More General Page Templates (+ Page Templates) (Request)

I would say that Sparkle is one of the best website builders I’ve ever used. The documentation is easy to navigate and follow, the software is easy and fun to use. For everything great that Sparkle offers, there is one notable downside: a lack of more general use page templates.

I’d argue that a fair amount of us here use Sparkle in some capacity to create websites for clients, and while the built in page templates may be great for creating personalised websites for ourselves or friends, most clients want something more familiar and professional looking.

I’m aware that one of the main philosophies of Sparkle is to create more unique designs, fully utilising its strengths as a website builder, but more often than not I find going with more general designs help keep clients happy.

While what I’ve discussed in this topic so far has been aimed primarily at Sparkle Pro users, these kinds of templates could even help Sparkle One or Sparkle Basic users explore the program.

I’ll admit, when I first downloaded the Sparkle trial I had no idea what was going on with the templates or how to effectively use them. I actually ended up skipping them altogether at some point to just figure out how the base program worked.

Finally, I’d like to close off this topic with an idea pitch of page templates. I know that you can import pages both on and offline, but I feel as though having a built in page template library would help tremendously with the work I do in Sparkle.

Thank you for reading.

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Hi James,

1st things 1st - Welcome to the community!

Here are some inspiring (not all free) themes (and some extras) from a bunch of great
Sparkle Template Design Warriors!
Chris Yates ( @Chris ) - sparkle-themes.com
Selcuk Yilmaz ( @selcuk ) as some excellent themes and extras - visit his site here
Lucian Dinu ( @luciandesign ) - luciandinu.com
Flamin’ Fig (@FlaminFig ) - flaminfig.com

Hopefully this will help and inspire you!

To all readers of this topic
if i missed someone please add them to the list

Just one more thing…
As you also mentioned: “…the main philosophies of Sparkle is to create more unique designs…”
And that’s indeed what Duncan hopes we do - to be creative and original!

But than there’s one of Steve Jobs awesome quotes:
“If you have to steal other people’s good ideas to make your own ideas better, steal it.”
Probably inspired on Picasso’s quote:
Good artists copy, great artists steal”

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Thank you @wolfferine for your pitch! :slight_smile:
I cringed a bit at those quotes though - IP is out of the window!

@James with a bit of work on your end you could create “Sparkle blocks” which would mimic what you have in mind. These “Sparkle blocks” would be in a template project file and when you need them you would drag the block (depending how you want to do it) or copy and paste it inline into your project allowing you to build out your website pages.

For me I know that would save a lot of time but then I feel I would become lazy and all of my project websites would start to look and feel similar which is the reason behind why I love using Sparkle - individuality! :slight_smile:

For me creating all these client projects (under greenskin.media) and seeing their needs and how I can use Sparkle to achieve them has given me a lot of scope in how to present our Flamin’ Fig templates!!! :slight_smile:

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Hi @James, many thanks for the thoughtful request.

While we do have ideas on where Sparkle should go in this context (i.e. future plans), essentially the Wordpress template ecosystem is where you want to go if you want to let clients pick and choose and give them a website a few short hours later.

Seriously, Wordpress sucks and all that, but you can’t beat that!

While the built-in templates are more playful than the average corporate site can bear, the “familiar looking” thing is the problem.

Taken to the extreme, what that argument implies is Sparkle should clone Wordpress feature by feature, because the client expects this.

I think there is a huge opportunity to:

  1. do something more creative
  2. educate the client
  3. build something uniquely fitting for the client (and maybe not as boring!)
  4. contribute to a more lively, diverse and interesting world wide web

Likely also a harder sell and a deal breaker.

But you can also build your own library of “familiar” (i.e. wordpress or bootstrap-like) components, like @FlaminFig says, so you bang out a site quickly by adding sections of a page via copy/paste. With a correct/opinionated setup you can have them already be multi-device.

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Also relevant:

This blog post was more about clickbait than templates, but it’s the same argument.

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@duncan, very very very wise words!!!

I just recently had the potential to take a hacked and dysfunctional WordPress site and convert it into a unique Sparkle website with personalised client-flows and secure page subscription. In laying it all out for the client you could see the “red flags” go up in their eyes. They just saw it all as too much work and why can’t I just hit buttons and automate.

In the end (and they got excited) I suggested to hook up with a WordPress hosting maintenance company and they will look after all the hacked mis-functioning of their website and wished them good luck!..

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Firstly, I’d like to thank everyone that responded to this post. This is a very welcoming community and you are all great examples of it.

Secondly, @duncan I think I may have slightly misrepresented what I intended to convey in my message, sorry about that. When I speak of general page templates, I refer to the same kind of one page starter templates that already exist but with more traditional navigation bars, hero elements and perhaps feature cards. Somewhat of a more barebones, one page template that’s more of just a starting point than anything.

I would absolutely not want Sparkle to copy Wordpress feature by feature (seriously, community plugins are an absolute nightmare to manage over time). Sparkle is an absolute powerhouse in its field. I would, however say that there is at least one Wordpress feature that Sparkle could benefit from: more access or visibility to community templates. @wolfferine Listed quite a few helpful links (thank you for those, Wolfferine) that I would have otherwise been forced to search for myself, with no promise of finding and verifying them all.

People use Sparkle for a range of different reasons, it attracts both business oriented people and designers alike. A friend of mine looking to create only conventional looking websites for clients is looking to purchase Sparkle at the moment, ironically enough.

If what I suggest were to ever get implemented, perhaps you could assign categories to the templates to help them search for what they need.

When I speak of the built-in importable page templates at the bottom of my original post, that’s more an idea I’d imagine would be implemented quite a bit later in to Sparkle’s journey to becoming Sparkle 5.

Finally, thank you Greenskin (I’d have mentioned you, but I can only mention two users because I’m new to the forum) for the tips, I’ll make sure to keep them in mind. In regards to the quote:

There is certainly a fine line to tread when balancing efficiency with potential reliance on standard design, which is why developing a good design philosophy is essential in this field.

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James, (and all readers)

i (personally - imho) think the community could profit / benefit of sharing “general” templates

Again, quoting Picasso :
"Good artists copy, great artists steal”

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Yes please, as a non-techie Wordpress to Sparkle convert (I’ve designed 3 sites far), it would be a bonus to have more theme templates, preferably free, great idea!

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We need some interesting and/or standard blog templates.

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