That's assuming the designer knows how to properly slice up an xhtml shell/template to begin with that works in all browsers despite the various differences.
I honestly don't care about the obscure browsers. IE, firefox & safari (if I'm feeling good) ... I've stopped checking IE6 these days. The funny part is that your clients, for the most part, only care about their personal browser and really don't even consider cross browser compatibility (most haven't even heard of firefox). Besides, doing things my way (taking open source designs and hacking them out) you're site will look good in ALL browsers without even trying. Most of the guys putting the css templates out have checked in 99 different browsers, you're safe using their shit.
Wouldn't be much of a coder if you didn't know how to do it without the pre-built templates.
Difference #1: We must have very different definitions of what a coder is. I don't even consider html/css to be coding anymore ... unless I'm hacking a template generator. I'd certainly never hire a programmer and ask him to do any html stuff. To think that a programmer's not any good unless he could design, splice & implement a psd ... poppycock
Especially if something went wrong. Also sometimes a PSD design isn't going to just simply fit into a preconfigured template layout. A typical 2/3 column wordpress with just space for a header maybe... but most custom design that people pay for, not really.
Some people are just fine with having a prebuilt template, slap in a header, change color scheme and css a lil, and etch in your own copyright at the bottom. But for more discerning clients, the need to know how to make a site from scratch can be crucial.
Difference #2: I don't do clients and I wouldn't build around wordpress ... and wouldn't consider making another design layout for a picky ass customer, fuck that. I was merely giving my suggestions to the OP as to how to separate designing and programming ... the easy way.
No doubt your custom 3 column wordpress theme is more of "award winning material" than my hacked out css template. You might get a plastic trophy for a weeks worth of work ... I'll build 100k pages from scratch in an afternoon and start profiting next week. Fair deal in my books.
I deal with strictly with ROI (with 98% of my investment being time) so the advice I giving was, from my perspective, the best way to handle his problem.
If a designer splices up a psd and outputs to html ... I can turn the result into a template driven layout (simple header, menu & footer with the body being the actual page) in 20 minutes that will allow your programmers to hack without worrying about design.
