A theme a day
One of the things that I like best about Wordpress is the fantastic theme system which make developing and deploying site designs a doddle. I'm going to take advantage of that ease of use by embarking on an experiment I'm going to call 'a theme a day' week. Every day this week, I'm going to design and give away a WP theme ready for you to use on your blog.
Well enough talk, let's roll.
Day 1
The first offering is this week long project is a nice gentle affair. Simpla is a clean yet aesthetically pleasing theme that will allow you to showcase your words without distractions. Feel free to take a look at it on the demo site. If you fancy giving it a try, proceed to the theme page and download away:)
If you want to comment on this theme, head on over to this post. If you want to leave general comments about 'a theme a day' week, head over here:)
Enjoy!
Day 2
There are a number of gorgeous looking themes available but sometimes what you really want is something that looks smart. Enter todays theme which I've entitled Emire. Emire is a theme which is just as comfortable in a commercial setting as it is on a personal site. Calm and aesthetically pleasing, Emire exudes an air of professionalism. Feel free to take a look at it on the demo site.
If you want to comment on this theme or read more information on the work behind today's release, head on over to this post.
Day 3
I'll confess to having a soft spot for single column designs; I like the clarity of purpose they provide and how no-nonsense they are; when you go to a blog with a single column design, your first point of attention are the posts. One of the first WP themes that I worked on was single column and it's good to be able to develop another one. Give a warm welcome to Ambiru.
For me, Ambiru gives off an air of calm tranquility. The lovely header image1 brings a nice piece of balance to the design.
If you want to comment on this theme or read more information on the work behind today's release, head on over to this post or take a look at the demo site.
Day 4
And it's another day in 'a theme a day' week which means, of course, another theme. Today's selection is Treba. Once again, it's all about the words and Treba's clean design let's you concentrate on the content; after all content is king.
Take a look at the demo site and see what you think or head on over to the blog post to find out more and post a comment.
Day 5
The week draws to the end and the weekend beckons allowing us to temporarily forget about the stress and tribulations of work and concentrate on R&R. With the cold weather outside, one way to relax is to curl up in bed or by a fire and immerse yourself into a good book.
Today's offering for 'a theme a day' week, entitled Jentri, is reminiscent of such; for me, it gives off an air of comforting sophistication and provides the ideal canvas for words; the perfect setting for thoughts and insights to reside.
Take a look at the demo site and if you find that it's the one for you, head over to the theme page and download it for yourself. You can read more about this theme or leave comments at the related blog entry.
Final Day
After a break in our scheduled programming, it is time to reveal the final theme in the 'a theme a day' week feature. Today's theme is Bosa, a theme that is big and bold but which also carries an air of calm tranquility.
Take a look at the demo site and if you find that it's the one for you, head over to the theme page and download it for yourself. You can read more about this theme or leave comments at the related blog entry.
What's next?
So the next thoughts on everyone's mind is what's next? Well, I'm planning to do a writeup on this week's feature where I'll be talking about the design process, lessons learnt and other (hopefully) interesting points.
In preparation for that, I was wondering if I could ask a favour of anyone who has been tuning in; could you answer a couple of questions for me (don't worry, they're easy)? Just head on over to this post. Thanks:)
Thank you
Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who's left a kind comment, words of encouragements or linked to this site. This week long feature is really hard work2, and though it's one that I quite happily enjoy doing, but knowing that the work is appreciated makes things so much easier.
Additional information
Experiment?
This is an experiment because I have a day job. This means that I have a limited amount of time each day to design, develop3, test4 and release a brand spanking new theme. How limited? Well, realistically, I have about an hour in the morning before I go to work and about 3 hours5 to get something ready for release.
So, it'll be interesting to see what I can do under constraints.
Why are you doing this?
Partly because I like to give back to the WP community. Partly because I've been a bit lax with 'real' posts recently. Partly because going public gives me a big incentive to get off my backside and not procrastinate. But mainly because I like doing this and I like a challenge:)
Some final notes
Anyone reading this blog via their RSS feeds should check back on this page as I'll be updating this page daily. Also, could you leave comments pertaining to a specific theme on their respective blog entries. Thanks!
