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Simply Ornate: A Free WordPress Theme
We love our readers. We respect the hard work of designers and developers across the globe. And we do our best to make the web design community stronger and the Web a little bit prettier. Therefore we ask talented artists and creative professionals to showcase their skills and release something unique and beautiful as a gift to the community. And when designers agree, truly impressive works see the light of day.
Today we are glad to release Simply Ornate — a free professional Wordpress-theme created by Evan Eckard. This theme was designed with the main focus being on patterns and typography and comes in 5 flavours. It is designed 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.
- Live Demo
- Release post on Evan Eckard’s blog
- Simply Ornate “Twirl II” (blue)
- Simply Ornate “Royal Red” (deep red)
- Simply Ornate “D.A.R.K.” (military green)
- Simply Ornate “Pinkie” (pink)
- Simply Ornate “Pixel Gray” (grayscale)
Motivation behind the design
Here are some insights about the design process and development from the designer himself.
“I tried to make this theme as basic as possible. It uses one plugin (which you can find in the plugin folder within the zip file) to include a flickr feed. Just drop the “flickrrss.php” file in your plugins directory and activate within the dashboard. You can set how many photos appear in the feed, I’d suggest staying with multiples of 4 to keep the design balanced.
The theme also includes a prototype-based tab effect (via stereotabs) that allows users to browse latest posts, comments and tags. The front page is set up to show excerpts of your 4 latest posts, and also includes a mini-nav in the upper right side to allow for page navigating.
The theme also uses a ton of png transparency that does work cross-browser (even in IE 6).
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:
The team here at Smashing Magazine. Mostly Sven & Vitaly.
(No votes yet)
Loading ...- 157 Comments
- 1
- 2October 1st, 2008 2:08 am
Nice theme but quite a lot coding issues. Latest posts etc tabs and ‘continue reading’ button messed up on IE (6 & 7). Also not valid (x)html.
- 3October 1st, 2008 2:15 am
Thanks a lot! Simply Ornate is a great Work of Evan Eckard and Din Pattern freebies. Thanks for sharing :)
- 4October 1st, 2008 2:38 am
Looks very nice, for sure, but hopefully you’ll address the markup issues that Jacob stated above!
- 5October 1st, 2008 2:46 am
Thanks
- 6October 1st, 2008 2:53 am
Looks good!!!
- 7October 1st, 2008 2:53 am
WOW! This is an amazing theme. I think I found my next one here :D
- 8October 1st, 2008 3:15 am
Very Good!!
- 9October 1st, 2008 3:25 am
Not the best you’ve ever offered.
- 10October 1st, 2008 3:37 am
When I install it on my blog the tabbed recent posts and comment thing make firefox stuck for some times. Does any one have any idea about this?
- 11October 1st, 2008 3:38 am
I think that the writing is not very clear with this theme. When reading a blog I want to see the letters more clearly with a neutral background.
- 12October 1st, 2008 3:49 am
Looks good..
- 13October 1st, 2008 3:50 am
Look at the Subscribers total top right!
- 14October 1st, 2008 4:18 am
Sorry, not really feeling this one
- 15October 1st, 2008 4:45 am
Freebies ! Gotta Love them ! Thanks Smashing and thanks to the guys who did them so people STOP GRUMBLING !
- 16October 1st, 2008 4:52 am
I’m gonna have to agree with Dave and Casey — this isn’t quite there yet. The layout and typography is good, but putting the text straight onto that pattern background just doesn’t work — it’s too dark and lacks structure because there’s no bounding box. I think the text should be dark on a light background content box; keep the pattern, but only use it for the page background.
But hey, it’s free :) Thanks anyhow.
- 17October 1st, 2008 5:05 am
ugly … :(
- 18October 1st, 2008 5:16 am
To be honest, I don’t find posting a whole article about one average WP theme interesting. Even if it was the best theme in the world, c’mon, that’s it? One theme and a whole article for another few days? I hope you guys are not running out of topics to write about :-)
- 19October 1st, 2008 5:18 am
don’t like it. sorry!
