Are the clients happy? More importantly, are the clients reaching their goals with your designs? Design is a lot more than a pretty face. It's also about usability, driving sales, , telling a story, engaging visitors, etc. If your design results in increasing my sales then I don't care if people think it's ugly.
If current clients are happy but potential clients are complaining about the looks of sites in you portfolio, then maybe you should be tweaking your own sales pitch. Include not just images of your work, but also stats which show how your design helped conversions among others.
As a designer, it's your job to educate the client as to what's really important. Maybe all the client knows is to look for a pretty face.
I am a hacker (although I'm uneasy about calling myself one), not a designer, and if I'm doing a web site professionally, I generally work with someone who does the graphics/design. This is for my own sites, where there is no client who says yes/no.
It doesn't like you want to spend a lot of time trying to become a premiere designer, but you are sick of hearing about how your sites look like they were designed by a programmer. Why don't you trade services with a kick ass designer and finally give your sites the makeover they deserve?
Good point, but here's why I'd like to improve my own skills: I like being able to put something together to test out a new idea or site, and if I have to get someone to help out every time, it's a bit limiting. If any of them ever were really successful, or I wanted to invest in them, I'd certainly get a pro to fix them up nicely.
In that case I'm not sure I would worry about it too much. You could spend time doing better designs or you could spend that time coding. A site should carry it's own weight. If the site is making money and could do better with a redesign, then I would think about hiring someone for that, otherwise, ignore the haters. ;)
It's not about 'haters' (the negative comments aren't nasty, just "I don't care for it"), it's about wanting to improve what I do. Sure, I'm not going to go out and start working as a designer (that would be a fast path to starvation), but I'd like to do better, and am casting around for ways to do so.
If current clients are happy but potential clients are complaining about the looks of sites in you portfolio, then maybe you should be tweaking your own sales pitch. Include not just images of your work, but also stats which show how your design helped conversions among others.
As a designer, it's your job to educate the client as to what's really important. Maybe all the client knows is to look for a pretty face.