Oh and if you're a Digg user, feel free to digg this feature:)
- Which I had a bit of help with. With the tight time constraints, I decided to ask my brother Mike if he'd could spare a bit of his time to help me develop a header image whilst I worked on the rest of the design. Much appreciated especially with the tight time constraints which he had to play with. [back]
- The smart thing to have done was to spent some time planning and doing some preparatory work before embarking on this crazy venture. Perhaps waiting till I had a free week would have been more sensible. But what is life without a bit of spontaneity and carefree rashness? [back]
- Limited time means no AJAX, fancy scripting or admin panel customisations. What you will get though is a robust, well crafted theme for your blog. [back]
- Yep, I'll try to test across all the major browsers in play. [back]
- Maybe more, maybe less. I generally get home by about 7pm. Since I'm not going to be working on this at work, that doesn't give me a lot of time to play with. [back]
-30-
[…] I guess for these themes until I delegate them to someone else. I have to come out of retirement and post up here. Don’t expect comments from me. Although Ben,and the other guys may respond. I won’t. Sorry folks. Anyhow. One of my favorite bloggers in the world is doing a theme a day for an entire week. This is a great idea. And I love the theme and I think its entirely too amazing not to share with the problogging community. So here it is for your enjoyment. Check out the blog as well. A lot of good interesting content to be devoured here. […]
[…] Phu has embarked on “A Theme a Day” week where he designs and offers a Wordpress theme every single day of the week. […]
Phu I love ’simpla’ very clean and simple. Well done.
This has to be one of the greatest things anyone has ever done for the Wordpress community. Great idea! Keep up the good work!
[…] The first is Simpla, which is part of Phu’s Theme a Day project. It’s a very clean white theme with great typography, it reminds me of Dunstan’s blog. […]
Brilliant. Bravo, Phu. It is still incredible how really good these themes look.
Beautiful work! Thank you!
great idea homie. lol, this is smart, wordpress already accepted simpla, now i really would like emire to show up on wp. it’ll be great for use. heck you seem so talented that i bet all your themes will end up there. great work.
Nice idea for a project.
I’m not a Wordpress user, but this is a great idea. Design is design, and the Emire template is just very (!) tasty. I’m looking forward to more.
Kudos, Phu!
the emire theme, the footer looks weird, i scroll up and down but the footer stays [it looks like something in an iframe, when i scroll up, the footer goes up, too]. Oh I don’t know how to explain what I mean, but I hope you get me :D
[…] Phu Ly vom If..Else Log hat sich die Aufgabe gestellt, eine Woche lang jeden Tag ein neues Wordpress-Theme zu veröffentlichen: “A theme a day” […]
[…] Incase you didn’t notice what Phu is up to over there. He is on day 3 of his week of creating wordpress themes.[…]
It is great what you are doing, especially considering you are doing all this in your limited spare time. As a WordPress user, I am very thankful for what you are doing here.
So far, both themes rock! I am looking forward for more, I am sure they are all high quality. Anyway, I wish you enough energy and concentration to finish this great challenge.
WOW…those are some great themes! I love the look of your blog and I am glad you have decided to release some of the fruits of your design knowledge into the wild. If I ever decide to start blogging again, I will take a serious look at your themes.
/me bows to the Master.
“We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy!”
Thanks for your many contributions to the WordPress community. You are truly an inspiration!
Very nice work! Keep it up :)
Great idea, really like Empire at present. We are only at day two can’t wait to see what the week holds in store.
[…] For all you WordPress lovers out there, do pay Phu Ly’s site a visit and watch him work his arse off on his personal mission to create A Theme a Day for an entire week. […]
These are both generous and beautiful. Great work. Thanks for doing this.
Awesome layouts so far! I’m finding making my own themes pretty hard - you make it look so easy! I’m learning a lot just looking at yours!
This is a good idea, kinda like my “One template a day” week (although that was xhtml/css templates and not wp themes). And damn good themes too, it will be nice to see the rest!
