Notepad Chaos: A Free WordPress Theme
Over the last years we’ve featured a number of designers and developers who released their work for free — among other things we presented high-quality free fonts, free WordPress themes, free wallpapers and, of course, free icons. You can find many of them in our section Freebies.
Every release helps to make the Web a nicer place which is why we support designers and challenge them to release something for free in order to be featured on Smashing Magazine. And the results are quite often pretty impressive.
Today we are glad to release Notepad Chaos — a free professional WordPress-theme. The theme has 2 columns, a quite vibrant design including “personal” design elements such as handwritten headings, stick-it-notes, clips and pins. The theme was designed by Evan Eckard especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers.
Download the theme for free!
You can use the theme for all your projects for free and without any restrictions. However, it’s forbidden to sell or redistribute the theme without both designer’s and Smashing Magazine’s permission — please link to this article if you would like to spread the word. You may modify the theme as you wish, but if you are planning to release your modification, please ask our permission first.
- Preview (0.4 Mb)
- Download the theme (.zip-package, 0.5 Mb)
- Download PSD-sources (.zip-package, 5 Mb)
- Notepad Chaos 2.0: Official Release and Download page
The theme has been updated to version 1.5. It’s now up-to-date with cleaner code and includes a lot more functionality (gravatars, dynamic sidebars, etc.). You can find the files and demo here.
Motivation behind the design
Here are some insights about the design process and development from the designer himself.
“I had recently stumbled upon many websites with gorgeous, gigantic, illustrated backgrounds and wanted to try my hand at creating a site that shared that similar element. This theme was an experiment into layering multiple images and having everything line up and flow with the site’s content.
Among other things, the Notepad Chaos theme has handwritten search box and navigation at the top of the layout.
It was quite a challenge to develop the design after creating it, but in the end it helped me gain more experience in CSS and what we designers can do to try and create sites with plenty of visual depth. On the technical side of things, the theme doesn’t use any plugins or extras, and focuses simply on the design.
Sidebar in the Notepad Chaos is designed as a post-it-note and clipped at the top.
The themes uses a custom field called “thumbnail” where the user can add an image to their post. The instructions are within the readme file along with how to set up the menu links.”
Thank you, Evan. We appreciate your work and your good intentions.
Last but not least…
We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists. You may not know it yet, but we might feature you in one of our upcoming posts.
If you would like to release a high-quality free font, a WordPress-theme, some wallpapers or an icon-set please contact us — we would like to support you (both financially and with the broad coverage on Smashing Magazine).
You may be interested in the following free WordPress-themes as well:
bw
August 20th, 2008 1:36 pmLove it :) Nice attention to detail without feeling too busy.
Tristina
August 20th, 2008 1:40 pmIt doesn’t look like it supports Pages or am I missing something?
Tom
August 20th, 2008 1:40 pmLooks a very nice theme, not overly convinced on the background but it does make a change from the popular wooden background for such designs.
Andrew Nesbitt
August 20th, 2008 1:42 pmJust a heads up, none of the smashing magazine images are showing up in the rss feed (feedburner version)
MikeWhoBikes
August 20th, 2008 1:44 pmGreat looking theme — definitely a lot of interesting details here but it does all tie in together nicely. Well done!
Gabe Diaz
August 20th, 2008 1:50 pmVery nice, congrats!!
Eddy munn
August 20th, 2008 1:51 pmBeautiful, very inspirational piece of work!
Benni
August 20th, 2008 1:54 pmLooks really cool. Great job!
Tom Sinclair
August 20th, 2008 2:02 pmVery nice free theme!
Image problems in the RSS feed though as mentioned above
Dani
August 20th, 2008 2:04 pmOoOo pretty! I love the color scheme… Nice work!!
zhille
August 20th, 2008 2:37 pmIs it just me or is this webdisegnerwall.com copy…just slightly different elements and a different background in identical style.
Yes, it is really nice, I am not denying the skills and the good looks, I just had to say whay I had :).
Coinmaster
August 20th, 2008 2:46 pm@Tristina – you could add pages into the sidebar, no problem. Use the Pages widget, or drop the wp_list_pages template code into your sidebar.php file
@zhille – it’s not Web Designer Wall – it uses a similar style, but other than that it’s a different theme. Possibly highly inspired by WDW, but yeah, like, show me something that is 100% new and original :)
Cool theme guys!
stephanie
August 20th, 2008 2:47 pmreally nice work !!!! there should be more themes like this one !
dom
August 20th, 2008 2:47 pm@zhille
WDW didn’t invent the style, it’s nowhere near a copy.
