Template Websites Revisited: The Portfolio

Templates have their place in website design. It can make things easier and much less complicated for the designer. The code is all right there and if anything, only minor adjustments will need to be made. You can have a much quicker turnaround on site if you use templates and you can afford to price your sites cheaper. However, is it cheating to leave the site exactly how it is designed and only add content? Depending on the client and depending on how well you think the existing design works for the client, no. On the other hand, we are designers as a career and lifestyle choice. How does your conscience feel about this decision? Personally, mine feels like crap. I can see that template sites have their uses, and while I can work with them fine, I don't feel they have a place in my life. Namely, I don't feel I should use one for my portfolio site.

My portfolio site represents me as a designer, as a creative, and as a person who is both creative and logical. My logic says a template portfolio site doesn't show your creativity to either problem solve or present yourself uniquely. My creativity says a template portfolio site puts you in a square box that's super glued shut that you have to design your way out of...in a week (the due date of my portfolio site for class) when you already have a 55-60 hour work week. While using a template for my portfolio site would make it "easier" in that I would have places to quickly drop my pieces into, it also means I have to find exactly the right template to do that. Now, I don't like to be pigeonholed, as I'm sure most creatives do not. How many perfect portfolio site templates are out there that can represent me as a designer, uniquely? If you guessed the answer was one, you're right. Now how do I find that one? I have no idea. It needs to be free because I'm not going to pay money for something I'm not going to use when I'm a college student with no income. It needs to show my personality because that's one of the things prospective employers look for in a portfolio site of someone they're looking to hire. I read in an article that I have previously mentioned in another post that employers first look at the website design. If it's total crap or uninteresting, it's over. If it's at least tolerable to good or excellent, they look at the work.

Where does this leave me?