Every design in the template catalog has a new cover image, captured from the design itself with realistic content in it rather than drawn by hand.
Why the old covers were a problem
Some were years old and showed a version of the design that no longer existed. Some were illustrations of the idea of the design. A few were screenshots taken at a window size nobody uses.
The effect was that choosing a template was a guess, and a guess made at the point where somebody is deciding whether the whole product is worth their time. People picked a design, applied it, found it was not what they expected, and either changed it three more times or gave up.
How the new ones are made
Each cover is captured automatically from a live rendering of the design with representative content: a headshot, a few credits, a reel, a short bio. Realistic amounts of it, so a design that only sings with forty photographs is not shown with forty photographs.
They regenerate when a design changes, which means the catalog can no longer drift out of date the way it did.
What to look at when you are choosing
- What is above the fold. Is it a photograph, a name, or a video? That is the first thing your visitor gets.
- How much content it needs. Some designs are hungry. If you have one headshot and two credits, pick a design that is comfortable with that.
- Whether the emphasis matches yours. A photo-led design is wrong for a voice actor, which is why VoiceNow exists.
- How it reads in a small rectangle. If the cover looks busy at catalog size, the site will look busy on a phone.
Changing your mind is cheap
Applying a design does not touch your content. Everything you have entered is stored separately from how it is displayed, so switching templates is a genuinely reversible decision and you can try three in five minutes.
That is worth knowing, because the fear of committing is what makes people spend an hour on this step. It is not a commitment.
Related
Recent additions: Modernist and VoiceNow. For personalizing whichever you pick, see color schemes and font choices.
Older reading: creating an eye-catching actor website.
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