Template for a simple company website?

[pumpkinpie]

Over my summer break my parents have asked me to work on their company's website. They're a candle importing/wholesale company here in Australia and don't actually sell anything on their site - it's more just information, some product photos and for people to make enquiries, nothing fancy.

I built them their current website 4 years ago using a free template, and to me it looks really basic and childish (was only 15 at the time!). I'm not an artistic person or particularly skilled with coding/designing from scratch, so I figured my best bet was paying for a nice template and going from there.

I've just spent 4 hours searching for a suitable one online and I'm going insane, nothing looks right. They're all too corporate or for e-commerce type websites.

Could anyone recommend me a template or a place with templates (anywhere up to around $150, not just a templatemonster affiliate) that would give the right look and structure to this kind of website? I feel like I'm missing out on something really obvious.

[Belfast75]

Hi,

I've just tried to access your site but I get a time out error. You might want to have a quick look at it.

Cheers,
D

[pumpkinpie]

Hi,

I've just tried to access your site but I get a time out error. You might want to have a quick look at it.

Cheers,
D

It's working fine for me!

[molona]

Personally, I think that your site needs to be worked on the details, but it looks ok to me (not childish at all). I am not sure what look you are after, so I don't know what you mean by too corporate. After all, this is a business and needs to look corporate because that's what people expect.

As a creative person, you may think that something out of the box and that a new image would fit better. Chances are that you are right, after all you know the company well.

Nevertheless, people tend to trust a corporate look, and for a site to be successful you need to think about your target public. This is not about what you consider childish, or what you like, but how others see it and what your public likes.

I would first study the data about the number of visitors that the site is receiving, and pay particular attention to those who repeat, even more than once.

The best thing that you can do with your public is to ask them what they want, after all, so a small survey could give you some background about if the site needs a new look or not.

[YMas]

Hi,
You may wish to use CSS Zen Garden for inspiration:

http://www.mezzoblue.com/zengarden/alldesigns/

Thanks,
YMas

[cipals15]

The current design just fit the target audience i guess.

[maccrazy]

It's working fine for me!

It's loading fine for me as well. Might have just been a temporary glitch.

[ploomer]

It's loading ... The current design looks ok. Why do you want to change it?