James De Angelis
August 20th, 2008 3:09 pmVery “inspired” by Webdesigner wall…
adelaide web design
August 20th, 2008 3:31 pmvery nice ;)
see our wordpress web design at Duivesteyn Web Consulting
Anwar Vazquez
August 20th, 2008 3:37 pmThat’s beautiful… thanks for sharing it
evan
August 20th, 2008 3:44 pmWebdesigner Wall was one of the many illustration-driven sites that inspired me to create this theme.
Cassius
August 20th, 2008 4:02 pmNice, though a little rough around the edges.
Max | Design Shard
August 20th, 2008 4:42 pmThis is so cool, thanks
ilovecolors design
August 20th, 2008 5:00 pmEvan, it’s a really fine theme, maybe it’s the best that has been featured on SM in terms of aesthetics. My only concern is that the date element is not well integrated with the overall design, in the way Latest Posts, blog title and others are. Great work.
Elisa
August 20th, 2008 5:05 pmI Love this! Is anyone out there ready to convert it to a blogger theme….?
Daniel
August 20th, 2008 5:53 pmGreat theme! Reminds me of http://ma.tt/ a little bit.
Muhammad Hakim
August 20th, 2008 5:54 pmvery nice theme!!!
I wish I could desain like you!!!
NaldzGraphics.com
August 20th, 2008 5:54 pmlooking nice.thanks for this theme
ThemeLib.com
August 20th, 2008 7:27 pmI love the design style … Nice work!! :)
Abner
August 20th, 2008 7:27 pmI was just thinking today about setting up a new blog on wordpress, and then I fell upon this! Brilliant design, smashing to the core. Love you guys!
Reg
August 20th, 2008 7:38 pmthanks for sharing! this looks like something i can use and tweak for my needs :) great job :)
Nathaniel
August 20th, 2008 7:51 pmSuspiciously like web designer wall, still looks nice though.
Tracy
August 20th, 2008 8:22 pmI love this theme. The only problem I am having is with the link to the archives page. For some reason it keeps linking to the about page. Does anyone know how the correct for the archives?
Mithun Sreedharan
August 20th, 2008 8:35 pmlove this one!
xxxevilgrinxxx
August 20th, 2008 8:39 pmthat’s absolutely stunning!
beautiful work, and thank you so much for making it free!
E.
graphicscale
August 20th, 2008 9:29 pmNice!
lilia
August 20th, 2008 9:48 pmOooh I like this one. Love the style. Thanks for making it free!
Serkan Urhan
August 20th, 2008 10:26 pmNice theme
YouON
August 20th, 2008 10:33 pmpages are on footer ;)
kailoon
August 20th, 2008 11:02 pmThe date is like something from mars ….
AoRGuN
August 20th, 2008 11:04 pmwow. its really cool!
chris
August 20th, 2008 11:11 pmlove the background. the rest could be a little bit ‘cleaner’, though
Onyeka
August 20th, 2008 11:12 pmAwesome.
Bastian
August 20th, 2008 11:12 pmBeautiful! looks really nice. And with all the informations like the psd-file i will be able to make it look a little more male. ;-)
Sandie Sørensen
August 20th, 2008 11:23 pmUsualy I don’t even take a glance at these artuicles, cause I donøt need a wordpress-theme. I don’t use it. :)
But this theme… Oh my Lord. The picture of it on the homepage… I just had to take a look at it. Så vibrant colors and such a wonderfulle pattern… And I must say- Im not dissapointed! It is very, very beautifull! And as much I love the background pattern I thik it would be easy to replace with some of my own work… I just have to publish something that LOOKS original- and would never use this design- even thoug it IS beautifull!
Only the date-stamps I don’t really like. They kinda stick out of the rest of the design i think.
But thanks! Perhaps I should make a wordpress-blog of my own??
Angela
August 20th, 2008 11:33 pmWow, I love this theme! I’m a sucker for notebook-y themes.
Jackson Hyde
August 20th, 2008 11:39 pmNice palette.
hal9000
August 20th, 2008 11:52 pmI would just like to add a HUGE thank you for sharing the PSD
This alone gives me so many ideas and helps understand how professional designers work.
Almost as useful as the beautiful design
CPG
August 20th, 2008 11:53 pmtotally agree with Zhille… but nice work anyway…
ZioSteve
August 21st, 2008 12:14 amVery inspired by http://www.ma.tt and webdesignerwall, but it’s very cool!
