The email arrives within days of the initial enquiry. "To help us get started, please browse these theme marketplaces and send us links to designs you like. This will help us understand your aesthetic preferences and move quickly into development."
This request, presented as helpful efficiency, is actually a warning sign. It reveals an agency that has no intention of designing anything. They are asking the client to do the creative work—selecting from pre-existing options—so they can proceed directly to configuration. The "design process" has been reduced to theme shopping.
The first question in any genuine web design engagement should never be about themes. It should be about the business, its customers, its challenges, and its aspirations. Asking about themes first inverts the entire logic of design.
What the Theme Question Reveals
When an agency leads with theme selection, they communicate several things implicitly.
They communicate that design is not part of their service. A designer does not ask clients to select from existing designs. A designer creates new designs based on specific requirements. The theme question acknowledges that no design work will occur—only selection and customisation.
They communicate that the client's specific needs are secondary. Themes are generic by definition. They are built to appeal to broad categories, not specific businesses. An agency that begins with themes has already decided that generic solutions are acceptable, before understanding whether they actually are.
They communicate that speed matters more than fit. Theme selection accelerates the project timeline dramatically. An agency can move from signed contract to launched website in days rather than weeks. This speed benefits the agency's throughput and profitability. Whether it benefits the client is a separate question, one that the agency has not bothered to ask.
They communicate their own limitations. Agencies that design do not need theme marketplaces. They have the skills to create original work. The reliance on themes reveals an absence of these skills—a team that can configure but not create.
The Problem with Aesthetic Preference
Even if theme selection were appropriate—and it is not—asking clients about aesthetic preferences is the wrong approach. Clients are not designers. They do not have the vocabulary, the training, or the experience to articulate visual requirements effectively.
When a client says they like a particular theme, what are they actually responding to? Perhaps the colour scheme appeals to them. Perhaps they like a particular image. Perhaps the overall impression feels "professional" or "modern." These reactions are valid but superficial. They tell you nothing about whether the theme's structure serves the client's business needs.
Worse, client preferences are often shaped by exposure rather than analysis. They like what they have seen before. They gravitate toward patterns that feel familiar. This tends to produce conservative choices that replicate existing conventions rather than challenging them. The client selects a theme that looks like every other website in their industry, guaranteeing that their site will not stand out.
Professional designers understand that aesthetic preferences must be balanced against strategic requirements. A client might prefer muted colours, but their competitive analysis might reveal that bold colours would differentiate them. A client might like dense layouts, but user research might indicate that their audience needs simplicity. Design involves reconciling these tensions, not simply executing preferences.
What the First Question Should Be
The first question in a web design engagement should open a conversation about the client's business. It might be as simple as: "Tell me about your company and the customers you serve."
This question invites narrative. It encourages the client to explain their business in their own words, revealing what they consider important. It surfaces information that structured questionnaires often miss. It begins building the understanding that genuine design requires.
From this opening, the conversation expands naturally. What challenges does the business face? Where do new customers come from? What do existing customers value most? How does the business differ from competitors? What would success look like for the new website?
Notice that none of these questions mention themes, colours, or visual preferences. They focus on the substance of the business rather than the surface of the website. This is intentional. Design decisions should flow from business understanding, not precede it.
Visual exploration comes later, after strategic foundations are established. At that point, the designer can present options that respond to articulated needs rather than asking the client to shop from a catalogue of generic possibilities.
The Strategy-First Approach
Genuine web design follows a logical sequence: strategy, then structure, then surface.
Strategy addresses fundamental questions. What is the website for? Who will use it? What actions should they take? How does the website support business objectives? These questions must be answered before any design work begins, because the answers shape everything that follows.
Structure translates strategy into information architecture. What content does the site need? How should it be organised? What pathways will users follow? How does the hierarchy reflect business priorities? Structure is invisible to most users but determines their experience profoundly.
Surface—the visual layer—comes last. Only after strategy and structure are defined does it make sense to consider aesthetics. At this point, visual decisions can be evaluated against established criteria. Does this colour scheme support the brand strategy? Does this layout serve the content structure? Does this typography enhance readability for the target audience?
Theme selection inverts this sequence entirely. It begins with surface—picking a visual treatment—before strategy or structure have been considered. The theme then constrains the structure (imposing its layout assumptions) and may conflict with strategy (embedding patterns inappropriate for the business).
Why Clients Accept Theme Selection
Clients go along with theme selection because they do not know better. The agency presents it as standard practice, and the client has no frame of reference to challenge this.
Theme shopping also feels productive. The client is doing something tangible—browsing, evaluating, deciding. This activity creates an illusion of progress. They are "involved in the design process" without recognising that no design process is actually occurring.
There is also an element of flattery. The agency appears to value the client's opinion by asking for their preferences. The client feels consulted and respected. This positive feeling masks the reality that they are being asked to do work the agency should be doing.
Finally, theme selection is easy. Making aesthetic judgments about existing designs requires no expertise. Articulating business requirements is harder—it demands reflection and clarity. Clients naturally gravitate toward the easier task, especially when the agency has framed it as the appropriate starting point.
Educating the Client
Agencies committed to genuine design must sometimes educate clients who expect theme selection. This education should be handled carefully, without condescension, but with clarity about why the approach matters.
Explain that theme selection constrains rather than enables. The theme chosen will impose structural limitations throughout the project. Starting with themes means starting with constraints—constraints that may not align with business needs that have not yet been explored.
Explain that aesthetic preferences will be addressed, but later. The client is not being ignored or overruled. Their visual preferences matter and will be incorporated. But those preferences will be balanced against strategic requirements that must be understood first.
Explain that better outcomes require this approach. Websites built on strategic foundations outperform those built on aesthetic preferences. The additional time invested in understanding produces results that justify the investment.
Some clients will resist this education. They want what they have always received: quick assembly of pre-made components. These clients are not good fits for agencies that do genuine design work. It is better to identify this mismatch early than to compromise principles for an engagement that will frustrate both parties.
The Questions That Matter
If theme selection is wrong, what questions should open a web design engagement? Here are alternatives that focus on substance rather than surface:
"What does your business do, and for whom?" This foundational question establishes context for everything that follows.
"What problem does your current website have, or why do you need a new one?" This reveals pain points and objectives, grounding the project in real needs.
"Who are your main competitors, and how do you differentiate from them?" This situates the business in its competitive landscape and identifies positioning opportunities.
"What action do you most want visitors to take on your website?" This clarifies conversion priorities and success metrics.
"If this project is wildly successful, what does that look like in twelve months?" This establishes aspirational outcomes that can guide design decisions.
None of these questions mention themes, colours, or layouts. All of them generate information essential to good design. The contrast illustrates the difference between agencies that design and agencies that assemble.
Demanding Better
Clients have power in this dynamic, though they rarely exercise it. When an agency asks you to select themes, you can refuse. You can explain that you are hiring them for their design expertise, not their configuration services. You can ask what questions they would recommend starting with instead.
This refusal will clarify the agency's actual capabilities. An agency that responds with thoughtful strategic questions has the expertise to deliver genuine design. An agency that insists on theme selection, or seems confused by the pushback, has revealed its limitations. Better to discover this before contracts are signed than after money has changed hands.
The first question matters because it sets the trajectory for everything that follows. Theme selection leads to assembly. Strategic enquiry leads to design. The distinction determines what you ultimately receive.
Your business deserves a website designed for its specific needs. That process cannot begin with "what theme do you like?"