I’ve had my old Wordpress theme – Neoclassical by Chris Pearson – for a while, and as well as it’s done me, I’m bored of it. It was nice, it worked, no-one ever complained. But is that enough? Well, no.
Before I talk about why I went with this theme, you need to understand that I’m not a designer, but I am a creative person. Ok, so that’s a little ambiguous so let me quantify that statement. I’m the kind of person that falls into the techie-creative genre where I can take something good, and either improve it myself, or work with a designer to really make it great – obviously making sure that the vision is actually able to be built.
Cue The Unstandard 1.2.1 theme by Derek Punsalan. I looked at his older 0.1 version a long time ago, but it was lacking a certain something. Maybe it was the mood I was in at the time? I don’t know. But that classic mix of Orange and black really got me going. And yet somehow, back when I originally looked at it, it just wasn’t right.
So what makes it right now? Well, to be honest, I think I’m a little more mature and experienced now – some would say grown up (thanks for that btw). But when I look at it, it somehow has a wonderfully modern-retro look to it. It really catches your eye and draws you into the site. I also think the use of images for each of the blogs gives more attention to each, I just need to keep the images relevant and fresh – something my passion for photography should support well.
But, as with everything, it’s not quite perfect for me. Derek is continually updating the theme, so any changes I think are of value to his wider audience I’ll be sharing with him. For starters, the use of images to lead into the blogs hinders the SEO for the site, so I’ve added in a div with the excerpt from each blog in it, and then made it hidden from your average user, but glowing like a Christmas tree for Google and the like to crawl.
As for the style, I like most of it, but the orange background for the Sherbert colour scheme? It was too much, so I went back to the original version’s white with orange highlights. I’ve also changed some of the padding in a few places – it wouldn’t be my site if I didn’t make changes would it?
What’s next? Well, the headings needs to be styled a little differently – again, maybe back to the original’s bolder feeling schemes. Some more tightening up of spacing – I used to do type setting, so I’m a little strange on that. And, well, if I’m feeling bold, and I’m honest, I’d maybe like to move it a little more towards the feel of some of the more popular schemes like Magazeen in some areas. Don’t ask me why, but if I can pull it off, I think there’ll be a new style added to the built in list.
And I’ll be continuing to work on my Gallery Plugin for Wordpress to make sure it fits in tightly with this theme, but will also work for the wider audience longer term.
In the meantime, if you’ve got any suggestions for the theme or the site, let me know. I always listen and will make sure it happens if I think it’s a good one.
So there you
