Comments on: First steps in designing a WordPress theme

By: Randa Clay

Randa Clay — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 23:32:43 +0000

I like working with K2 all right, but this K2 Redux Klein that I’m using was pretty difficult to work with at first. Some themes, like Brian Gardner’s, are easy to step into and tweak, but this one took me a little time.

By: Mommy Zabs

Mommy Zabs — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 23:18:53 +0000

I like how with k2 you can do a lot of “custom styles” … what I do really isn’t re-writing a theme, it’s designing a custom style.

those are my inexperienced thoughts
-ma

By: Randa Clay

Randa Clay — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 18:58:30 +0000

Thanks Inga!! I appreciate your kind comments.

By: Inga

Inga — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 18:42:33 +0000

Hi Randa! I just wanted you to know that I love your Bluebird layout. It’s currently on my site [and I "pimped" it out - lol], but I also left all the credits at the footer because all I did was just add my name to the header and change the font style. I change my layouts up a lot, so I’ll probably have a new one next week, but just wanted you to know that I absolutely LOVE this layout! Simplicity is the key, and you nailed it with this particular one. Thanks!

Inga

By: Blasts from the past at Randa Clay Design

Blasts from the past at Randa Clay Design — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 14:03:05 +0000

[...] In March, as I began to fully realize the power of WordPress, I realized I wanted to create a free WordPress theme. I got some great comments in the process, and made some friends like Cory and Brian who were a [...]

By: WordPress Test Site » Write A Theme

WordPress Test Site » Write A Theme — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 04:08:31 +0000

[...] http://randaclay.com/archives/first-steps-in-designing-a-wordpress-theme Posted by Jayec under Uncategorized [...]

By: epicalex

epicalex — Mon, 28 May 2007 15:07:37 +0000

Whenever i design a theme, i always seem to have been inspired by another, to either improve it or just because i like it. Ive yet to release any of them, but instead of putting based on… i put inspired by. That way the link and respect are still there, but it fits in better if what you have made doesnt look anything like the ‘based on’ theme.

Think of Picaso, he was inspired by stuff, but his paintings didnt really look exactly like what he was inspired by.

By: WordPress Theme Design is 75% CSS : WordPress Themes

WordPress Theme Design is 75% CSS : WordPress Themes — Sat, 05 May 2007 02:57:39 +0000

[...] this can be found on a comment I left on my friend Randa’s blog, when she posted about the First Steps of Designing a WordPress Theme: Since it’s pretty darn near impossible to write every piece of php and css from scratch, I [...]

By: Randa

Randa — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 22:14:33 +0000

Steve,
I love your term - “pimped themes”. Thanks for your input- some good clarification.

Cory! I pimped one of your themes for a client very recently- okay I’m still in the midst of pimping it: http://joannapeck.net/ It’s really closer to a “based on” rather than a pimp- I just wanted to use that word. You can tell me what you think-if you’d prefer I changed the wording in the footer. Thanks for your visit.

By: Cory Miller

Cory Miller — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 20:26:37 +0000

Great conversation and topic!

Brian has personally helped me a ton on working through doing my own themes, so I’m very thankful to him for his excellent insight …

And so, I’ve also been on both sides of the fence. Loving certain themes and then tweaking them like Brian’s, Small Potato’s or Chris Pearson’s … but every time I did that I kept their links on those themes, because I felt it still wasn’t my creation … and my tweaks didn’t warrant a “new creation.”

I also knew that if I couldn’t have made it work without their code in place. So I was dependent on their work.

But there are two things I’d throw my opinion out on, though, in this conversation …

1. As a theme designer now, I don’t like seeing something REALLY similar to my theme being copied without attribution. But there’s gotta be a line between stealing and taking a pot and making it into a frisbee. For instance, if the new product is truly a new product, it’ll be different. In other words, the average onlooker wouldn’t put the two together as one. Not the designer, but the average onlooker …

2. Saying all this though …. I need to make this follow-up statement. On the web, we designers have basically 6 fonts, maybe less or more, to work with … and it irritates the fire out of me when designers think they OWN “Arial Bold” or “Georgia.” If the web font palette wasn’t so limited, maybe I’d be OK with this … but it ain’t. So just because one designer’s favorite and “signature” font is Helvetica … and you use Helvetica in your themes … does NOT mean you have copied their design. For designers, I’d say … get over it.

Just my two cents …