I’ve Joined Automattic

Posted on by Ian Stewart

Today marks the first day of my employment as a Theme Wrangler with Automattic and it feels great. I’m more than excited to finally let you know what I’ve been up to for the last little bit.

What can I say besides awesome, awesome, awesome? The enormous opportunity for learning and improvement; all the super-talented, friendly people; the chance to work on so many really, really cool projects—it’s almost unbelievable. This is a dream job for me.

So, yes, really excited. To say the least. And I don’t want to say too much right now so I’m going to keep this short. Though I imagine you have one very big question you’d like me to get to.

What’s Going To Happen To ThemeShaper?

Only exciting stuff.

First of all, I’m excited to officially announce that all the commercial Thematic Child Themes I’ve created are now free to download without charge.

Go download them, have fun with them, and make something really cool.

Now, this’ll be a big change for ThemeShaper but here’s an even bigger one: ThemeShaper isn’t just my blog anymore.

This is going to be awesome.

ThemeShaper will become a public-facing blog for the Theme Team now assembling at Automattic. A place where we can help provide the best possible experience for everyone involved in WordPress theming; from the noobiest of beginners to the most powerful of WordPress wizards.

Or like I said above, this is going to be awesome.

Stay tuned to the ThemeShaper blog for more updates. And if you’ve got some ideas for what you’d like to see here I’d love to hear them. Let me know what you think in the comments.

117 thoughts on “I’ve Joined Automattic”

  1. I was like 99% sure you were joining Automattic with all your hints, but the change for the Theme Shaper site was definitely unexpected.

    Congratulations on the new job. I’m excited to see what you’ll be doing around here too.

  2. First of all congratulations for getting an awesome job.:). Lets see which theme you are going to give us in wordpress 3.0.:)

  3. Congratulations on your new job Ian – what a fabulous opportunity! :)

    Glad to hear that ThemeShaper isn’t going away. Sounds like there are some really awesome things planned for the site. :D

  4. Congratulations Ian,

    This is great news for the community. Took me by surprise, but it just makes perfect sense. Looking forward to some more details on some of the targets in your sights – I’m sure exciting times are ahead!

  6. Congratulations on the new job Ian. How exciting indeed this must be for you. Very curious to see what’s going to happen to Themeshaper.

  7. Ever since I saw the “Theme Czar” job description on the Automattic Jobs page, I always thought you’d be the perfect fit for it. I guess I was (partially) right. :D

    Really excited about the changes to the blog too. These are definitely exciting times for WordPress theming.

  8. Hi Ian, that’s awesome news. Judging by the responsible way you’ve promoted your products in the past, this move will mean some really spectacular things for the community as a whole.

    Best of luck.

  9. Congratulations Ian. Have always been impressed by your theme coding skills and now we are only going to expect best thinking you are in the theme team.

    Can’t wait to see the new stuff on themeshaper.

  11. A Fabulous opportunity join. many many many congrats and keep up the good work.
    Please don’t forget this workplace and keep updating Themeshaper with exciting stuff ! ;)

  12. Congratulations! I really debated which blog/CMS I wanted to invest my time and energy into learning. When I discovered the Thematic theme I was swayed to WP…This news confirms that I made the right choice!

  15. Gratz :)
    I can suggest to add updated wp3.0 custom post type full guide for beginners. This is really a big issue, there is no official info about this

  16. Congratulations Ian, so happy for you and lookin forward to find what Themeshaper will bring in the years to come to us WpAddicts.

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  20. Awesome man, just awesome. Like Justin, I was already fairly certain you had signed up with Automattic. I can’t wait to see what’s coming down the pipe!

  22. Congratulations!!! Well deserved. I never would have guessed ;) I look forward to seeing some awesome wrangling in the future!!

  27. First, congratulations — what an opportunity to work with WP right from the core!

    I too will be interested to hear what’s going to happen with Thematic – will that stay here or get spun off into its own site/project?

  30. Congrat!, it ‘s become a dream to works at Automattic like you as I have apply there but there is no response. So let us know if there is any new jobs in there.

  31. Congratulations!

    Win for you, win for Automattic, but mostly a win for all us WP hackers that you help so much!

  32. Congrats Ian.

    I’d like to share with you a pearl of wisdom given to me by my uncle: “With great power comes great responsibility.” At least, I think my uncle said it. Maybe it was that rice guy. At any rate, it’s good food for thought. :)

    I’m looking forward to seeing how you can shake things up.

