Custom WordPress Theme Design

I think that one of the hardest things for new designers to learn when they try and make a living doing design is that it really does not matter what you, the designer, think is good.

It really only matter what the client wants - you can try and use your knowledge of form, function, color, and creativity to nudge the client in the right direction, but in the end a for hire design job is only really successful if the client thinks that they have gotten a good value and are happy with the results.

Take, for instance, my latest project for an awesome photographer out on the left coast named melissa schwartz.. She is a WPJA award winning wedding photojournalist and has a distinct style - and a design style that is not exactly what I would do if it were left up to me.

But her custom WordPress theme is not about me, it’s about her. So after being warned that she was an artist and had strong opinions about how the blog should look I tried to remove my own bias from process and created her a mock up. This is what she said:

i’m kind of shocked…i love it! i’m usually really difficult to please =)

I admit that I was kinda shocked as well, I was prepared to have it ripped to pieces and heading back to the drawing board. I went ahead and starting cutting it up, helped her install WordPress and got the theme set up and she said:

i think it’s amazing, it looks awesome, you rock.

Not bad coming from a client that told me up front that she was going to be hard to please - but, I think, that by trying to remove my ego from the design process that she actually became easy to please.

I don’t do allot of print work, but I got a chance to create some business cards for a fellow main street business here in my little town and I liked the way they turned out.

They are an antique and primitive furniture store so I wanted the cards to look aged but still crisp and readable. The client loves them and I don’t hate them, and that is about as happy as I get about my designs…

Just a quick note to let anyone that is interested know that I have finally updated the WordPress theme design portfolio. It has been quite some time since it has been updated, but, hey, I’ve been busy creating new WordPress themes…

My work status has been a little crazy for the last few months but it looks like everything is now everything and I am back to working for the public at large developing new WordPress themes every week.

So if you are interested, click on over to the contact page and get in touch.

Test

The only person running for president in either party that shares my values seems to be Ron Paul, so I decided that I should whip up some support Ron Paul web graphics.

Feel free to use these images on your site and link them to Vote Ron Paul . com More images to come, I’ll post the source files in the morning so that anyone that wants to can edit them.

Since I have become more successful designing WordPress themes then I could have ever guessed when I first looked into how it was done, I once again confront an issue that has haunted my professional existence - managing growth.

What I am trying to say is that I need to take on a partner that has some experience with WordPress themes and is an xhtml and css maven. If you are the right guy ( or girl ) I’ll split the total price of the project with you - I’ll do the Photoshop and client management and you’ll do cutting up and WordPressing.

Bounce over to the contact page if you are interested.

- Yep Another free, creative commons licensed WordPress theme that I am setting free: WasImJTk

This one is a little special because it was not designed to be a freely available creative commons theme but rather it was the previous theme of imjtk.com. This theme served me well and when it was time to re-boot the site, I thought, hey, why not give away the old WordPress theme…

So here you go, feel free to download this theme and do with it what you will - but if you do please respect the creative commons attribution license and give imjtk a link somewhere or another ( that’s the attribution in the attribution license ).

Note: This theme is now hosted and updated over at Doc5.com

Recently I have been doing allot of clones jobs, that is, creating WordPress themes that try and visually emulate existing sites. In these cases I have been creating these new WordPress themes for the owners of the existing sites so there are no ethical issues…

Most of the time the original sites are done with old school tables so I don’t have the option of using the original html files. The existing css files vary greatly in their usefulness. So, what I generally do is recreate the most important parts of the site in Photoshop so that I have all uncompressed graphics for the main areas and cut that up for the headers, repeaters, footers, etc. and make a basic xhtml document form that.

My philosophy is that I am not trying to recreate the original site exactly, I am trying to make it 90% similar and bloggify it with the other 10%. Here’s an example:

Original Site   .   My Blogified, Cloned WordPress Theme

This WordPress Theme is about 90% done as I post this…

All right then, I have decided to try and raise a few bucks to help me create my next free WordPress theme. I see it as sort of like a number of folks all ponying up a few buck a piece to commission a new, cool, standards complaint WordPress theme.

I like releasing the free themes, but as my little family grows and life occurs it is harder and harder to spend time in front of the computer except for working on paying clients sites. So I decided to split the cost of the next freebie theme - I am trying to raise half the cost of what I charge for a custom theme for my clients.

I have created over 65 WordPress themes and as my experience increases so do the quality of my themes, so I am confident that I will be providing the WordPress community something of value with this new theme.

The chip in system makes it easy to use your PayPal account or a credit card to contribute as much or as little to this project as you would like and it has the added benefit of being vetted by a third party. Everyone that contributes over $5 and wants a thank you link will get one.

Just use the Chip In widget on the top of the left hand sidebar to get started.

As I continue to comb through all my old files I continue to find things that I think might be worth posting, and this wallpaper is a case in point.

This was the background I used myself on my old D2 Gentoo box, and the code is from Shopping Kert. If you like it, download it and use it in good health. If you use it, how ’bout a link to imjtk.com.

When WordPress announced that WP 2 was coming, I decided that I needed to create a new free WordPress theme. Since WordPress’ release coincided w/ the purchase a new laptop I wanted the theme to look good on it’s really bright shiny screen.

So, this is what I came up