Can't take it no more..literally going crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is an example of what I'm talking about...

http://www.workforcestrategists.com/Website/index.htm

This site was done by some graphic designer in california. She had all the college training and all that crap...

It's a pretty attractive looking site, but the total size of the FIRST page is 231k. That will take like 3 or 4 minutes to download on a dial-up modem. No one is going to wait that long to see that freakin' site.

I also happen to know that they paid that designer $50,000 to do that design. And it doesn't even work. Most browsers will time out before it even finishes downloading. Then the navigation is terrible. You don't really know what the site is about, how it could help you, or anything. It is completely worthless. It's a pretty picture that cost the company $50,000, but that is all it is, a pretty picture.

$50,000 one time fee for that site, or $50,000 annually?

Well then..sniff..sniff..:( cry... Guess it is time to change my ways.... Lets see if I can make a corporate looking type site...If I do..I'll post up the link..

But what I was trying to comment on, was that at the temp agency she just made me feel like there is NO room for graphic design. All the websites now are just corporate websites...hell..maybe its true.

Time to think up a site...well..back to boring. :(

Deker : right on. I agree 100%. I'm fighting with the corp. I work for right now to update our site. too many chiefs, not enough indians. 'nuff said on that.

lowizzy: well, here's an idea: tell the temp agency to put their thumb in their butt. What market do you live in? Sounds like Bay Area to me. Can't be THAT bad, can it?!?!

move to vegas, I know there are at least 3 openings right now for GRAPHIC DESIGNERS with some companies I work with sometimes. Probably about 8-12 a week in the paper, too.

$50,000 one time thing. Maybe a week's worth of work.

Simple doesn't have to be boring. Pretty much all of my sites are pretty simplistic, and they can still be nice. For example, www.fourm.com www.37signals.com www.kottke.org etc. (i didn't design those sites, they are just nice, simple sites.)

And of course, the best looking corporate "simple" site, www.apple.com

$50,000 one time thing and im still sitting here at TPS, screw you guys, im off to find suckers to pay me $50,000 :p

My dad and I quoted them something like $45,000 I think. But that was mostly the fee for the programmer we were going to bring in. They wanted it all database driven, with all kinds of real time chatting to their counselors, video conferencing, all kinds of stuff.

Oh yeah, also, all the text on that site is in images. Which makes it invisible to search engines, plus it's a pain in the ass to change any of the content.

www.bmw.com
www.sony.com
www.overture.com

I work for a corporate company as a designer, a lot of boring ideas get passed to me. When I change it to something a little more interesting, it always goes the opposite direction. Content and usability are the most important things in a corporate site. If you have a friend in marketing, pick their brain.