- 20October 1st, 2008 5:20 am
T_T you missed a closing div
- 21October 1st, 2008 5:39 am
The blue pattern is really elegant and unobtrusive. I can see it on a traditional subject website. I very much like the transparent text boxes too, but not I’m sure if this effect has enough browser support for me to use it. How did you achieve it? Does it work on most older browsers too?
- 22October 1st, 2008 5:42 am
hmm i not really like this theme… :/ very ugly background! but the fading tabs in the sidebar is cool.
- 23October 1st, 2008 6:01 am
ok, so I’ve woken up now and read your notes (sorry for the last comment)………really useful tip on how to use png transparency that also works in IE6. thanks!
- 24October 1st, 2008 6:17 am
———————–
@h-a-r-v
Posting “one whole” article about a theme (good one or bad one), is in my opinion good. Why? Because 1 ) it is a freebie 2) The author/designer deserves some credit in the post 3) It is interesting to read what the motivation is behind the design etc. 4) At one glance of the article you can view of the template suits you, you view the different colors and what it can do, and thus you can decide without having to try it, if you like it and would like to use it.About the 1 article per few days comment… C’mon, be glad this site exists and be patient or write something yourself and see how difficult en time consuming it is.
———————This wordpress theme isn’t really up to the smashingmagazine standards (i.m.h.o.). Of course any freebie is appreciated but i do not think it is smashing. I just see a nice background and for the rest just text in this template. Creativity is pretty low on this one. But of course it is just my opinion.
Thanks for the freebie!
Greets,
Friso - 25October 1st, 2008 6:59 am
For everyone that isn’t really digging this theme, let me just reiterate that “I tried to make this theme as basic as possible.”
No fancy illustrations to work with, no weird plugins or designs, just a focus on typography, layout and a dash of color from the patterned background(s).
This theme was really designed for the ease of modification, so have fun with it! The layout and font styles are taken care of; you can take the foundation and create new flavors or color palettes pretty easily.
- 26October 1st, 2008 7:31 am
Ehh.. ;-)
- 27October 1st, 2008 7:33 am
i dont like it :s, i think that we can vote it before the designers code it!
- 28October 1st, 2008 8:21 am
Hmm… I don’t really like this theme. Even though there is room for modification, I think it lacks… style. The only thing original about it is the background and the text bubbles. Sorry, but I’m a bit disappointed by this theme.
I’ve seen your other themes though in your portfolio and think they are beautiful. You are very talented :). I just don’t like this one design.
- 29October 1st, 2008 9:01 am
Out of curiosity, what is everyone looking for in a Wordpress theme? Feel free to email me directly at evan (at) evaneckard.com
- 30October 1st, 2008 9:44 am
Freebie or not, it doesn’t say much for one’s work ethic to not address such major issues as previously stated. Also, the design leaves out a lot of the accessibility and usability that Wordpress includes. (I.e. direct access to admin, links, etc.)
Yes, its free. And yes, (some people find it to be) a great aesthetic design. However, let us not forget that designers aren’t just here to make things look pretty. This only supports that theory.
- 31October 1st, 2008 9:48 am
To be totally honest, I don’t think this theme was good at all. The HR lines was more ugly than pretty, and also the overall design was rather annoying with the huge numbers etc. I also think that the background-image is demanding way too much attention.
- 32October 1st, 2008 9:49 am
primera cosa de smashingmagazine que no me gusta!
- 33October 1st, 2008 10:32 am
@Jacob – I don’t seem to see any of the errors you’re referring to in IE 6 or 7… can you email me a screenshot? evan (at) evaneckard.com
- 34October 1st, 2008 12:04 pm
I like a lot this design… but the plugin doesn’t show any “latest post” or “latest comment”, etc…
Germán
http://www.iccc.es - 35October 2nd, 2008 2:06 am
Great work, Evan.
The theme looks quite good.
Take the points from the criticisms and leave out the rest.