Cho. P
August 21st, 2008 12:45 amDon’t mean to be rude, but it seems a bit of a poor-mans WDW…
Good effort though, just seems a little messy and unfinished, try working on the contrast and shading, all seems to be way out.
nalan
August 21st, 2008 12:47 amreally nice work !!!thanks..
dix-huit
August 21st, 2008 12:58 amIsn’t ‘About’ a page?
Hinduismnet.com
August 21st, 2008 1:15 amPretty, but these kind of designs using photoshop brushes are a bit overdone nowadays!
Denis
August 21st, 2008 1:24 amBEAUTIFUL..period!
hal9000
August 21st, 2008 1:36 amall these people moaning about contrast and what not. back up your claims!
I happen to think Evan has done a great job and looks spot on.
To much polish would very much detract from the sketchy look of the design. If you don’t like then don’t use it.
I for one will probably be using this as a bare bones for a theme I might adapt.
I think the more examples we see in the open of how unique designs are put together the better we will all be at understand how to realise our ideas.
so giev the guy a break for giving us his hard work for FREE
Peter
August 21st, 2008 1:44 amGreat job on the theme! I’m even convinced to give up the theme of the last three years on my blog and change it to this! It’s perfect for personal blogs.
Manuel
August 21st, 2008 1:58 amGreat work!
Amanda Fazani
August 21st, 2008 2:27 am@Elisa: I’m sure there would be quite a few people willing to convert this for Blogger, but they would need permission from Smashing Magazine and Evan Eckard first! There are a few similar designs (made for Blogger) available over at BTemplates.com though (for free download).
Cindy
August 21st, 2008 3:21 amWOW, is so beautiful!! Thank you!
Sandeep
August 21st, 2008 3:38 amwow…. its really nice theme!
yaGO!
August 21st, 2008 4:39 amreally awesome – home taste – theme
Ian Purton
August 21st, 2008 5:22 amI’ve installed it into my blog.
eylultoprak
August 21st, 2008 5:47 amBeautiful, very inspirational piece of work!
irokez
August 21st, 2008 6:12 amawesome theme!
Alvaro Guzmán
August 21st, 2008 6:47 amomfg
Fernanda Prevedello
August 21st, 2008 7:24 amVery Nice Theme!
Chris
August 21st, 2008 8:20 amnice color scheme and attention to detail, but this notepad/paper clip/post it note style is a bit dated IMO
Susan
August 21st, 2008 10:26 amA very pretty theme!
thegap
August 21st, 2008 10:33 amreally great theme :)
well done, thx
combo
August 21st, 2008 11:41 amlooks good but not a editable theme.
Skavenger
August 21st, 2008 12:21 pmThanks for the theme, very beautiful.
Is there any way to add widgets to the sidebar?
Henry Hoffman
August 21st, 2008 12:39 pmI know it’s been said, but this is a Web Designer Wall’s slightly uglier twin brother.
I like the background illustration – the colour’s cool and unique – however the rest just doesn’t fly.
The date tabs look completely out of place. The recent posts looks like its been cut out with the eraser tool. The typography is dull and disengaging. Instead of dropshadows it seems the background’s been erased.
No depth. Bad Photoshop. Bad design. Good background image (was it stock?).
liam
August 21st, 2008 12:49 pmBeautiful work there.
Byron Castillo H.
August 21st, 2008 2:22 pmRealmente bello !!!
es muy buen trabajo, realmente genial.
alguien podria ayudarme a instalarlo ?
Gracias !!!
Randie
August 21st, 2008 4:40 pmUse the Pages widget? How? This theme is not widget-aware.
Randie
August 21st, 2008 4:43 pmBeautiful theme! Thanks for sharing.
Josh Brage
August 21st, 2008 4:50 pmI love this theme. It was exactly what i had been looking for! @henry – stuff it. you are wrong. thank you very much. I took it and am using it already!
evan
August 21st, 2008 5:50 pm@Henry Hoffman – the top of the recent posts was cut out w/ the eraser tool :)
And yes, the background was erased at certain parts to bring more focus onto the content. I tried a drop shadow and outer glow from the notepad, but that rendered the design way too busy. So in the end, I masked off certain areas of the background.
David C
August 21st, 2008 6:58 pmThis is seriously one of the most beautiful designs I have seen in a very long time. Amazing!!!!
Lahure dai
August 21st, 2008 7:42 pmGrasias!
Rob
August 21st, 2008 8:59 pmLovely. Thanks so much for sharing.
Sandie Sørensen
August 21st, 2008 10:46 pmLooks fine, but is acting a little weird on the top…?
