Smashing Community WordPress Theme: Comment and Win!
While the Smashing Community icon set is being designed and prepared for the release, we would like to ask your opinion about the WordPress theme that you would like us to design. And here’s how it works: you tell us what WordPress-theme you need, and then we design it together with PSD to WordPress and release it for free.
And to make it a bit more interesting, we’ll smash three commenters with original nerdy laptop sleeves. To participate, just suggest an idea for a great useful WordPress-theme in the comments to this post. Details are below.
This image was based upon the design by our friends from SoftFacade who are preparing the Smashing Magazine icon set. Thanks, guys!
How do I participate?
Participating is very easy: just post the WordPress theme you would like us to design in the comments to this post (and, if possible, what specific features it should have) – it can be anything, e.g. portfolio-design, blog-design, lifestream-blog, magazine-style etc. The theme should not be basic, but it also should not be too complex.
On the 25th of April, we’ll select the most popular ideas and requests and publish a poll in our magazine, inviting our readers to vote on their favorite theme. Once it’s done, the creative minds behind PSD to WordPress will carefully design the theme. You can keep track of updates on Twitter @smashingmag and @LachyG.
Awards
A total of three commenters will be awarded Laptop Sleeves (see images below). The winners will be picked randomly and announced on Twitter (@smashingmag) after the concept of the WordPress theme has been chosen. The winners will decide by themselves, what size and what pattern of the sleeve they prefer most.
Finally, we’ll release the theme as a free download, which you can freely use for personal and commercial use.
Smashing Magazine Is All About Our Readers
At Smashing Magazine, our readers have always been our highest priority. We respect our readers; we listen to them; we are always open to their suggestions; and we always appreciate constructive criticism. This is why we created a number of ways to interact with our readers:
- We created a friendly Smashing Forum to make it possible for our community to exchange ideas and help each other in problem solving.
- We are using Twitter to share useful resources and knowledge with, and get feedback from, our readers (e.g. deciding which article should appear next), and we now have almost 29,000 followers.
- We are preparing the Smashing Book, in which our readers can decide what topics will be included.
And now we would like you to decide what theme we should design and release next, especially for you. We hope to get great feedback from you, and we would like to thank “PSD to WordPress” for its cooperation in this event. Please spread the word, too; we would like the design community to decide what would be most useful and interesting for designers out there!
So, what WordPress theme is it going to be, folks?
Malene
April 22nd, 2009 3:00 amA portfolio theme wich can be widely used amon illustrators, graphic designs and photographers, with no knowledge of html/css whatsoever, and no time (or desire) to learn to much. They just want it to work and look pretty!
So:
images for archive and front which resizes itself from the first image in the blogpost.
Design shouldn’t look blog like at all
Large images for showcase with easy navigation
Feature random and/or manual chosen posts on the front page
Anton Shevchuk
April 22nd, 2009 3:02 amI created a WordPress Constructor Theme (see http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/constructor ) but many people need more friendly design with more options for customize it.
All available features describe in wiki on Code-Google homepage http://code.google.com/p/wp-constructor/wiki/ConstructorFeature .
If you need more options – I can develop it…
ken sparkes
April 22nd, 2009 3:13 amQuite a few people have asked for a photo theme; I’m a photographer and art director who’s been looking (in vain) for a decent WordPress portfolio theme, so:
1. Slick design which wouldn’t look out of place on a top professional photographer’s site.
2. Use the lessons learnt from the recent SM feature ’5 Simple Tricks To Bring Light and Shadow Into Your Designs’.
3. Great typography – clean, attractive, eye-catching.
4. Two theme options: Light and Dark both with restrained use of color, maybe just color accents.
5. Single images and slideshow, with optional captions, and link to individual projects. Pics can include full credits with links.
6. Contact form can include options for Request an estimate, Syndication enquiry, etc.
7. (Registered) users can create ‘My Lightbox’ of selected images which can saved for future reference, and also Sent to a Friend, in addition to regular social bookmarking. Maybe password protected ‘Client Section’.
8. Multi-portfolio option for agents. Categories: Photo, Design, etc.
9. Blog section. Can be used as photo-diary, location reports, video.
10. Section for tearsheets, recently published, clients, etc.
11. Looks great with images only AND with text included.
12. Theme designed specifically for photographers, designers, agents, location services, stylists, hair, makeup, set-builders, art direction, graphic designers…
Vincent
April 22nd, 2009 3:25 amA Magazine dashboard site with articles that include photo’s and adds, where a few interesting blogs are integrated with RSS and a Twitter discussion board is included.
Good luck ;)
Stian Jacobsen
April 22nd, 2009 3:26 amThere are tons of portfolio-like themes, what i really want to see is a portal or personal-based theme. Maybe something in the direction of a nature-style layout.?
ie. sea and sky, earth and sky, sea and seabottom, grass and sun..
A theme that has alot of colors and good typhography, (Howabout using sIFR and that font SM had a few days ago, “Gotham Narrow”… That is one nice font!
