Who Are The Best vB Designers
 

All I know of is Extreme Pixels. Are they're any others?

DiretPixel - http://www.directpixel.com/
Colicab (Dave) - http://www.artorg.co.uk/
Mattone - http://www.vbdesign.co.uk/

Just to name a few off the top of my head :)

Satan

wow... Look at this:

http://www.vbmechanic.com/vbulletin-....php?styleid=9

To bad it doesn't scroll very well. :p (pun intended)

Yea, he made good skins but he isnt around anymore, another good one is vBCore

www.vbcore.com
www.cinvin.com ( kw802)
www.transversestyles.com
www.aaronortega.com

There are TONS

Yea, but not for vb 3.5 :(

Don't expect many to have skins for vB 3.5, as it still is in its beta stages.

he seems to have moved on...

hmm...idk is site is still up www.thekryptonian.com

And about the designs, I thought you were wondering about custom designers, I didnt know you wanted pre made templates..yea exp is the only one I have seen with 3.5 so far.

You're not going to find many for this as the templates are still changing with each beta/rc release.

<a href="http://www.vbdesigns.de/forum.php" target="_blank">http://www.vbdesigns.de/forum.php</a>

www.blind-fate.com :p

The page cannot be displayed

<a href="https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=91378" target="_blank">https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=91378</a>

My related topic

I recommend: Domino FX Design they designed my vB for an excellent price and provided much support afterwards. Email them for a price quote.

im a vb skinner also, soon ill be opening my own site :)

I'm lagging behind in the skin race... just a noob with a dream...maybe one day! - https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=92021

I won't go to vbcore....because all he has done to me is ripped me off. I paid him $750 and all he has done is stringed me along keeps telling me that everything is fine. And I have seen a piece of my design, he keeps coming up with "I am having surgery" or whatever excuse he has for that week. So I will have to put back the design work a few weeks.

So my warning to everyone is stay away from vbcore because you will get screwed in the end.

vBCore Warning site dedicated to exposing the owner of vBCore.

well he did have surgery if you read his website lately>_>

Well that is what he keeps saying...he told me keeps telling me he has it done. I paid him the money back in April...so he has screwed me.

vBCore Warning site dedicated to exposing Kolby B. owner of vBCore.

You should really get your facts straight before you start accusing someone. vB Core apoligized on vbcore.com about having surgery, and told us that it was out of his hands. That happens sometimes, it isn't he fault.

And also he isn't screwing his customers about selling his site. We talked over aim about two weeks ago thinking about domain names so he could reopen as soon as possible for the customers benefit.

And no, I do not work for him, and I'm not affiliated with. I think his work is outstanding, and I will go to him for future design projects. :)

Did you pay him upfront?...Personally I don't charge anything until the mockups are approved, then only 50% down, balance upon completion and installation. His work is very good...sounds like RL is causing him problems :(

well look at your skins, nobody should pay for one.

I have my facts straight...I gave him money back in April...this August. He didn't have his surgery until June. So he had 2 months to finish my custom design. I didn't ask for anything over the top just a simple design. His surgeries were a broken ankle from basketball and dential work. But that is your opinion to go to him I respect that. All I am just stating here is the fact that I am dissatisfied customer and to be caustious.

Yes I paid for 2/3 of the money up front which is my own fault for agreeing to it.

vBCore Warning site dedicated to exposing Kolby B. owner of vBCore.

LOL!...I love you too.

fcuk me! $750? are you joking? - $50 was my highest price, why oh why do these dudes charge so much is beyond me... well, i'll be chargin more now ;)

-b6

i do custom skinning, and i charge around $300 - $500 for mine.
i dont see how vbcore is charging 750... lol

I am sorry, I think any price for a custom skin over 200 bux is RIDICULOUS, I know how much work goes into a skin, I have seen people make them..just make a few photoshop images and most of it is repeat of the same image..no big deal..I could make one if I was good at photoshop..over 200 bux is ridiculous, I believe. It isnt like you are integrating a CMPS onto a page. I love some work I have seen, and myself am looking for a custom design..but I will not be paying over 200 bux and I dont see why others do.

~Curt

200 dollars is quite cheap, its not only the time put into designing, and coding, but having full rights to a design is also usually included in the money,
its like buying an item that was only made ONCE
and for you.
i dont think i can explain it any better, but i think 300 - 500 is a fair price.

some design companies charge over $1000 per skin

I agree with BlindChild, there is alot more to it than just a few PS images, and it's unique. It's like anything, you have to shop around and find the service and price that suits you best.

Sorry, I just dont agree. Don't get me wrong, I love custom skins, ect..but considering how most people make skins, it is ridculous..you make a few PS images custom for your site..ok. But then all you do is sort of repeat the same image at different widths at different places....if you are good at PS..you can basically do a custom skin, heck, even most XML files are just a universal thing..just change the variables around IE: header_small or whatever..and your done..and getting paid 400-500 bux...that is ludicrous ( dont think I spelled that right :p )


Dont get me wrong, I totally agree that it isnt easy, but I have never seen just a custom forum skin worth that much money..never



~Curt

Most skins I make on average take 20 - 30 hours. There's a lot more that goes into them than just images. (making them xhtml, completely revamping the look and feel while still keeping certain functions, etc.)

While I've never asked for 200 dollars for a skin.. I wouldn't argue that they're not worth that much considering most of the time spent on them. Granted, most skin designers don't pay attention to most of the things I usually do, but oh well.

and if you do the math, 200/25 = 8... that's not much. Think of people who do this professionally and need to make an income. :)

500$/25 hours still isn't that much IMO, (time wise, it may seem like a lot when asking them to do it.)

Anyway, just remember that it is ART, it is very hard to put a price on art.

You are right SirAdrian...it's not much per hour when you break it down. The real money is in skins that aren't unique and are for sale to anyone.

You keep on saying that, but either way you make the skins that you have for paid, say you charge 20 bux for a skin to download, but anyone else can download it..like extremepixels or something, But you charge 500 bux for a skin designed for your site...I just dont see how people actually pay that much for a skin..most the templates you see that come with a skin ( the xml file I suppose ) are universal..they take the same XML file they get anywhere and modify it just for that skin there making. Now every person is different, but I know PLENTY who do that..they just use the same thing over and over by changing around the file a little bit and making a few PS images..no big deal...now smacklan I am not saying your work is bad, as a matter of a fact I really like your work..BUT, it is ridiculous IMO to charge that ammount of money for something like that.

Sorry if some of my words arent in the best grammer, but I am very tired

~Curt

i would design the skin, install it for the customer and provide support for life for $500 :) - It's a competative market out there, some ppl will pay, others will not, but you have to be fair to yourself as well as the customer.

-b6

You shouldn't be making more at McDonalds than as a Designer... think about that. :)

Why not? McDonalds you do more work xD.

~Curt

LOL...now thats probably true! It's hard to pinpoint it down alot of times...I find it to be a negotiating process. I have done skins for as little as $75 and really lost my hieny on it. I do think $750 is outrageous, but that's just me. To take the basic CSS and change it a little, throw some images in isn't worth a whole lot I agree. But the one's that are very graphically intense and have some really challenging CSS do take a lot of time. BTW, thanks for the kind words about my work...we all like to be appreciated!

Yeh, I love the look of vbcore default site skin, looks like they have kind of given there vb3 a new vb2 default look using the purple colour. Looks quite classy.

I just like how they seem to have carried vb2 over to vb3 theme wise based on colours. Nice!!!

www.blind-fate.com/testboard :p