Designing in CMS for a client. Advice?

[Graz73]

I've been getting started on a site redesign for a client using the hubspot CMS.  
They provided detailed PDFs of the design they want.

I'm a long time web designer and developer, but this CMS has me confused.
- I wanted to edit an existing theme from the hubspot marketplace, but it seems like that is not possible, without extensive code.  

- It seems like the alternative is using NO theme and creating a template from scratch using the builder and other modules.  That seems complicated, but might be the way to go.
- Do you have any advice on making dynamic templates without a lot of code?
- What about Sprocketrocker or something similar?

[Graz73]

Thanks guys! @Teun  @dennisedson Thanks for the advice.
I'm going through the "Hubspot CMS for Developers" course and am frustrated.  This course seems to be entirely geared for  people who want to write code for templates. Do I have to design templates in the code view on a local sandbox dev server?  This is the exact OPPOSITE of how I'd like to design visually interesting templates. I prefer to see what I'm doing in a visual interface, like Divi, or else code it and see what I'm doing in something like Dreamweaver.   Is there a way to do this in a visual builder?  The documentation I've found for doing it in the drag-and-drop editor seems incomplete or out of date.
I'd like to be able to switch back and forth between code view and the design interface.  If I have to code all of this, I guess I can, but I'd rather not.

[Teun]

Hi @Graz73 , 

If you do not wish to code, use one of the newer HubSpot themes. If they are build correctly, you should have enough theme options and module style options to customize it to your need.
If there are still limitations in what you can achieve, I would also advice to look into Child themes.

[Graz73]

Thanks for the reply @dennisedson 
I'll check out child themes.
By Dynamic I just meant flexible: able to look good on multiple devices, and able to be tailored in a number of different ways visually.

I'm used to platforms like Divi where I can control the design very closely through the visual editor.

The default CMS seems very limited by comparison without coding a bunch of it.

[Teun]

Hi @Graz73 and @dennisedson , we only use custom build templates / themes in HubSpot. When you create templates with a drag and drop functionality, you can simply create the modules you need and reuse those to build different pages and templates. Each template can consist of the same 10 - 20 modules, but the content is different for each module.
Take a look at the CMS Theme Boilerplate, it should give you a better picture of the true power of HubSpot development. If you create smart and reusable modules, you can keep your projects small but deliver great and dynamic websites.
If you got no clue where to start, you should definitely follow the Academy Course setup for HubSpot development.

[dennisedson]

Hi @Graz73 

For points 1 and 2, I would take a look at child themes
For point 3, could you be more specific with what you mean by dynamic?

@Gonzalo , @Teun , @Indra are all smarter people than I am.  I bet they can provide better advice than I can 😀