Hi, I was recently told about Backdrop and I'm interested in switching from WordPress to Backdrop as my content management system. My web hosting provider (Sandwich Internet Corp.) will be doing the installation, but after that's done, I'm going to need to have a theme built and possibly be taught by the theme designer how to use it.
The last time I contracted for work, it was a graphic design brief for my Master's capstone research project survey materials which cost me a flat $500 CAD with hourly overtime rates. I do not know how much work creating a Backdrop theme takes and therefore, I do not know what is considered a reasonable flat fee with hourly overtime rates for this kind of work.
These are the two websites I am currently maintaining and what I'd like to do with each:
GeekingOutAbout.com - https://www.geekingoutabout.com
Originally a group blog, it's now a personal blog where I talk about my geeky hobbies. I put it into mothballs when I started grad school and now that I'm not in grad school anymore, I'd like to start posting to it again. I don't 100% love the way this looks but the previous theme I used was also one I didn't like very much either. This is the one where whomever I choose to hire for this gig will have the most freedom to come up with something creative but functional.
Personal/Professional Blog - https://renken-sebastian.ca
This is my professional blog where I'll be writing about topics that intersect with the subject of my Master of Community Development degree and my interest in helping young people of colour find their way in the world. I do like this theme a lot because I love featuring photos which are Creative Commons-licensed as the main illustration for the blog posts, I love creating excerpts and captions, and everything just looks nice. I'd like to have something as similar to this as possible.
If anyone here is interested in learning more about either of these gigs, please reply to this message and I can send you a design document.
Comments
Hi Trisha
Welcome to the Backdrop community and thank you for considering Backdrop.
I wonder for your "Geeking Out About" site, where you don't have particular ideas whether any of our contributed themes would meet your needs?
You can quickly check out the themes to see if any one is close to what you need by creating a demo site at https://backdropcms.org/demo and from the Admin bar at the top, go to Appearance > Install new themes and your best bet might be to try the most installed ones first. Several have additional settings for color scheme; for example the Bootstrap Lite themes have Bootswatch themes selectable within them so there's a range of options.
You can also get a quick feel for themes by going to https://themeswitcher.simplo.site/ and playing with the Theme Switcher in the footer to see what it looks like with different themes. That site is provided by one of our community.
Even if you like one theme mostly, but want a few things changing, it may be less cost for you to have someone create a sub theme of a contributed theme (or even just inject some CSS with a module (CSS Injector)).
For your personal/professional blog, if you want to keep it as similar as possible to your existing theme, then hiring someone may be the way to go, though I would still see if any of the contributed themes are close.
I don't quite understand the notion of a flat fee with hourly overtime; I would quote either a fixed fee or charge an hourly rate but not a mix. Are you hoping for someone who can quote in CAD? We do have a few based in Canada. I'm based in the UK so any price from me would be in GBP (£).
If you would like me to quote, you can see my Backdrop sites and contact me through my website at https://www.systemhorizons.co.uk/work/projects
Hi, thanks for the response!
It's entirely possible, and I am sorry to say that I hadn't looked at the main Backdrop site to see where Themes were located. As a piece of new adopter feedback, the first thing I did when Backdrop was recommended to me and even before I even had my web host begin the conversion of my sites from WordPress to Backdrop was to see if I could hire someone to work with to create a theme. I know my limits when it comes to website design and I did not investigate very far into how to do the installation or what happens next after it is installed. I will definitely be browsing through the Themes category of the website and the other link you provided to see if there's anything I like.
It has to do with my philosophy when it comes to pricing with contractors and freelancers. I think that I can make decisions quickly when it comes to reviewing someone's work and that I know that part of hiring someone is trusting to their expertise when they present me with a draft or a near-final proof. I also know that most contracts with artists include a limit on revisions and I do not want to take advantage of someone's time by drawing out the final proof process.
Including an hourly overtime rate in my contracts assures the contractor that if I'm asking for additional work beyond what's in the scope or was is allowed in the number of revisions, they will still get paid for the work as well. A side effect is that it helps me not to obsess so much over minor nitpicks.
I appreciate your recommendations and I'll definitely take a look at your site.