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-
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!
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
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!
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’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! […]
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 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!
Just wanted to stop by and say “Great work!” This is a mammoth undertaking and you deserve much respect.
Congratulations on a brilliant idea.
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.
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!
i love clean and simple design like yours :)
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. :)
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.
My choice is Emire… But the others are nice too, good job ;)
Your themes are great. But why most of the designers don´t create 3-columns themes?
Congratulations
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!
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 :)
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!!
Beautiful work!
I like ‘BOSA’
Awsome! Only thing is that on mozilla they are all messed up. Did you test on only IE?
Amazing. Thanks for the inspiration!
I absolutely love the Simpla theme, very classy!
You can grab a localized version of Ambiru with a German language file here.
Temas elegantes para nuestro WordPress…
Si buscas un tema para WordPress en Google encontrarás cientos de ellos. Pero son todos tan… parecidos, algo sosos. Y los que no son sosos, ya están demasiado vistos, no tienen frescura. Hay veces que queremos algo elegante, quizás simple (min…
I love emire, came across it on someone else’s site and clicked the link at the bottom and have it all set up, and now I find you might have other beauties in store?
It is so simple and elegant. It’s like my dream theme.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Good work, now I´m using your themes, too :-)
Phu,
sweet work. just jumped into the wordpress camp, searched a bazillion themes, and simpla and emire are the tops. I dig durable too, but just not functional enough. Don’t have time for my own stylesheet madness, but someday soon.
check it
www.psychoboogie.com
rock…
[…] Oh, and cheers to Phu for the neat new theme; A Theme A Day sounds like a really cool idea and Bryan Veloso of Avalonstar has joined in - Chaotic Soul Posted by Dan Filed in Ego, Programming […]
[…] Whether it’s that extraordinary layout that makes everyone throw away their current layout and start over for the CSS Reboot. Or that week long special you have that keep people coming back day after day for a new layout. It seems like everyone has something to offer. Except me. […]
Your themes does have a search box and page
Cool themes, by the way!
Today i finished localization of all themes of the “A theme a day”-series. You can get all of them - along with a German locale - here
All the great themes are for Wordpress, perhaps I really should move.
Really beautifuly design. Thank you!
Nice themes; especially the Simpla theme.
What all themes are lacking is a Search box. I put one together by copying search.php and searchtemplate.php from the default theme. But they aren’t looking very nice. I am not really good at webdesign, so any help would be appreciated.
Great themes! I like Simpla a lot!
Thanks for sharing.
Zaigham
I would just like say that you are the kind of person* I want to be when I grow up and have time.
*The kind of person who makes a theme a day and then gives them all away.
Hi there,
Just noticed your site in the author section of ‘Flex’ and thought i would let you know that i love the theme and have spent a couple of weeks learning the ins and outs of ccs and php (well, a little bit anyway!) from my brother, and have been practicing with ‘Flex’.
I’ve now pretty much customised it to my liking but thought i should give my thanks to the author. I noticed some other themes on your site which are great too…i especially like ‘Bosa’.
Keep up the good work, and you can check out ‘Flex’ in action at www.fergus-macdonald.com (maybe you can try and spot the modifications!
Thanks
Fergy
Hey, I love the ambiru theme….big fan of simple themes myself! I was looking to switch over to it, but I noticed one thing, you haven’t implemented a search box. I’m not a programmer by any means, so I was wondering how I would do that. I’ve tinkered inside of other WP themes’ php code, but I’m not 100% sure how I’d get that search box back. Any help would be appreciated.
Great work!
Nitin
Hi -
I just wqanted to say bravo for creating all those free themes.. I’ve downloaded them all and fully plan to impliment all of them accross my large and growing spectrum of blogs that address various issues - christopher-ryan.net being the hub..
Your a very talented coder and I hope to have half your skill byt the time I’m dead and gone… I’ll consider myself a ssuccess if i make it half that far in my lifetime.
most respectfully,
-CR
Hey, simpla is a really impressive theme. I use it on my persoanl wordpress.com blog. It is simple, and vinquainted, i love it.
Hi dude,
you make a lot of fantastic theme.
I will try to install one for my web site.
Amazing theme… I love it !
These are great! I really like the Simpla one!
Nice website. In my opinion I say yes. I hope to see this site for a long time.I will return again.
Hey your site doesn’t validate XHTML. 13.. errors. Actually I was asking myself whether a blog could really be XHTML validated. could there be some means to have clean XHTML code inside blogs????
[…] Also, away from the music front, Phu Ly, as web developer, undertook a similar task of a Wordpress theme per day for a week. Here is his work. […]
Wow! Very good job!
Thanks a lot for your time in developing these themes. They are all very neat and interesting in design.
I hope I can use one of them, with some small adaptations, for a poetry log I’m intending to build.
Cheers!
Love the Emire! Plan on implementing soon. Thanks for the quality, free designs.
[…] …And damn, it’s hot! I’ve been doing a bit of web design work recently and after having seen some of the nifty things friends and admired can do I decided finally learn some more CSS, as I should. Tate has been kindly helping me out here and there and now I’ve almost got a two-column template ready which I intend to use for my first WordPress theme sometime within the near future. I would love to do something like a week-long WordPress theme designing spree with some friends during some distant holidays… […]
Hi, I just uploaded one of your themes, Jentri, and activated it, the only issue is, it doesnt appear to be there. My site looks as if it has no style sheet, and has no images. The same happened with your emire theme when I tried to install that one. Am I missing something on this??
hi! I’m using your simpla theme. Your designs are great.