Anywhoo.. Just a bright and colorful theme with alot of energy!
kevinsturf
April 22nd, 2009 3:29 amI would really like to see some community wordpress themes.
Mark Dijkstra
April 22nd, 2009 3:31 amI’d like to see a better portfolio theme with lots of effect(jquery)
Tiago Sá
April 22nd, 2009 3:34 amComment like this?
Well, I need a magazine wordpress theme, fully customizable please :P
Maxi
April 22nd, 2009 3:36 amI’d like to se a theme based on renewable energy, expecially photovoltaics.
cheers!
shimon
April 22nd, 2009 3:37 amI would like a clean and colorful business theme with drop down menus and a search box. Also a contact form will be a nice addition.
vladgidea
April 22nd, 2009 3:45 amA 960 wide wordpress theme for personal branding. We need a 300 sidebar and a 125 one. A header.
I think a fully and customizable theme is the best choice. Bring the CSS into the admin panel so beginners could customize it.
Acteur
April 22nd, 2009 3:55 amA webmarketing theme.
- no extra-fantastic design parts
- advice of the day box
- all bookmarking options
- unique post image
- capable of custom fields
- box design mainly
- opportunity of chosing 2, 3 column setup
- adspace admin
Max Bidart
April 22nd, 2009 4:06 amA rock band theme, including all the power of the social networks! thanks!
dhrubo
April 22nd, 2009 4:08 amshiny black
3 column
personal blog template
Yuki
April 22nd, 2009 4:08 amWow! So many comments! I hope this message gets the chance of being read >_>”
Well, I just started a new domain to host a couple of projects. Among them, there is a book I intend to write and release for free under the Creative Commons licence. The name is “Lust!”, and it is a story about a guy who meets a succubus (sort of demoness who feeds herself from erotic energy) and gets to live with her. He’s geeky and works with computers, while she’s incredibly hot and acts at the advertising industry.
The story is to be written and submitted to a WordPress blog, and I really wanted the theme to match the story. It has to be sexy, but not pornographic of course :P. Since the story relates to the feminine aura of erotism, it would be nice to feature some curves. I was wondering if it would be possible to show a silhouette of some kama-sutra positions at the top as well? Or maybe that’s too much? It doesn’t bother me if the theme is widescreen or not, since the content will be mostly vertical through the page.
That’s about it. Please pick me! (LOL) Just kidding :P Keep up the good work!
Hollis Bartlett
April 22nd, 2009 4:08 amA green-ish, earth toned personal blog theme with many environmental elements and natural health overtones would be a hit.
Shizlanski
April 22nd, 2009 4:11 amI’d like to see a nice elastic width blog design that works in all browsers (latest of version of all the real browsers and IE6+). Obviously it should be a centered design, I think it should be a nice and clean 2 collumn design, nothing grunge, I’ve seen enough of it. It should also have a nice footer that can link to most popular posts etc.
Florian
April 22nd, 2009 4:33 amyay admin theme !!!
Lewismc
April 22nd, 2009 4:42 amI say grid it up with subtle and slightly grunge/blueprint styled semi-revealed column layout and vertical rhythm lines in the background giving a glimpse of the column and vertical zen I am sure you will acheive with your smashing theme!
Eric
April 22nd, 2009 4:49 amPortfolio theme would be great for those starving freelancers.
Mihkel
April 22nd, 2009 4:52 am3 column
magazine-like
summer-colors
lots of integrated plugins
customizeable via admin panel
:)
Güz
April 22nd, 2009 5:06 amI wanna see some tattoo artist portfolio with oriental style!
Nauglamir
April 22nd, 2009 5:21 amSurprise us with a chique CMS style WP theme!
A really usefull one which is not to complicated and easy to adopt!
Heather RC
April 22nd, 2009 5:28 amI would like to see a portfolio design. One that leans towards the web design side but allows for some print work to be viewed as well. A simplistic design that has somewhat of an edge would be nice.
John
April 22nd, 2009 5:35 amHow about a smooth Christian theme we could use for our church?
andrew
April 22nd, 2009 5:39 amMagazine style theme with an emphasis on small business marketing and promotion. Newsletter/e-mail sign up integration, testimonials, comparison table/chart, photos, print CSS and contact form.
Claudia
April 22nd, 2009 5:53 amA multimedia ready theme would be great.
Fast loading with JQuery features clean and simple.
CharliePatel
April 22nd, 2009 6:11 amI’d like to see a nicely designed magazine-style theme that is focused on user-enriched content. All magazine themes require a large deal of content, therefore, it would be neat if the theme was tailored with features that allowed readers to submit ideas for posts and posts/articles themselves (ex: article on lighting techniques, by Joe Schmoe from New Jersey). Additionally, by filling out a few more details in a form, the theme would auto-generate the submitter as a ‘contributor’ to the site with a simple bio that the admin can approve.
While there are magazine-style themes out there,I see that most people struggle with providing enough content and on a frequent basis. This type of theme would help alleviate that core issue.
Thx for reading.