The theme suits for a personal blog and I liked the GrayScale version the most among them. - 36October 2nd, 2008 6:27 am
I’m not quite understand with the critisisms here :(
It’s a nice theme.
- 37October 2nd, 2008 10:06 am
hey hey smashingmag. i finally got it… April Fools’ Day good one :D
- 38October 2nd, 2008 10:47 am
All in all, the theme layout, typography and design is good. The constructive criticism comes down to a couple minor validation errors, but more importantly would be readability of the content. Design should accentuate the content and not crowd it out. With either a softer background pattern, or a background color for the main content, the theme could polish up nicely.
Good work! I love your patterns.
- 39
- 40October 2nd, 2008 12:04 pm
I think that Elena from Design Disease set high standards for a wp theme, Simply Ornate looks like taken randomly from wordpress.org, not worth of smashingmagazine, however Evan’s website is using a worth theme.
- 41October 2nd, 2008 12:20 pm
I like this theme.
Take the criticism and who knows what will be available in the future, but in the meantime lets enjoy this one. I love the grey colour scheme and will be able to use this.
Cheers very much
- 42October 2nd, 2008 7:43 pm
Alright ya’ll, I get the hint :)
Well, I really dig this theme, but I must be the minority. To make it all up to you, I streamlined, updated and let loose my HELLBISCUIT.com theme.
I’ve had a lot of people over the years asking for it, and I finally got it updated enough for everyone to use (the original code was pretty ugly). So here you go; have at it: http://www.hellbiscuit.com/?p=86
And yes, it validates. Also, check the readme files for details on how to implement imagery.
- 43October 3rd, 2008 6:09 am
Everyone loves freebies! Great theme!
I love the different schemes available.
- 44October 3rd, 2008 7:59 am
@WPJunkie yeah we loves freebies but not wordpress.org random selected themes freebies
- 45October 3rd, 2008 9:28 am
Very Nice!
- 46October 3rd, 2008 12:36 pm
Nice themes. I like the typro there.
Thank you for sharing the great stuff.Roshan
Freelance Developer
http://www.instantshift.com - 47October 3rd, 2008 6:41 pm
Niiice.
- 48October 4th, 2008 12:16 pm
Simply Ornate is a wonderful theme, I recently installed it on my blog as a test and was really impressed.
- 49October 5th, 2008 2:31 pm
wonderful theme…
kereeeeeeennnnnnn :D
- 50October 6th, 2008 7:35 am
Although this theme doesn’t meet my personal likings, I have to say this theme meets the standards when it comes to simplicity. Just the fact that you can create a complete new theme by just changing the background is stunning.
Greate job!
- 51October 6th, 2008 10:02 am
wow what a nice theme!!….
- 52October 22nd, 2008 6:01 pm
thanks man these are amazing :)
- 53October 29th, 2008 11:13 pm
Wow, I’m surprised by the way people responded to this post. If you don’t like the theme you just HAVE to say something right? No one cares if you don’t like it. No one wants your professional opinion. The designer offered this theme for free and I’m sure he spent hours working on it. Posting rude comments to someone who has worked hard on something is like the crappy little kid who comes by and knocks over another kids sand castle. So in my opinion your all crappy little kids with bad attitudes. Where’s your contribution? Save your rude opinions for your own blog oh and I’m sure all your blogs are winning designs..uh huh sure. By the way to the designer: I think the themes are unique and something different and new. It’s always nice to see a new take on the average WP theme. Thanks for sharing. Ignore the punks.
- 54January 6th, 2009 1:30 pm
Featured here: http://www.presidiacreative.com/39-amazing-wordpress-themes/
- 55July 2nd, 2009 3:06 am
Pretty nice theme. But I have a little problem, it doesnt display my latest posts, commnts and tags!
- 00
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- @ilmv oh ok then ;)
- @ilmv no, the SM Book will not be out of date :) We made sure it contains universal design, usability and marketing principles.
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- @HrvojeKC yes, that's an interesting idea. Maybe when the waiting is over, we'll write a detailed post about it.
nice one thanks