Thanks!
I have been GREATLY enjoying the Emire theme. It seems to be fitting every one of my needs for my portfolio. However, the one thing that I can’t seem to figure out is how to edit the theme so that the Meta information (author, category filed in, comments link etc) shows up the older date posts because it seems to only show up on the index page and only on the latest post. So a user would have to click a title of a later date post in order go to the comments section and so on. If you could possible give me the solution I would greatly appreciate it. :) Thanks
Zoomrix.com :)
I love all your theme and took some time out to port them to Blogger.
You can check out them at http://www.kaushalsheth.com/blogger-templates/ I really admire your work.
simply fantastic!
Very cool idea, and very cool themes too. Will use any of there on my blog. Thanks for time and effort you put into this.
i like that themes and expect some more themes regards badshah!
the theme fonts should be large
I dont use theme on my blog, but i think what i shuold make (desing) own theme.
[…] A theme a day - If..Else Log (tags: theme wordpress) […]
nice very nice
[…] http://ifelse.co.uk/archives/2006/02/21/a-theme-a-day/trackback/ […]
I’m a recent convert to WordPress and discovered your theme “Flex” and really appreciate its clean good looks. I look forward to tweaking it a bit to add a calendar, link to the admin, and a few other tidbits. Thanks!
Fantastic simple template designs. I’m thinking of converting my website just to use them!
I just want to let you know that your themes “really function!” - I’ve attempted to use many different approaches and you offer some of the most professional appearing templates. Nothing actually has to be done to your themes to make a site look good!
Thank you for the simplicity and impressive basic designs. Hope to catch up soon and get back to you later with “stuff” you can rub together and buy coffee with!
Thanks again for making my virtual experience more impressive!
The above site is a big “blank” for now. I have “stuff” at:
http://wordpark.com/index.php that I want to put some place else because we have run into “money running backwards days” and I can’t justify a yearly fee right now. When I find a monthly (trickle down payment) area - that’s where I’ll probably be.
Brilliant idea, brilliant works.
Kudos to those that release themes! Many people who use such blogs cannot make themes themselves and its always good to see others who take the time to release quality themes.
[…] Another notable theme challenge was found at ifelse.co.uk…Simplicity and elegance… […]
i must agree brilliant works ,also check mine site if you want and leave a comment.
the day 4 theme is my favourite, the others seem to lack colour and look a bit dull. Thanks a lot for the list.
There are some nice themes here, which would you recomend for a web entrepreneur blog. The day 1 theme is my favourite of the bunch but I feel it lacks the cutting edge if you know what I mean.
Awesome design. I was impressed by your theme so I decided to use it as an example for people to learn more about good designs.
By the way, I liked the last theme. Neat!
Keep up with the good work man.
Excellent work :) I’m gonna use Emire.
I am only starting with wordpress: but this is just excellent. Is there no possibility to download treba anymor?
I hope you decrease font size at date n month, i love simpla…
Nice work. I can’t believe you made one theme per day. Great!
[…] Okay, bugs. How well this is received will choose the bug reporting route I take, but for now just keep the bugs coming to my email or the comments below. Either way I hope you like it. Finally, a special thanks to Phu for inspiring me to do this. Let me know if you use it! […]
Hi, A great source of some reallly usefull information, Thanks I’ve added you to my favourites.
hey phu, good work again! if i may suggest, if you design a theme with left sidebar its more adsense friendly as ppl like to put the ads on the left sidebar of the blog instead of the right side. i loved simpla. i like these simple, fluid, easy on eyes themes.
keep up the good work
sanjay
[…] Whether it s that extraordinary layout that makes everyone throw away their current layout and start over for the CSS Reboot. Or that week long special you have that keep people coming back day after day for a new layout. It seems like everyone has something to offer. Except me. […]
I LOVE the themes very much. How do I add a search bar to the Treba theme?
I like your themes very much. Simpla is my favorite. The colors are fantastic!
Awesome themes, they are so fresh. You made a lot of great themes in such a short period. I like Ambiru!
I like the themes very much. You really had a lot of inspiration to make such great looking themes in only 6 days.
Hi,
I love the themes. However I am facing trying to install them. I can’t see them in the presentation window of my wordpress setups. I have both Wordpress 2.0.4 and 2.1.3 installed on different servers and domains.
Any pointers would be really helpful.
Thanks…
Simple is just amazing. Thanks so much Phu.
Thanks a lot! Simpla is a real beauty. The fresh colours and the simple design keeps things organized. (Maybe even 3column worthy..) Just what i was looking for!
This is just awesome, specially the green Ambiru theme looks so appealing,!!! I am surely gonna use it in one of my blogs!
Hello,
I am working on a new private project (first time with wordpress) and I’m looking for a simple theme which I can use for a summary of car rental stations worldwide (no commercial interest). I like yours because they are simple but would it be possible to integrate a picture (for example a car or anything else to make it a bit clearer what it is about). Sorry for stupid question but I am really new with all those wordpress possibilities.
Thanks a lot !!