[…] Phu Ly took it upon himself to make a theme a day. They look really nice, and I can only assume that they will get better as the week progresses. […]
This is a rather ambitious undertaking, but I’m sure these themes will be nice additions to the WP theme pool. So far, they’re all rather nice.
Fantastic project Phu, well done. All three look great, am looking forward to seeing what the rest of the week holds. :)
Fantastic offers! A wonderful contribution to the WP community.
Nice work!
I went ahead and implemented Ambiru on my soite. I did make some changes; thanks Phu!
your themes look great
great themes. im waiting yoursite`s style themes :)
Great, my favorite it Emire.
Keep up the good job :)
[…] I just wanted to quickly tell everyone about Phu and his latest experiment… A WordPress theme a day in his spare time. So far he’s made 3 and they’re absolutely gorgeous and it amazes me how they were made in Phu’s spare time! I’m learning a lot from them! […]
[…] But now, new themes are back. And boy are they good! One such developer (Phu Ly) is doing a Theme-A-Day which I imagine is quite a mammoth task, but the results are pretty good so far. And themes are also getting more and more user friendly. For instance, this site uses the Regulus theme, which comes bundled with a theme editor. This makes it far easier for the novice to change the look of the site without having to delve into the CSS and other files. This has really taken off and now a lot of theme developers are doing this. To name a few: Supposedly Clean, Sirius, WP-Andreas09 to name just a few. And kcyap has started a Theme Competition for 2006. Not the first of its kind, but a welcome return of Alex King’s concept, which led to his Theme Browser. […]
[…] I’ve really got to give a shout out to Phu Ly over at If..Else Log who is currently in the midst of doing A Theme a Day for Word Press Blog users. Phu’s first theme, Simpla is one that I’ve ended up adopting for the time being. I really haven’t had much time to devote to this site, but desired a clean, almost institutionally sterile, look. Well, Simpla pretty much hit the nail on the head. So, I want to give a “holler” over to Phu for doing some great, simple, themes for the WordPress crowd! […]
[…] A guy took it upon himself to create a new wordpress theme everyday for this week. So far he’s released a couple themes. They aren’t exactly the next k2 but that’s no surprise considering the limited amount of time he has for each one. They’re all clean with nice CSS. […]
I hope more people follow your example. These are all very neat themes with clean design.
Ambiru is a *very* nice theme. I nearly switched my site to it (I’m running K2 ATM). I might still switch, but I’d like to give myself some time to customise Ambiru a little first :)
Releasing a Wordpress theme a day is a very tall order! I doubt I’d be able to pull it off! Even if you only got a couple of themes “out the door”, it’s still more in a week than many acheive in months…
I admire your drive, to able to pull this off next to a full time job is quite an accomplishment. All three thusfar look great.
I’m very impressed and in love with this design.
Thanks for your work.
Thanks guys. Your comments are appreciated:)
I have a suggestion, could you in your upcoming themes put an image in the post so we can see what that would look like? Thanks again.
[Edit by Phu: I’m confused; aren’t I already doing this?]
[…] I’ve have been - like so many others - following Phu Ly’s A theme a day project and comming to day 4 and the Treba theme, it was like looking at some of my own creations. […]
[…] I just wanted to make a short post and explain that i’m using a customized (colours etc) version of one of Phu Ly’s theme a day theme. So I thought i’d let everyone know and link back. I think he’s doing a wonderful job. […]
[…] Another of Phu Ly’s themes from his “theme a day” series. […]
the ambiru theme is beautiful. thanks for sharing it.
Beautiful!
Just wanted to tell you that I love all of them! Thanks for sharing these with us.
It’s nice to see actual “nice” themes being shared out there. We know all the hard work you put into these to share them.
We’re so grateful! Thank You!
And that “Emire” theme looks Yummy…
Hmmm… *hehe*
Brilliant!
I love all of them and using your themes for my blog now.
Thank u!
