[DirectPixel]

Originally Posted by smacklan

This is true...but I will stick with my previous post. Too many people are duped into believing that it takes ridiculous amounts of money to get award winning, unique designs and that simply isn't the case. With a little research, networking and patience affordable outstanding and unique designs are readily available. The best vB skin coder in the business doesn't charge more than $250 to code designs either.

There's a big difference between simply making a skin for vBulletin and actually doing custom integration work and doing more than just giving the vBulletin a pretty look.

I can personally tell you that of all the vBulletin-related projects I've worked on over the years (at least 50 or 60 by now), I'd say only a small 10% of them were below $800. Those are generally small and quick projects that I do in my spare time on my own for my own enjoyment.

Site evaluations, usability studies, user scenario testing, and the various other elements of the design workflow in and of themselves is often worth more than $800.

Originally Posted by smacklan

The best vB skin coder in the business doesn't charge more than $250 to code designs either.

So you mean to say that somebody has to code the designer's work? A good designer needs to know more than just how to create Photoshop mockups. They need to be extremely familiar with the software and be able to implement whatever they come up with. How can you design an effective user experience if you don't even know how to code your final product?

But then again, I believe we cater to two different sets of customers with different budgets.