Hi,
I read about the addition of the option to disable responsive just after posting my reply to this topic, while going through the bog "Dev Update 13". That addresses part of the issue which other people were obviously also unhappy about. IMHO the last eleven templates from Gavick are very uninspiring.
I understand that things need to move forward and that Gavick need to keep up with current trends etc. What I don't understand is the willingness to cut off support for templates which are usable designs and fit the requirements of certain markets. Maybe for a personal blog site ditching the identity you build with your site appearance every two years is OK, but for a business site it's crazy! I also think there would be a number of people with personal sites who wouldn't be too impressed. The point is to keep evolving in a natural and progressive way. Chopping and changing a site design every two years with dramatic changes is very poor business practice in my humble opinion. In general users are not very accepting of change even if the change is an improvement.
I think I will need to stop using Gavick templates for business projects even though I find some of the designs from 2010, 2011 and early 2012 useful. I already have three sites which are screwed through lack of maintenance/discontinuation here. The crazy thing is these sites are all less than 12 months old. I now have to explain to people that there will need to be changes made to the appearance of their website. Some of these templates have had major changes made to the code - weeks of work lost. Compounded by the fact that it makes you look like an arse to the client. I could probably swallow losing hours of work - recovering from people perceiving you as idiot or a con artist is much harder to over come!
I have no confidence in Gavick as a template supplier any longer, because this has a very negative effect on my relationship with the people I build sites for and with.
I have sites from 2008 which still look fresh and have evolved to take into account web design trends and these templates are still supported. Most have been refactored to use the developers desired framework without which these templates may have been retired. The thing is that these older sites are established and their design is a vital factor in their web presence. One lady that owns one of these sites would probably kill me if I changed anything dramatically. Her site is her business and its design is a factor in that! Fortunately the source template for her site is still maintained, and is on a framework so the future for her site should be OK (It's not a Gavick/Gavern template). I have a site which is just about to go live based on the pixellove design, which the site owner insisted on using against my better judgment. I seriously wish I had never let him see the old Gavick designs!
I think that Gavick should make it quite clear in the sales pitch for their templates that they only have a 24 month life span from the date of release! I think people should be informed about this policy. It's a major factor in making a purchasing/design decision, for the company and the site developer/maintainer.
Sorry for yet another long winded post.
Oh and I think the addition of the none responsive option is a good one...other developers have been doing that for ages. All you need now is to get back to some innovative and interesting designs, instead of all these bland repetitive iTrend efforts. I thing anyone interested could find something to use out of the eleven recent additions to the catalog.
Cheers