[…] Hey there, just found yesterday a great site. Phu Ly is making a theme for WordPress every day for one week. This week he creates a theme every day. I am not talking about some ugly and beta themes, this themes are really cute and works great. For now my favorite is day 2 creation Emire. See it yourself, the site is If.Else , really can’t wait tomorrow theme…. Tags […]
Just wanted to stop by and say “Great work!” This is a mammoth undertaking and you deserve much respect.
Congratulations on a brilliant idea.
[…] If…Else Log is offering one new theme a day for a week. Check it out if your looking for a change. […]
Being a fan of minimalist designs, I have to admit that these templates of yours are, frankly speaking, nothing short of amazing. I hope to be able to contribute something to the WP community like you someday.
[…] Aw heck, why not? We weren’t planning to do any themes this Friday, but the Simpla theme we introduced a few days ago has been a huge hit and Phu’s Theme a Day series has continued with some really top-notch stuff. […]
Great work with the “Theme A Day” project! I’m stunned by the style and subtlety of the designs. I’m using Ambiru on my site, with a couple of (poorly executed) tweaks, and I’m really happy with it. Keep up the great work!
[…] This is also possible because I’ve finally found a theme that I really like (honest!) with the awesome work Phu Ly is doing with his “A Theme a Day” initiative. This baby is called Ambiru. Do pop over and have a browse through the stylish and subtle designs he’s crafting at breakneck speed. Kudos! […]
Phu, I think what you are doing is brilliant and amazing, as always!
[…] Each day this week, I’m going to be releasing a new WP theme for use. Check in each day to find a new Wordpress theme.read more | digg story […]
i love clean and simple design like yours :)
[…] I found a cool site via Alternative Source’s Mike’s other blog fiftyfoureleven.com. Phu Ly is putting up one new WordPress theme a day for a week. […]
Do I take it that if we want these for TXP I’m going to have to get my fingertips working again? ;)
Nice job, by the way, what with limited time and all. :)
[…] If you are not aware Phu is planning to release a theme a day for a week. Now I know Phu is damn good coder and quite the visionary but if he can code a theme in a night and release it; take a look for your self they are not two bob hacks they are respectable themes, then why can I not get off my ass and have something to show for all the thoughts. Last night I finally put pen to paper and tips to keys to start planning out some ideas. At present I have no idea, name or set scheme to stick to, this will just be creative flow. […]
I like the simple one so much…it’s very much my style. Keep up the good work.
[…] First off you can see I changed my theme. I had been itching to change it, I get bored so easily. I came across this theme from A Theme A Day and I love simple so this one worked for me. I’ve also added some plugins to make it all a little more fun, I may still add more today as I have the whole day at home. […]
Great themes, so far. Some of the best that I’ve seen offered. I like things simple and clean so these are great for me. Thanks!
[…] Thanks to my handy moleskine notebook, some coffee, and an idle moment at work, I’ve come to some conclusions about the direction of this blog. Both design and method are going to change soon-ish. I’ve got a good handle on what I want, and even mostly how it’s going to look. Just a heads up that things may take on a new look in a few weeks. Be inspired as I was. :D […]
What fantastic work all of this is - I commend you on your effort that you would manage to squeeze this in every day. All of the themes, like your site, are beautiful and some of the best I have ever seen!
Make it 2 weeks hehe
Great themes.
I think only the fonts should be bigger, but i can change it manually by editing css.
[…] Phu over at IfElse was very busy last week, he had a week of ‘themes a day‘ where he released a new wordpress theme every day. […]
My choice is Emire… But the others are nice too, good job ;)
[…] A theme a day è una iniziativa di If..Else Log, il blog di Phu Ly. Phu Ly ha deciso in pratica di rilasciare, durante la scorsa settimana, un tema per ogni giorno della stessa, per un totale quindi di sei temi. Temi che vi presentiamo tutti insieme in questo post. […]
Your themes are great. But why most of the designers don´t create 3-columns themes?
Congratulations
[…] Phu Ly, from ifelse.co.uk has completed his ‘A Theme A Day‘ on his website. […]
hahaha…im sure we all have a ’soft spot’ for single column designs too :)
No day 7?
