Looking to build a shiny new website and looking for advice on picking out the best website builder. This would be mostly for personal use only, essentially an online portfolio / collection of works but I would like it to contain links to my blog and other social media outlets. I am not too familiar with website coding although i have learned a bit from operating my current website.
My current website is running on Cargo Collective which I have been mostly happy with for the past few years. My biggest issue with them is the lack of new templates offered, it seems like their stock has slowly dried up in recent years.
I know there are a lot of them out there but any advice / personal preferences would be welcomed. Thanks in advance.
I’ve used GoDaddy…I look at a lot of architect websites and the biggest mistake I see is getting too tricky, it’s a turn off…best to customize a template and keep it simple…I’ve seen some where I couldn’t even read the font…too much clicking to get to the essence of what the visitor wants to know, beginning with direct emails & phone numbers….some of the best architects have the worst websites.
I built my last site with Adobe Muse. If you have Creative Cloud, you have it. Kind of like InDesign for websites. It was very easy and worked great with a hosting service and my domain.
I will probably do this next one with wordpress or squarespace, if only because it is easier to manage content then.
i like bluefish. the internets still work best with html, css, maybe some javascript, and if you need a database, php. that might be out of reach for someone who spends their life learning architecture instead of web development, but if you hire a web designer, they should know what they're doing.
The problem main problem with squarespace is handling of domain email (it doesn't). If you want domain email you need to maintain two servers (squarespace and email). It's also somewhat limited in design layouts, and serious customization is not easy. But it is a solid platform and has a range of templates that can be minimally altered without too much trouble, as long as you're not too ambitious.
It looks like i will give squarespace a test drive. Their templates seem to be some of the best out there and it is pretty easy to make a very professional looking website. Starting building my new site last night, from what i can tell so far its fairly intuitive although i wish i had more CSS control. Also, so far squarespace seems pretty "buggy" not sure what the deal is but have been having some glitch issues. Hoping that this is just an issue with the trial platform and will revolve most of these once the site goes live.
As someone who has developed websites on the side for several years, I recommend Squarespace 100%.
-You get a domain & hosting & awesome templates all in one
-Google Apps for email
-Much easier to use from the backend then Wordpress. Seriously, as someone who can function comfortably in front end web dev, Wordpress is a horror show when it comes to functionality.
-Awesome support
-Responsive design is built into every template
-You don't need to install 3rd party plugins to operate a basic website (leading to less bugs, no spam, and consolidated support if something goes wrong; which BTW in 8 years of having a SS website, it never has).
-Very easy to alter the styling beyond their built-in control panel if you have some basic CSS knowledge.
we use squarespace and pay for a google business account for email. moved our work email to gmail, use 'sync' app to sync gmail to outlook. works well, now I just find myself using gmail for convenience.
would definitely recommend squarespace. there's so much room for customization with their open css code section and header code injects. amazing template designs too. their forums contain answers to just about any question or issue you might have at this point.
PS: archinect should offer something similar as it will help us a lot.
Mar 8, 17 10:14 am ·
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randomised
WIX is also often used by designers and architects (has a free version) and for the rest it's squarespace, see less and less of wordpress. I found cargocollective quite limiting myself in terms of customisation or resolution (if I recall correctly, it's been a while) but the community of creatives and their work is awesome.
Could be interesting to have personal archinect websites.
Mar 9, 17 5:21 am ·
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think_again
we do have some customization with "work updates" but it needs to be more flexible.
Mar 9, 17 11:08 am ·
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Archinect
We don't offer design customization, but our profiles allow individuals and firms to post projects, press releases, work experience, education, specializations, employment status, awards, etc. And for job seekers, it's all networked in our Talent Finder section, for hiring employers to search for new talent.
Jose, we'd love to hear more about what type of networking and customization you would have on your wishlist, here on Archinect.
