You can also kinda hybridize a pre-made style a little at a time until its mostly your own. My own forum was dressed in a pre-made style I got here for free (not knowing anything when I started), but over the years it has changed so much there isnt that much left of the original.

Interesting - I've always admired the vBulletin template system - It's easy to customize in my opinion - It's one of the reasons I chose vBulletin over IPB actually. I'm excited about the 4.0 changes... Well kinda... I suppose we'll see when the betas are introduced YAY!

Jacquii.

custom gets my vote
but this can be done with a pre-made as well, just modify a few of the images and make it the way you want :)

I think if I were to do it over again, I would've just gotten a customized premade. My custom template really wasn't worth the amount of money I paid for it. It's nice, but I really paid $200 for a banner and some buttons. Should've been $50, and I could've changed the coloring myself. I basically got a premade with a generic background. Everything else I wanted, I was talked out of. Most of the banners and postbit images were all done by me taken from the banner. Mostly everything else was default and upgraded by me.

Live and learn I guess. Sad thing is even most of the images in my banner aren't original, but they look a lot better than the what the designer had originally wanted to use.

I've always made my own templates, phpBB2/phpBB2+CH/PhpBB3/SMF and now vbulletin.

Hmmm - I actually like your style - I've just browsed it - I'd say $200 was a decent price for what it looks like now - It's quite feminine and matches the niche to a tee - And though not my particular type of styling - I think it's quite custom and unique...

I know what you mean though - If ever you decide on another custom skin - YOU are paying the money for it - so your designer should design for your specifications. Of course the designer may make suggestions and recommendations and propose his/her own ideas - but at the end of the day - It's your style and should be designed as you want it - especially considering you're forking the money over for the design process ;)

Jacquii.