Do you need to know a lot of web design for WP?

I'm very good w/ SEO and Adwords - however, I stink with web design. I know HTML and CSS and have helped clients over the last two years w/ SEO - however, I want to venture off into IM for myself.

Since I'm pretty bad w/ design - would you guys recommend WP or something else?

 

Nice thing about wordpress is that many themes will do the design for you. Its all drag and drop and just making selections really, then add your content. I use a theme called Socrates Theme. It was made by IMer's for IMer's. Easy to use and awesome support.

 

Everything in the front-end is (X)HTML/CSS, nothing more. PHP/ASP.NET/whatever, everything renders to (X)HTML.

Best is to learn (X)HTML/CSS at w3schools.com.

WP is only a back-end. Same as every CMS. How it looks belongs to the (X)HTML/CSS you code.
If you want to use templates, go ahead. But that's nothing unique.

A typical WP file looks like this:

<div id="container">
			<div id="content" role="main">

<?php if ( have_posts() ) while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>

				<div id="nav-above" class="navigation">
					<div class="nav-previous"><?php previous_post_link( '%link', '<span class="meta-nav">' . _x( '&larr;', 'Previous post link', 'twentyten' ) . '</span> %title' ); ?></div>
					<div class="nav-next"><?php next_post_link( '%link', '%title <span class="meta-nav">' . _x( '&rarr;', 'Next post link', 'twentyten' ) . '</span>' ); ?></div>
				</div><!-- #nav-above -->

				<div id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>" <?php post_class(); ?>>
					<h1 class="entry-title"><?php the_title(); ?></h1>

					<div class="entry-meta">
						<?php twentyten_posted_on(); ?>
					</div><!-- .entry-meta -->

					<div class="entry-content">
						<?php the_content(); ?>
						<?php wp_link_pages( array( 'before' => '<div class="page-link">' . __( 'Pages:', 'twentyten' ), 'after' => '</div>' ) ); ?>
					</div><!-- .entry-content -->

<?php if ( get_the_author_meta( 'description' ) ) : // If a user has filled out their description, show a bio on their entries  ?>
					<div id="entry-author-info">
						<div id="author-avatar">
							<?php echo get_avatar( get_the_author_meta( 'user_email' ), apply_filters( 'twentyten_author_bio_avatar_size', 60 ) ); ?>
						</div><!-- #author-avatar -->
						<div id="author-description">
							<h2><?php printf( esc_attr__( 'About %s', 'twentyten' ), get_the_author() ); ?></h2>
							<?php the_author_meta( 'description' ); ?>
							<div id="author-link">
								<a href="<?php echo get_author_posts_url( get_the_author_meta( 'ID' ) ); ?>">
									<?php printf( __( 'View all posts by %s <span class="meta-nav">&rarr;</span>', 'twentyten' ), get_the_author() ); ?>
								</a>
							</div><!-- #author-link	-->
						</div><!-- #author-description -->
					</div><!-- #entry-author-info -->
<?php endif; ?>

					<div class="entry-utility">
						<?php twentyten_posted_in(); ?>
						<?php edit_post_link( __( 'Edit', 'twentyten' ), '<span class="edit-link">', '</span>' ); ?>
					</div><!-- .entry-utility -->
				</div><!-- #post-## -->

				<div id="nav-below" class="navigation">
					<div class="nav-previous"><?php previous_post_link( '%link', '<span class="meta-nav">' . _x( '&larr;', 'Previous post link', 'twentyten' ) . '</span> %title' ); ?></div>
					<div class="nav-next"><?php next_post_link( '%link', '%title <span class="meta-nav">' . _x( '&rarr;', 'Next post link', 'twentyten' ) . '</span>' ); ?></div>
				</div><!-- #nav-below -->

				<?php comments_template( '', true ); ?>

<?php endwhile; // end of the loop. ?>

			</div><!-- #content -->
		</div><!-- #container -->

Code (markup):

This is some code from the twentyten theme that's the default theme.

As you can see, lot's of (X)HTML...

Learn (X)HTML/CSS and then you can do much more.

(I personally use a text-only framework as base, then I style WP like I need it via (X)HTML/CSS)

 

Design is usually something you setup one time, then you are done and can focus on other things. You don't need to know how to design websites in order to run a website. You can use a free or paid template or hire a web designer.

Both Wordpress and Drupal are excellent CMS

 

WP has nothing to do with designing a website. Phtoshop, Fireworks, Gimps etc (graphic design software) is used for design. WP is blog cms whose back end is made of php and offcourse xhtml/css needed for the frontend. If you would like to customize design asthetic you'll have to use xhtml/css.

 

Hi Bigcat,

Wordpress is fairly easy to learn. An added benefit is that there are numerous tutorials out there that can give you a hand if you ever need it. It was the first CMS that I learned and I typically use it on most of my websites.