**a little bit of background:**
I come from graphic design (for print). I like technology and I have an interest in code. in the last two years, I worked on WordPress websites. in the beginning as an employee in a friend’s business, and after that as an independent freelancer. I became familiar with Elementor Page Builder, as it is in widespread use in my country. I also learned JetEngine, which made me familiar with the concept of post-types, taxonomies, etc. I know HTML and CSS .not all the fancy stuff, but I use CSS daily (inside Elementor) and it helps me a lot.
**what I don’t like about the situation:**
1. I don’t like the Elementor way. it feels like a patch. it’s not how WordPress is meant to work. and it comes at a cost of performance. and I write a lot of CSS to adapt Elementor to my needs.
2. I don’t like the price of Elementor and JetEngine. I don’t want to commit to a license. and I can’t afford it. I want my client websites to be able to get plugin updates without needing my license.
3. my business is not so much profitable. it has to do with a lot of things, many of which have nothing to do with the tools I use. but it makes me think of ways to become a hired employee with a normal income, without dealing with the managing side of businesses. it’s hard to find a job in WordPress without more advanced knowledge.
all of the above made me think maybe I should push my skills. I have a little bit of an understanding of programming. I used a little bit of PHP and JS in my projects. I played in my spare time with game engines and game programming. so I can learn WordPress development. starting with themes, plugins, etc. then I can (maybe) find a job as a WordPress developer or as a front-end Developer.
**my question is:**
1. would knowledge of theme development will give me an advantage in my current workflows? would I be able to build websites faster/better than with a page builder? is JS frameworks and a proper code editor (with IntelliSense, I miss it) will make my work easier? or am I just making things more complicated and slow?
2. is themes a thing anymore? it seems like WordPress is going in the direction of Gutenberg and full site editing. as a designer, is there a future for theme development? I don’t get the roles of those parts of WordPress’s future.
I doubt there’s a future in theme dev on its own. Too much competition. But if you can learn FSE and dev blocks themes… maybe it will help you build sites that are quicker.
I’d look at advanced custom fields, which can do a lot of ‘theme dev’ in a way, enabling you to create a sort of page-builder, and custom blocks – so clients can create content and your theme / css styles it and makes it consistent.
Otherwise, if you’re looking at developing sites for people, there are some much better options that excrementor… like Bricks, Oxygen, Breakdance… or GeneratePress with a blocks addon like greenshift or spektra.
They enable faster builds and are lean.
Learn Oxygen i can easily build a highly customizable landing page in just a couple of hours