I'm sorry you didn't find a bid that was acceptable to you.

Skinning is a time consuming trial an error process, you introduce styles and images and you test in different browsers. It requires strong knowledge of html and css. It also takes an understanding of what the rendered html structure is and the available css classes that can be used to write scss selectors and apply css style rules. This knowledge can be obtained by viewing the source of the page so anyone who has strong understanding of html can learn how to skin mojoPortal by studying the rendered pages.

However, that does not mean every designer out there is going to be willing to go to that effort. They may get plenty of work that does not require them to learn about any CMS. 

If I look at a specific design I may say I can't do it if the design doesn't really lend itself to a CMS. For most of the designs I find on the free design sites I can turn it into a skin in 1 or 2 days. 2 Days at $85/hr is $1360 so that is what I would estimate the job at if I were going to take it on. Maybe my rate seems high but thats because I have the skills and know I can produce the work and if you aren't willing to pay perhaps I have other projects in the wings anyway. Others may have a lower rate but it may take them a week or longer to tweak that skin just right and test it in all the browsers.

so yes, design, html, css, and content management systems are all complex things, but skinning mojoPortal is not more complicated than other cms systems.

An "active market in skins" first requires customers who are willing to pay for the work. If that happens more people with the needed skills will emerge to serve that market. mojoPortal is growing in popularity but we are not yet as popular as some of the content management systems out there so its only natural that we don't yet have a big market for skinning or a lot of designers focusing on mojoPortal skins. When our popularity reaches a certain level I expect this to happen and I think the designers will find that skinning mojoPortal is actually very straightforward compared to some other cms systems. For any single off skin project I don't really think $300-$1000 are unreasonable bids for skilled people. When you see cheaper prices for skins like $50 for a skin bundle its a lot different than 1 skin for 1 customer, they can sell a lot of packages to make up for the cheap price, but custom skinning is a time consuming work.

Best,

Joe

Hi,

I don't recommend creating new skins by modifying ones that were generated and exported by Artisteer. If I were creating a custom design I would get the extra-skins.zip from our codeplex download page and use one of the non-Artisteer skins as a starting point so that you don't have all the extra stuff that Artisteer needs. Artisteer is a good easy tool for people who don't know html and css very well, but it isn't really meant for the Artisteer skins to be modified to create custom designs, if people want to modify those designs they should do it in Artisteer and export the html and css again. We make the .artx files for Artisteer available in a separate download on codeplex so people can modify the included Artisteer skins by re-exporting after making changes in Artisteer.

I agree for creating skins from scratch our skinning documentation could be much better and I hope to improve it as time allows. I don't think it is difficult to make good skins for people who understand CSS and html, I think our skinning system is very flexible but that is because I understand it. I plan to make some html 5 example skins possibly using things like modernizer or Foundation when I get a chance.

In the end if you decide you like Orchard better that is perfectly fine with me, use whatever makes you happy.

Joe