These are some absolutely fantastic themes and I can’t believe you pulled them off in the time you did.
Congratulations!
[…] Hey there, just found yesterday a great site. Phu Ly is making a theme for WordPress system every day for one week. This week he creates a theme every day and he really makes it. I am not talking about some ugly and beta themes, this themes are really cute and works great. For now my favorite is day 2 creation Emire. See it by yourself, the site is If.Else , really can’t wait tomorrow new theme…. Tags […]
[…] Of course, if you have a regular WP installation on your site, you can also grab them for your own use. What a nice guy that Phu bloke is, eh? Posted by If Else Filed in General […]
[…] Phu of If..Else Log is doing a WordPress Theme a day! And they’re beautiful! Technorati Tags: themes, wordpress […]
These themes are in a class of their own! I’m just regretting that you stopped at 6 and didn’t go for 7…but that’s just me being greedy!
Thanks for all the hard work. I’m using simpla on a project site of mine.
Muy buen trabajo y muy rapido, porque hacer una plantilla en 5 horas es tener las cosas muy claras! Me encanta la SIMPLA, es lo que andaba buscando, asi que es posible que la integre en mi blog.
Muchas gracias por esta aportacion tam buen a las plantillas de wordpress!
U are lame.
Lame
The whole thing is ugly and lame as I dont know whut.
[Edit by Phu: Combined Keosha’s 3 comment into one. Such examples of genius really needs to be kept together in one place.]
“U are lame.”
“Lame”
“The whole thing is ugly and lame as I dont know whut.”
You come on to someones site and write that - youre clearly an idiot.
you’re a wordpress theme god! goodness!
Ein Wordpress Theme-Künstler
Es grenzt schon an Kunst, was dieser Wordpress Theme-Entwickler so zaubert. Diese Themes für Wordpress sind so Bloglike, sowas gibt`s nicht nochmal. Und er stellt diese Themes sogar kostenlos für die Gemeinschaft zur Verfügung…
Hier einige Be…
I hope you make more, I love using simpla!
[…] das theme bassiert auf das trebe theme von phu ~ a theme a day. das wordpress von phu war scheinbar eine zeitlang nicht erreichbar und so vergaß ich ganz den link, wiederentdeckt habe ich ihn bei segert.net weblog. tags: blog posted on 05.03.2006 in category allgemein | […]
I like the green template!
super!
Well I never thought making a wordpress theme would be that easier. It took me more than a week time to design my first wordpress theme which is yet to be released. Maybe you have enough experience with that. Anyways great job i must say. I personally like the Day5 theme with maroon color. Simple, clean and yet professional. Excellent job :)
[…] Check out Phu Ly’s A theme a day project. In the course of a week, Phu Ly designed some of the best looking Wordpress themes I’ve seen yet, nice job Phu. […]
Love the free themes…Any 3 colum light colored themes in the works?
Brandon Hopkins
Oooh, I do like Jentri - looks stunning.
Beautiful. And I’m using it … ;)
Thx :)
I luuuuuurve the second one. Though I think there’s a bug on “Simpla” where the sidebar would end up right at the bottom of the page, below all the posts.
I love how your themes look so elegant and classy. It’s like putting on a pair of Gucci shoes! :) Thank you for sharing it with the rest of the world. My personal favorite is the Ambiru.
Thankyou for the simply stunning themes.
I dont know how you did it but I would definately employ you based on your speed :)
Want to move to Australia? heh.
Real cool work!!
[…] Inspired by Phu Ly’s Theme A Day week for Wordpress, I decided to do my own. Was going to do it this week, but work and school projets take a higher priority right now. So hopefully next week I’ll start my Theme-A-Day. LI’ve got two decent history-based themes, and one pretty simple theme. If you have any requests for the two remaining themes, pass them along. […]
Beautiful work!
I like ‘BOSA’
[…] A theme a day - If..Else Log […]
Awsome! Only thing is that on mozilla they are all messed up. Did you test on only IE?
Amazing. Thanks for the inspiration!