Author: Lance Willett

My name is Lance, I am a blogger, product manager, software developer, and business executive creating high-quality, engaging, and customer-centered experiences for people online. México-born. Chief Product and Technology Officer at Tumblr (Automattic).

Where Do You Find the Best WordPress Themes?

If you’re reading this there’s a good chance you’re a WordPress theme aficionado, a true connoisseur. I’d like to know: how does a devourer of WordPress themes, like you, fulfill your massive appetite for awesome new themes?

For my cravings, I generally partake in the following (most common at the top):

  • I find out by word of mouth, from my colleagues at work.
  • Via Twitter, from the theme designers and theme shops I follow closely.
  • By way of the Extend free themes directory RSS feed (I then go preview each one immediately).
  • Reading reviews on sites like WPCandy, WPTavern, Smashing Magazine, or Weblog Tools Collection.
  • By checking the Commercial listing on Extend often, to discover theme shops, from time to time.
  • Rarely, I will use visual theme sorting services like the Theme Finder or ThemeSorter.

And in case your answers are different, where would you send someone to look for great WordPress themes who is not a theme junkie? Your family, friends, clients, a non-WordPress expert who asks your advice.

The Weekly Theme Show on WPCandy

The Weekly Theme Show is a new podcast from WPCandy that should be required listening for all WordPress theme designers and developers. Both because it involves WordPress themes and, more importantly, because it’s not from developers for developers, like most of the other podcast offerings out there in the WordPress community. It’s like a breath of fresh air.

This show will discuss WordPress themes, weekly, from a user’s perspective (and not a developer’s).

It’s exciting to see something that is user-focused, and this looks to be an engaging and interesting conversation about WordPress themes from a much different angle.

New Default WordPress Theme Twenty Twelve Hits Core for 3.4

Speaking of WordPress Themes in 2012, the new WordPress default theme for this year is in da hizzous.

For the 3.4 release cycle the core WordPress team is trying something new: assigning small teams to tackle various parts of the release. The Twenty Twelve team is Matt Mullenweg (Holder of the Keys and Grand Master Themengineer), Drew Strojny (Designer and Minimalist), and Lance Willett (Thematurge).

Want to keep tabs on this new default WordPress theme? Follow development updates on WordPress Development Updates and in Trac: Twenty Twelve ticket and Bundled Themes.

We’re super excited to see it land in WordPress trunk and start taking shape.

High Quality Icons for Themes

One of the barriers theme companies face in going full GPL with their themes—thus enabling their themes to be released on WordPress.org Extend—is a lack of great quality icons with open source licensing.

That’s one reason I’m super happy to see Post Format Icons released by StudioPress. Free, high-quality icons to use in your theme. Awesome.

Will this inspire other web designers and WordPress themers to open source their own graphics? I sure hope so.

What are your favorite open source icons?