Are Template Sites as Good as Custom Website Designs?

When a company wants to put a website together, it can go one of two ways: create a custom website design or a template website design.

Is one better than the other? Well, sort of. Each route has its own pros and cons. What determines which one is better is up to your business.

Custom website design

The nice thing about this route is that you get a design that is completely unique to your business. You don't have to worry about anther business's site looking like yours. You get to tell the web design company what you want and how you want it.

The downside to this route is the cost and time. Custom websites take longer than templates and they will take longer since everything has to be coded and created.

Template website design

Templates are a nice option for companies who want a website that looks good but does not break the bank. That is a major perk to templates, the design is already done so you just pay to use it. The time frame to complete a template site can be drastically smaller than a custom site.

The downside to a template site is that other people can be using the same template or you buy the whole template but it costs extra to do so. Some template creators charge for changing the color scheme and other little things; so while you still save money, it can be annoying to pay for so many little things.

Both custom sites and template sites can look fantastic and come with internal optimization so your site can rank on search engines.

So which do you choose? Whichever route you decide, hire Integraphix to help your business get the best site it can have. We are a Chicago web design studio with 25 years experience. We will help you figure out which is best for your business & put it all together.

Don't get overwhelmed.

10 Excellent Font Pairings for Your Website

Picking out fonts to use for your website design is not easy and picking out two of them can be even harder. One quick rule of thumb is to chose a serif font with a sans serif; pairing a serif and a sans serif creates a elegant contrast.

Our creative team took a look at 10 different pairings that we believe work wonderfully together. They never fail to look great on websites and accentuate the headlines and copy. Go ahead and experiment with different sizes, weights, and so forth to get the desired typeface you want.

Frutiger is a elegantly legible typeface. It was originally created for easy reading on signs at airports; this font is ideal for headlines for quick reading. With its sans-serif characters, it blends lovely with Minion, another easily legible typeface. Minion was inspired by the fonts from the Renaissance. 

 Any web designer or graphic designer will agree the Minion family is a must to have in their pocket. Due to its old-school figures, small caps, swashes and glyphs, Minion Pro is a suitor for a wide array of duties. It pairs wonderfully with Myriad. 

You will find these two fonts already installed on most operating systems; this pairing is ideal both for style and its ease, since they are available to people with even basic softwares. Gill Sans is a nice friend to many typefaces. Its history states it was created for the London Underground system with its sans serif. It pairs lovely with Garamond. 

 Clarendon has clear, objective, and timeless form that allows it to be beautiful in both large and small sizes. These characteristics make it a great partner in crime to Trade Gothic and its earthy structure.

 Avenir is an interesting font since it has thicker vertical strokes than horizontals and shortened ascenders. These characteristics make Avenir a great teammate to Minion as it can be great for both display and body copy. The old style fonts of the world, such as Minion, do great with it. 

Bodoni has thick and thin strokes, these strokes allow Bodoni to be very beautiful. When paired with Futura, they become a power couple. You will see this pairing in many style and fashion magazines.  

Caslon is a bold serif typeface, it has short ascenders and descenders with simple modulation. Univers is a neutral fellow and so it pairs well with Caslon.  

This pairing is a champion with professional web designers who are not willing to settle for simple web standards. The wonderful serif typeface, Georgia, and its mate, Verdana, are perfect for screens. 

 This partnership is a definite crowd pleaser wherever it goes. Clean and natural Helvetica makes it the perfect teammate for Garamond, an elegant typeface. 

Baskerville is an old soul but still has a lot of spunk; it was designed in 1757, it has a historical commonality with Franklin Gothic, designed in the 19th century. Sophisticated and contrasting, this pairing is a real winner.