Hey, I just started building a website with Concrete5. I am used too (not very, a bit) to Wordpress and I think it's great. But then my designer friend dropped on me a awesome, cool design with many different page layouts. And here's the thing -- the client has to be able to maintain the content themselves.

So I guess using a CMS that focuses on design would be good. I found the usual suspects -- Cushy, Pagelime. But I want to go with something that I can host myself. Then I found MojoMotor, etc... and later Concrete5. Open source? Sweet...!! (OK, I am a cheapskate)

But now I have to learn how to hack the design into Concrete5. And that is what I have been doing all weekend. It's not really ready yet. I have it installed in a temporary location for the client to have an early look-see. But I think it's going to be good.

I found that the video tutorials are great. Really get me up to speed in understanding how to build a theme for Concrete5. This forum is great as well. Found a bunch of solutions to my problems. And also the Marketplace. One that I am using a lot now, as suggested in the videos, the Designer Content. Later, I need to get more into building my own custom block, perhaps Page List custom template.

My verdict so far -- I think Concrete5 is fantastic for designers and developers. The clients, they will love it once they have their custom design coded into Concrete5. It'll be easy for them to make changes with Concrete5. Personally I don't think Concrete5 is for a newbie who wants to be build a website though. It'll be too much info for them to understand how to customize.

But anyway, I just want to drop my first post in the forum, say "Hi", and let you guys know that I am loving this! Will be building more of Concrete5 sites in the future.