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Ben Lee
3,450 PointsUsing a website template to add to portfolio for school admissions?
I am looking to get into a graduate program for web design/digital media and the school requires a portfolio for consideration. Being an established industry professional is not required and I don't believe they are expecting an advanced level portfolio, but rather one that shows a decent foundation of web design/development and potential.
I can build a basic website with basic responsive designs based on what I learned on this site so far. However, I found an amazing template I really like that has more interactive and responsive designs for a personal site that I think looks and works amazing and is the type of sites I would like to eventually be able to build.
Will using a pre-made template as a foundation for a personal website to add in my portfolio be frowned upon if I am submitting a portfolio for school admissions? I will obviously be customizing the code and reworking it to build my site and was hoping this would provide a decent showing of HTML/CSS/JavaScript knowledge by being able to edit code to build my site? Or is this a huge no-no?
Thanks in advance for your input.
2 Answers
danny tamez
4,058 PointsHi Ben,
The most important thing is to be honest. Requirements and expectations may vary between companies, organizations, and universities. If you are really concerned, reach out to the people that will review your portfolio, and just ask.
Most websites do not contain 100% original code. Designers and engineers often incorporate frameworks, libraries, templates, graphics, and images that are not their own. Part of being a designer is working with other creative and technical people to achieve desired results. When you are working alone, sometimes it makes sense to use assets made available by others - just make sure to follow licenses and give credit where credit is due.
Source code is also important in this situation. The template provider has likely included their information and links in the header, so leave that acknowledgement in there and feel free to add your own notes. If people care about your source code, they should open up the hood and ask questions.
So, now it's about how you work within the constraints of the template, the content, the experience, customization, features, functionality, etc. Make it your own. Make it shine. Make creating a site like that from scratch one your goals for the graduate program. Break a leg.
Juan Francisco Andrade Álvarez
23,997 Pointsdanny tamez's answer is excellent. What i would like to add is that for learning reasons, i think is better to start putting the knowledge into practice as soon as it has been aquired. No matter if this knowledge is basic, intermediate or advanced, using it into our own projects, will make it more consistent and enhanced for future ones. Some times, it's not a bad practice using templates for building websites, but if it comes for pedagogic reasons, from my point of view, it's better to build your own one based in your skills and knowledge.