  37. Congratulations! This is a testament to your hard work and determination on making themes and theme building accessible to all. The future of WordPress themes just got stronger.

  39. I didn’t know you that well before I started working with Kirby, but your code made a good first impression. :) I’m very excited to be working with you now full-time!

  40. Congrats! I look forward to seeing what you’ll accomplish now that you’re apart of the core “team.”
    Best wishes.

  43. Wow Ian and congrats both to you and Automattic. You get your dream job and they get one of the best WP theme developers around. Can’t wait to see what happens next!!!

  45. This is really, really cool!
    I could not think of a better person to care for the development of themes, than you.
    I hope you’re happy and do a great job there!
    Greetings from Brazil

  50. Great news for all of us who care about WordPress. Congratulations to you, but also to Automattic for having the sense to put you on the payroll.

  54. Automattic wins big by adding your talents & credibility to their team and you win big by improving the state of WP themes – wins for the whole community!

  55. Win. win. win! Definitely very awesome! I’m glad automattic added someone knowledgeable and influential like you to their team. Really exciting news! Can’t wait to see what you guys start pushing out. Wish you the best of luck!

  60. Congrats on the new epic job! Dont know of anyone more suited for it! Best of luck too :P
    Really excited about whats in-store here

  62. Congratulations! :) I’m only new to Themeshaper but going by my experience so far, WordPress Themes will be taken to a new level with this change!

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  65. Congrats Ian. You’ve given so much to the community that this is very well deserved. I’m looking forward to the changes in ThemeShaper. All good news for you. Automatic, and the WordPress community.

  67. Yet another very smart decision by Automattic!

    RE: And if you’ve got some ideas for what you’d like to see here I’d love to hear them.

    I’d like to see Thematic become more of a WordPress community project with more involvement from the many super-talented people around the world who have embraced the Thematic Framework.

    Thematic is great but while it was with ThemeShaper it was clearly heavily dependent on you (your skill set, time pressures etc.) Now you have the opportunity to bring others on board in the way Matt Mullenweg has done with WordPress. It would be great to see Matt’s ability to build strong, successful, focused Open Source communities rub off on the Thematic Framework.

    Specific areas where I would like to see effort put into Thematic in order of importance (to me at least):

    1. Documentation – beginners, intermediate & advanced
    2. Forum – already good but Automattic input should help
    3. CSS – simpler CSS structure in parent theme to allow easier CSS customization.

    All the best!

  72. Many congratulations Ian, this is tremendous news. Your hard-work and superior product has paid off. Needless to say I am really looking forward to the changes and enhancements that are sure to come.

  73. Let me add my voice to the chorus, Ian. I’m rapt to hear that you’ve been offered a gig that you’re clearly very excited about.

    And personally I’m happy to hear that the time I’ve invested in trying to learn WP ‘via’ Thematic is probably going to held me in good stead.

    Congratulations.

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  80. Congratulations, Ian. That’s good news. I’ve been an ExpressionEngine developer since early 2004, yet I love what WordPress has become in the past year or so, and have begun to develop WP sites.

    My question is simple:

    What happens to Thematic?

    Is it over? Will development stop? Will it be folded into Automattic? Have we seen the last of Thematic updates? Or, will it become a de facto standard theme framework for WP 3.0 and beyond?

  82. And another note about Thematic.

    Currently I’m working on the code that creates the widget areas. Then I’ll add support for multiple blogs / sites to the theme options, then the support for wp_nav_menu(), and so on.

    Thematic is a community project. If you would like to be part of this community, if you would like to contribute ideas, patches, php code, CSS code, knowledge, tutorials, translations, please contact me or/and Ian. Send us an email, tweet us, drop a note on the Thematic project page or on the ThemeShaper Forums.

  83. Pingback: Ian Stewart from themeshaper joins Automattic | themesforge.com - Premium Wordpress Themes, News, TIps and More

  84. A big congratulations Ian!

    I’ve always been a huge admirer of your excellent work and I’m really looking forward to what you can cook up with the Automattic guys.

    Best of luck!

  85. And it couldn’t have happened to a nicer bloke Ian.
    Hope this means that WordPress might come with a new clean default theme that you add a child theme to.
    Good Luck mate.

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  96. Congrats Ian, really nice to see you there, Automattic did the right thing, great for the WP community and WP theming and of course you’re Canadian too ;)
    best,
    -Sam from Montreal

  97. Fabulous news for you, for Themeshaper, and especially for Automattic – Congratulations! :D

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