If..Else Log

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:)

1. 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]
2. 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]
3. 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]
4. Yep, I'll try to test across all the major browsers in play. [back]
5. 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]

Dr McNinja is a brilliant webcomic about a doctor who's also a ninja. I found this link a while ago but didn't click through past the front page. A shame as it's fantastic stuff. Recommended!

The first offering in this "a theme a day" week 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:)

I've kept it pretty simple but I couldn't resist using the excellent FamFam mini icons by Mark James:)

The story of the Flickr fan who lost a camera comes to a bitter end as a Canadian couple finds the camera but refuses to give it back [via]

I am out $500 and some measure of faith in humanity.

Sometimes I'm disappointed by how some people can shed their moral obligation so easily.

When Australia's Channel 7 had a power failure and went off air, you'd expect that other stations would have picked some additional viewers. However, to the everyone's surprise, 900,000 viewers continued to stay tuned to the network after screens went blank 38 minutes into the nail-biting episode.

AjaxLessons¹ is a site dedicated to tutorials and workshops for learning AJAX.

1. BTW, in case you're wondering about the referrer id in the link, they're also running a little contest to see who can send the most referrers; however, the site is a good resource and definitely worth bookmarking (or is bookmarking too 2004 now?). [back]

What is it about companies that blatently steal designs and instead of accepting the blame, try to crawl their way out by attacking other people?

Lesson to people who steal other websites: fall on your sword, accept responsibility, and change it. Obviously creative work shouldn't have been stolen in the first place, but once it's stolen you shouldn't

1. email readers who are pissed off at you,
2. piss them off even more,
3. tell them how much money you make so they think you're a big-timer,
4. ask how much money they make to prove their worth,
5. and then finally ask them to do work with you and/or partner.

Mike Rundle's and Doug Bowman's reputation are fortunately beyond dispute and can walk away without harm; however, imagine the chaos which could have resulted if these toerags had stolen from less well-known designers.

Aaron Mavrinac does a bit of DIY and retrofits an alarm clock into the body of a NES console. I want one:)

Agile Partners Light Table prototype is an impressive demonstration of rich client UI for browsers.

There's a lovely collection of photos of beautiful manhole covers in Japan.