By Ian Stewart
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January 28th, 2008
Bear with me, this one is going to hurt. Load up your blog with your favorite WordPress theme on it. Ready? Scroll down.
Yep, scroll your theme down, down past the header and menu, down past the post titles. Scroll down to a page full of text and links and no distractions. This is where The Ultimate WordPress Theme Test will take place. This is where the best themes shine. Because this is where your readers will spend the bulk of their time and this is where your theme does the real work. Columns too wide or narrow? Font too big or small? Typography lame? Remember, content is there to be read. Don’t let your theme get in the way of that. Read More »
By Ian Stewart
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January 27th, 2008
Google Code is Google’s hosting repository for open source projects. Got an open source project? Google Code will host it for free. Want to make a killer WordPress theme that just plain works? Then Google Code is your best friend. Three projects on Google Code will help you get your WordPress theme done right. A trinity of open-source WordPress theme development tools: Sandbox, Blueprint and IE7.js. Read More »
By Ian Stewart
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January 24th, 2008
On January 30, 2006, A List Apart published In Search of The Holy Grail, Matthew Levine’s answer to the leanest, semantically correct, and bulletproof structure for a web-standards-based, 3 column layout with a liquid center—The Holy Grail.
Three columns. One fixed-width sidebar for your navigation, another for, say, your Google Ads or your Flickr photos—and, as in a fancy truffle, a liquid center for the real substance. Its wide applicability in this golden age of blogging, along with its considerable difficulty, is what has earned the layout the title of Holy Grail.
This article, and others like it, probably saved 1 million tons of lost hair among the web development community. You should read it if you haven’t already. But it’s not the end of the story. Read More »
By Ian Stewart
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January 23rd, 2008
If you’re like me, you like registering domains. It’s exciting. But what’s not exciting is watching your hosting company or domain registrar turn your name into an ad-farm while you’re getting ready to launch your next WordPress blog. If you didn’t know it, that’s called domain parking; a way for hosts and domain registrars to capitalize on all the underdeveloped domains out there. That’s why I came up with LaunchPad, the WordPress Domain Parking Theme. To explain: if this theme had a motto it might be, “I’m not your billboard.”
Now with most hosts offering one-click installs of WordPress—I recommend Fused Network—it couldn’t be easier to park your domain in style while you get your future blog ready. Just install WordPress, sign up for FeedBurner with email subscriptions (see instructions below) and you’re set! You get a professionally designed domain parking page—for free—that serves up an RSS feed link and a form for email updates. Read More »
By Ian Stewart
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November 21st, 2007
I’ve been interested in WordPress theming for a while now after winning First Runner-up in the Sandbox Designs Competition and having my first blog, Upper Fort Stewart, featured on Best Web Gallery and I Love Typography, amongst others. Job offers started coming in and I realized I might have something to share. I wanted a place where I could pass on my graphic design experience and all the things I’ve learned. Plus, my head was getting awful fat and I needed a place to vent it. Thus was born my new pride and joy, ThemeShaper.com—a blog devoted to WordPress themes, creativity and graphic design.
I want ThemeShaper to be a valuable resource for the WordPress community—and beyond. I’ve got a lot from you, I want to give back as much as I can. WordPress Themes, Design Tips and curious ideas about blogging are all I’ve got. I hope that’s enough!