Sandie Sørensen
August 21st, 2008 10:49 pmOh my Lord! You’re such a sour grape!
If you can make it better yourself- and still want to give it up for free- DO SO!
Else: button your tounge!
Nolwenn
August 22nd, 2008 12:42 amI love it ! I love it ! I love it! This is EXACTLY what I was looking for one of my blog.
This theme is amazing, thank you.
erhan baran
August 22nd, 2008 12:49 amçok oş bir tema umarım erhan abim bu temayı türkçeleştirir
Cho. P
August 22nd, 2008 1:02 am@ Sandie Sørensen
If you feel that people with constructive criticism should ‘button their tongue’, then you are going to have rather dull and unchallenging future.
I’m sure Evan will take on-board helpful negative comments and use them to his advantage in the future, because that is how you progress in life.
Secondly, I was also just expressing my opinion, which I am free to do.
dandyman
August 22nd, 2008 3:01 amI like the design and the overall metaphor, but I have to replace the background. I don’t care how cliche, the whole wood, desktop background thing is, to me it just completes the metaphor. That being said, I’m having a nightmare of a time changing out the background. The theme relies on a solid color in the background and can’t be easily remixed to use a texture/pattern instead. I’m bummed, but not giving up just yet.
@Evan: Thanks for the theme, but thank you even more for the valuable lessons I’ve learned.
German
August 22nd, 2008 4:32 amHi,
I’m looking for a free wordpress theme designer to redesign the theme of my blog. Of course, you’ll could publish them here, in Smashing Magazine :)
Thank you!
Germán
http://www.iccc.es
Roseblom
August 22nd, 2008 5:16 amwow It is very pretty. I like to its color
dee
August 22nd, 2008 9:54 amVery nice theme, I’d really like to use it, however I have 8 years of posts, some of which contain images. The theme doesn’t allow any images other than the thumnail field to appear. I’ve tried different workarounds and I can’t seem to get them to show (@ max-width to 425)? I’d really like to use the theme, any idea how I can tweak it for my images?
Paul
August 22nd, 2008 1:57 pmThis is a very cool theme. I’m using it on my site!
I’ll have to change a few things around, but overall, this is by far one of the nicest looking free themes available.
Tutorials To Earn
August 22nd, 2008 3:47 pmGreat theme :) I am going to use this on my Personal blog…….
Thanks a lot to Smashing Mag …
Jaynee
August 22nd, 2008 6:32 pmIt’s beautiful. I love it.
But. And it’s a BIG but.
No sidebar widget capabilities?
Limited picture sizes in the posts?
It’s a beautiful theme, but pretty much unusable for 99% of folks out there that want to use it!
Jerome
August 22nd, 2008 7:24 pmNo sidebar widget capabilities?
nope.
i hope it can include that as well.
it’s great, thanks evans
Max Black
August 22nd, 2008 9:19 pmEvan’s own site has the coolest nav bar I’ve seen in a long time. I spent an hour one evening deconstructing it to see how it worked, and if I could replicate it. I believe his site was featured in an earlier Smashing Mag column.
Aparachitt
August 23rd, 2008 3:07 amHey Need Theme Provided Viia vevin.com his 1st adsense ready wordpress theme i need the download link of that.will u provide me that
web
August 23rd, 2008 3:39 amnice theme. Must visit this site more often
ArtHack
August 23rd, 2008 5:27 amvery good !
Samantha
August 23rd, 2008 10:32 amI love this theme and have chosen it for my personal blog. I do miss the widget-ability and will be investigating how to add… my dashboard says there is no sidebar defined on this theme, so I will investigate how to do that also (I’m “novice class” blogger. *grin*)
Since my blog is a family blog, it is photo-heavy. I have found no problems with either my full sized pics or my thumbnails. It may make a difference that I am using the akWplightbox plugin.
Great work on the theme. It looks GREAT!
Elisa
August 23rd, 2008 11:10 amThank you Amanda for responding, I’ll have a look at BT too :)
Nah
August 23rd, 2008 11:27 amHello.
Wonderful theme. I’m going to use it. I was just wondering what’s the font we used for the handwritting? It’s because my blog doesn’t have an archives page so I wanna change it for another page. Can you tell me please? Thanks in advance
Samantha
August 23rd, 2008 11:30 amWhoops! I spoke to soon. It seems that pictures that are too wide for the main column (posts) disappear in my version of IE (I usually use Firefox). I am manually going in and reducing the size of those too-wide pics, but if anyone comes up with a fix, I’d love to know about it.