You may quickly hit a wall with Squarespace. With the limited controls available, we found it very difficult to get the typography to look anything like what we wanted. The templates seem geared to very basic layouts of giant pretty photographs and were less friendly for drawings or project descriptions. The user support is mostly excuses like "we just try to keep things simple, so we don't let you control kerning" or sending you to a forum to try and get other users to help you.
Would love to connect and learn more about what controls you are looking for. Happy to help. I'm a partner at Dixon & Moe and recently launched the new Zahner website and the new MIT Design Lab (http://design.mit.edu/)
Kerning (letter pairs) via html is not achievable under standards unless you want to use a botch job of excessive javascript and extra loading times.
I agree that most off the shelf website creation platforms do not offer the granular control over design elements like typography that are needed to avoid compromises over intent.
Google are doing a current PR exercise at the moment called designer vs developer which is a great example of circular PR and talking to oneself.
Great Response Sam! If you don't mind, I would love to ask for your feedback on a project of mine.
Apr 21, 17 12:57 pm ·
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nabrU
No problem, please give me a call. Cheers
Apr 22, 17 1:22 pm ·
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nabrU
Hi Robert, can your solution do kerning with html text yet? If not do you think anything will be able to unless specified in standards, and as you are in the trenches, have you seen any one thinking about this again? Typesetting was fundamental in developing digital publishing in the past yet seems not to be a consideration in the digital age.
Oct 12, 18 7:51 pm ·
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nabrU
Hi Robert, what is your website design solution? Is it like Webflow? Cheers.
A few years on from suggesting Webflow as a decent visual design tool (it still is) I'd suggest avoiding it until it is an actual application that is semantic and interoperable with existing code. HTML + CSS as standard. It is a shame they haven't listened to customers requests.
May 26, 23 3:39 pm ·
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Best Website Builders for Architects
Looking to build a shiny new website and looking for advice on picking out the best website builder. This would be mostly for personal use only, essentially an online portfolio / collection of works but I would like it to contain links to my blog and other social media outlets. I am not too familiar with website coding although i have learned a bit from operating my current website.
My current website is running on Cargo Collective which I have been mostly happy with for the past few years. My biggest issue with them is the lack of new templates offered, it seems like their stock has slowly dried up in recent years.
I know there are a lot of them out there but any advice / personal preferences would be welcomed. Thanks in advance.
wordpress
I’ve used GoDaddy…I look at a lot of architect websites and the biggest mistake I see is getting too tricky, it’s a turn off…best to customize a template and keep it simple…I’ve seen some where I couldn’t even read the font…too much clicking to get to the essence of what the visitor wants to know, beginning with direct emails & phone numbers….some of the best architects have the worst websites.
+1 Wordpress. You can usually set it up through your hosting service. Lots of templates to pick from.
squarespace.
worth every fucking penny.
I built my last site with Adobe Muse. If you have Creative Cloud, you have it. Kind of like InDesign for websites. It was very easy and worked great with a hosting service and my domain.
I will probably do this next one with wordpress or squarespace, if only because it is easier to manage content then.
Another vote for squarespace. I also found wix pretty easy to use.
I use wix
i like bluefish. the internets still work best with html, css, maybe some javascript, and if you need a database, php. that might be out of reach for someone who spends their life learning architecture instead of web development, but if you hire a web designer, they should know what they're doing.
I use wix for all of my websites.
The problem main problem with squarespace is handling of domain email (it doesn't). If you want domain email you need to maintain two servers (squarespace and email). It's also somewhat limited in design layouts, and serious customization is not easy. But it is a solid platform and has a range of templates that can be minimally altered without too much trouble, as long as you're not too ambitious.
Thanks for the feedback!
It looks like i will give squarespace a test drive. Their templates seem to be some of the best out there and it is pretty easy to make a very professional looking website. Starting building my new site last night, from what i can tell so far its fairly intuitive although i wish i had more CSS control. Also, so far squarespace seems pretty "buggy" not sure what the deal is but have been having some glitch issues. Hoping that this is just an issue with the trial platform and will revolve most of these once the site goes live.
As someone who has developed websites on the side for several years, I recommend Squarespace 100%.
