.net/
 

 
Thanks to everyone who entered and as always looking for your entries for WOTM August 2014!

My degree was a waste of time in that most if not all the technologies we used/learned about were outdated by time we got around to graduating. I spent the majority of my 3rd & 4th year producing Flash based work which looking back on now was completely pointless but this was in a time before iPhones and a proper mobile web and admittedly things have changed.
 
If I had the chance to go back and either go through 4 years of university or have 4 years of design agency/work experience instead… I know which would have been of more benefit - and it wouldn't be the degree.

This is a website I've been working on recently, the full design is available to have a look at on Dribbble

That extra padding is coming from the list you have in your footer. You have a minimum width of 400px on the links within your footer, I'd maybe start looking there for a possible solution.

The link you've provided suggests that what I've put together with a bordered list icon combined with the word menu is the right way to go?
 
@@RobertS - I've been using the Citrus Sunrise alias for a few years and initially the brand colours leant a lot more towards very vivid lime greens/yellows and used a lime as a logo. The green stayed but became darker and the lime logo evolved into the sharper shape that now surrounds the 'CS' logo.

I like it. Clean, simple, easy to find what you need (other than the "hamburger menu"). But if you know what it is, at least its easy to spot. My only question is what is the significance of the color green as it applies to the name? When I think of citrus I think of yellows and oranges but as long as the color is significant, then perhaps it will be a conversation starter. Nicely done.

Don't have a hamburger menu if you don't need it. Nothing more annoying than going on a website and having to click it to see whats in the menu and you have three links in there. Why not just have them normal, and then the Hire Me as an orange CTA.
 
Other than that, ****ing love it. Great stuff. The Hire Me form is so clear and to the point

Pretty good, nice and clean but there's a bit of an issue from a UX point of view though where there are elements that have hover states but but dont link anywhere, and vice versa with items that do link and have no hover state. Bit confusing.

that did it http://mentiondesign.com/blog
 
I have no idea why the heck I could not do it but I really appreciate your help
thanks

It sounds to me as though you've not closed one of the divs properly, although its hard to gauge what you've done without being able to see your code or know what system your using for the blog?
 
I think you should look to restructure your site to keep the content and the sidebar separate and then nest post rows within each other for example…
 
<div class="container"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-md-9"> <!-- Post 1 --> <div class="row"> <div class="col-md-8"> Image </div> <div class="col-md-4"> Post content </div> </div> <!-- Post 2 --> <div class="row"> <div class="col-md-8"> Image </div> <div class="col-md-4"> Post content </div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-3"> Your sidebar </aside> </div> </div>

It sounds to me as though you've not closed one of the divs properly, although its hard to gauge what you've done without being able to see your code or know what system your using for the blog?
 
I think you should look to restructure your site to keep the content and the sidebar separate and then nest post rows within each other for example…
 
<div class="container"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-md-9"> <!-- Post 1 --> <div class="row"> <div class="col-md-8"> Image </div> <div class="col-md-4"> Post content </div> </div> <!-- Post 2 --> <div class="row"> <div class="col-md-8"> Image </div> <div class="col-md-4"> Post content </div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-3"> Your sidebar </aside> </div> </div>

Nonsense.

I like the idea behind it but is just about impossible to control with a Magic Mouse, slightest movement when scrolling and it goes crazy. Its very sensitive.

Thanks for the mention and congrats to MMMedia

Dreamweaver and WordPress aren't really comparable… DW is an editor whereas WP is a web based blogging/CMS platform.
 
If you mean going from producing static HTML and CSS in Dreamweaver to producing templates for a system such as WordPress then yeh in the long run it can save time as you would have dynamic menus and links that would update the rest of the site rather than having to do that by hand but you can still use an editor such as Dreamweaver to code your WordPress templates.

What's it to be used for?
 
If its web based I'd suggest looking at Font Awesome as this is near enough exactly what you're looking for - http://fortawesome.github.io/Font-Awesome/icon/pencil/

Putting another div around your container won't affect Bootstrap in the slightest, its essentially just a wrapper to put your background images/styling on so that it appears 100% wide with your Bootstrap content nested neatly inside to a maximum width of 1170px.
 
This method also allows you to leave the container div clear of additional classes and styling which would affect Bootstrap. You can see from the example I provided above how it would work.

As I mentioned in my previous post - if you want to keep text centred all you have to do is add the class "text-center" to your parent div, in this case the "container-fluid four-services" section.
 
If you wish to change the width of the text below the icons, properly format your text and give it a paragraph tag - this will allow you to control the width of the text, perhaps give it 10% padding on each side such as padding: 0 10%; which you can then further modify at different breakpoints.

Portfolios are a horrendous thing to design, I've been there; you want your site to appear in line with current trends, you see effects on other people's sites you want to use, you use similar layouts to those on 'sites of the week' posts but you still want to get your own personality across.
 
My advice - stop looking at other people's websites, build a portfolio that represents your style and personality otherwise you'll end up in this never ending loop. Get your content sorted first and design a site that compliments your work.