Hi, I will be starting a forum shortly in something that I consider my passion, lifetime work, and I also love talking about it. It will not be a financially motivated forum. Im more concerned with making a great community than making money. I am going to be investing about $2k over the next few months to get it jump started. It will be a professional forum. So I ask, how important is the design and logo? Should I spend the $500 for a custom layout and $200 for a logo? Should I just buy a skin for $50 and leave it at that? I am have minor photoshop skills and could come up with a pretty basic, text based logo. Would this be ok? Thanks for reading and commenting.
How important is your own name, handshake, smile, personality, etc. to you? Now, how important is it that what you're creating be as unique as you and that its appearance embodies the character behind it and the culture you wish to foster on it? If this isn't very important, save your money and grab some site-in-a-can design to represent your passion and lifetime work. Can you tell I'm hinting toward going the custom route?
Totally agree. if you are willing to make an investment, include all of those factors that make a difference between "just another forum" and uniqueness
Yes, I see your point. This is what I was thinking to, but then I looked a DP's forum. Pretty basic logo and standard template.... that got me thinking. Thanks.
What are your thoughts on my comment about DP? (Just trying to learn, not make fun of DP in anyway.) Thanks.
Thats my point. DP is a great forum and community with a subpar logo and vbulletin skin. Can established communities only pull this off? thanks
Pull what off, exactly? If there's another forum with the same look as Digital Point, I certainly haven't come across it, and like it or hate it, the look and logo are unique to DP. I think it's probably a bit of an unfair to use DP as branding example. In more technical communities, there tends to be an emphasis on functionality versus look - keep the design basic and make sure it doesn't interfere with the content. Maybe this sort of style is one that suits your content as well, but this is still a decision you come to very consciously, and you still approach the end product creation with the same care
I remember reading a post that DP's forum is basic for speed purposes, but it is only a slight modification of the standard vB template. As far as the logo, its unique, but slightly sub-par IMO. Im going to take everything said here and will probably make a custom template and logo. Thanks for the input. This thread sounds like Im criticizing DP when I am not, and Id like to bow out of this discussion before it gets out of hand. Thanks.
Heh, well you are being critical of DP. But I don't think anyone will hold that against you Just look at your own reaction to validate your decision. You're not here because you find DP appealing. You're here because the discussion is worthwhile (I assume). So, you're not here because the of the design, but in spite of it, and a design that you find disfavorable is registering consciously with you. I think this serves to highlight the importance of paying attention to your brand, so you don't end up handicapping yourself up front. Not that everyone will like what you produce, but paying attention to it certainly does matter. You know all of this - I'm just trying to summarize a bit
Ahhh... so maybe DP's brand is the forum community / content and not design. Hmmm I am going to focus most of my time on quality content, but also some of my money on quality design. Hopefully the community will help bring quality to the forum. Thanks, I guess this is more of a philosophical question than I thought!