-You get a domain & hosting & awesome templates all in one
-Google Apps for email
-Much easier to use from the backend then Wordpress. Seriously, as someone who can function comfortably in front end web dev, Wordpress is a horror show when it comes to functionality.
-Awesome support
-Responsive design is built into every template
-You don't need to install 3rd party plugins to operate a basic website (leading to less bugs, no spam, and consolidated support if something goes wrong; which BTW in 8 years of having a SS website, it never has).
-Very easy to alter the styling beyond their built-in control panel if you have some basic CSS knowledge.
Contact me if you need help setting up.
we use squarespace and pay for a google business account for email. moved our work email to gmail, use 'sync' app to sync gmail to outlook. works well, now I just find myself using gmail for convenience.
+ 1 for Squarespace, just uses google apps for your email along with squarespace for your website.
It makes it very easy for you to make your own beautiful website, and their templates are super responsive.
Are you registering your domain with squarespace as well?
For portfolio building some of the best are Squarespace.com and Format.com
I would suggest Site.pro http://site.pro/
would definitely recommend squarespace. there's so much room for customization with their open css code section and header code injects. amazing template designs too. their forums contain answers to just about any question or issue you might have at this point.
There's https://www.heek.com which propose templates and also various texts and pictures according to the architecture specialization you indicate.
(https://cargocollective.com) offers a network + customization. I think its free.
PS: archinect should offer something similar as it will help us a lot.
WIX is also often used by designers and architects (has a free version) and for the rest it's squarespace, see less and less of wordpress. I found cargocollective quite limiting myself in terms of customisation or resolution (if I recall correctly, it's been a while) but the community of creatives and their work is awesome.
Could be interesting to have personal archinect websites.
we do have some customization with "work updates" but it needs to be more flexible.
We don't offer design customization, but our profiles allow individuals and firms to post projects, press releases, work experience, education, specializations, employment status, awards, etc. And for job seekers, it's all networked in our Talent Finder section, for hiring employers to search for new talent.
Jose, we'd love to hear more about what type of networking and customization you would have on your wishlist, here on Archinect.
Monograph.io is something new - designed for Architects to build their own website.
That looks really cool! B&W is a passion for architects for whatever reason.
Thanks!!
You may quickly hit a wall with Squarespace. With the limited controls available, we found it very difficult to get the typography to look anything like what we wanted. The templates seem geared to very basic layouts of giant pretty photographs and were less friendly for drawings or project descriptions. The user support is mostly excuses like "we just try to keep things simple, so we don't let you control kerning" or sending you to a forum to try and get other users to help you.
We're in the process of quitting Squarespace.
Would love to connect and learn more about what controls you are looking for. Happy to help. I'm a partner at Dixon & Moe and recently launched the new Zahner website and the new MIT Design Lab (http://design.mit.edu/)
Kerning (letter pairs) via html is not achievable under standards unless you want to use a botch job of excessive javascript and extra loading times.
I agree that most off the shelf website creation platforms do not offer the granular control over design elements like typography that are needed to avoid compromises over intent.
Google are doing a current PR exercise at the moment called designer vs developer which is a great example of circular PR and talking to oneself.
Great Response Sam! If you don't mind, I would love to ask for your feedback on a project of mine.
No problem, please give me a call. Cheers
Hi Robert, can your solution do kerning with html text yet? If not do you think anything will be able to unless specified in standards, and as you are in the trenches, have you seen any one thinking about this again? Typesetting was fundamental in developing digital publishing in the past yet seems not to be a consideration in the digital age.
Hi Robert, what is your website design solution? Is it like Webflow? Cheers.
I can help if anyone needs some.
You can check out Pixpa, format, Photoshelter. All are great platform to create portfolio.
Wix is easy to use.
A few years on from suggesting Webflow as a decent visual design tool (it still is) I'd suggest avoiding it until it is an actual application that is semantic and interoperable with existing code. HTML + CSS as standard. It is a shame they haven't listened to customers requests.
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