Boylogik (Charlie)
Francesco Giossi
April 22nd, 2009 6:22 amOrange and black portfolio theme, cause I need one :p
David
April 22nd, 2009 6:37 amI would like a theme for places that have a lot of events like theaters, classrooms, etc. So there would be ways to put an event, lets say a weekly class or a one night performance, ways to market that event with video and pictures, possibly ways to have people rsvp or purchase tickets for that event, and ways to post reviews of the event.
Facebook does something similar on its “pages” but I would love to host something on my own site where I am in full control.
Amarjeet Rai
April 22nd, 2009 6:44 amI want to see a futuristic design. Metal?
Blue, silver, grey and black colours.
Twiter and flick integration.
Different homepage design.
jQuery 1.3:
- Dynamic commenting [without refreshing the page]
- Cool effects
sIFR on headings [available as option]
Davin
April 22nd, 2009 6:44 amCreate the worst theme ever. Break every design rule. Revive the large, all caps, red and flashing text spray … Nice looking sites are a dime a dozen. Give us a truly awful site to mock, chuckle and learn from.
AndreasN
April 22nd, 2009 6:47 amreally nice I must agree, and I see you´ve broken the 100k subscription barrier!
I would really like to see a wp theme with the inspiration of a classic magazine but the diffrerence in that it would be pointing to the readers to contribute with their thoughts and ideas on different topics. Surely sounds like digg but more focused on the ideas and discuss/develop the idea.
Just an example, a car forum that you can post your own little story or news right on the frontpage and then people will be able to comment the post and discuss its content. And that blogpost can evovle to a larger post. You could compare the idea with a forum but with pictures and a little more clean look than all booring fourmlayouts which you see today. (And to aviod linkdrop or advertising the owner/sitecrew has to accept the content.)
And for the graphic, I do love vectors and green which would be an awesome combo, I can see it in my mind and it looks beautiful. Throw the old forums and make a nice look one, atleast think about it ;)
farbenbaden
April 22nd, 2009 7:47 ama theme for a tshirt shop.
maybe including the spreadshirt shop system!
Tazzelrik
April 22nd, 2009 7:58 amwould love to see a theme with medieval blend of swords and sorcery – thanks
Narendra Bhattarai
April 22nd, 2009 8:43 amI would like to see better portfolio theme which can be used for any professional personnel like web designer, fashion designer, lawyer, actors, singer any one…
Waiting to see another great theme….
James Schend
April 22nd, 2009 8:44 amI’d like to see a theme based on the shiny futuristic look of 1980′s arcade/console games. I’m referring to art like this (all images hot-linked, sorry):
http://www.timemachinetoys.com/toypics/zaxxon.JPG
http://www.thealmightyguru.com/TheGuru/Projects/Images/YarsRevenge-Cartridge.jpg
http://www.lemon64.com/covers/full/l/lunar_outpost.jpg
http://blog.kierankelly.net/wp-content/uploads/carrier_command.jpg
I have no idea what the content of this blog would be, but it would be a natural fit for content about classic arcade games, or science fiction topics in general. Mostly, I just like the look that was all over the place in the late 80s/Commodore 64 era, and I’d like to see it return.
micha
April 22nd, 2009 9:23 amA clean, minimalist portfolio theme– maybe white text on a charcoal background.
Kris
April 22nd, 2009 9:50 amIdea For Web Development
going right along with the idea of smash, helping people improve and develop
Making a word press theme that can lay down the ground work for people to come in and customize I think would be great.
1. Well commented and clean CSS style sheets
2. A Clean design, maybe with a limited color palette that people can easily go through and replace with their own colors.
3. Design the theme with multiple uses in mind because there’s a lot magazine themes and portfolio themes out there now
4. maybe just focus on creating a good flow for the content, and a good experience for the user often gets over looks
5. Tailor the design to the needs of what most people have been commenting about, if it’s person site, portfolio , client work, photography, etc
Thanks!
Nina Anthony
April 22nd, 2009 9:59 amI’d like to see you design WordPress CMS site with a theme similar to the
WP Magazeen theme. It’s a free theme with a premium magazine-style look and clean, contemporay feel that works well with the Smashing mag brand:
http://demo.wefunction.com//
One design element that I really like in Magazeen is its horizontal panel of thumbnail images just under the primary navigation. When you scroll over the image the title of an article appears – encouraging visitors to explore your posts. I think this type of visual navigation is a unique way to showcase articles through images rather than text-based links.
Magazeen also includes a unique drop-down navigation style– the drop-down menus under the category headings reveal some posts from each category.
Another magazine-style WP themes that I like are the Fresh News theme, another magazine-style theme, albeit a premium one: (http://www.bestwpthemes.com/fresh-news/) and another super clean contempory theme that’s designed more for freelancers, but I think could be adapted for your needs: http://www.portfolio.themedemo.net The black sidebar really makes images pop, while the main column maintains readability in a very clean format with images and text set against a white background. Uber slick! Maybe you can do a little hacking and combine elements of all three.
ken
April 22nd, 2009 10:53 amthe Smashing Magazine theme you guys are using rt now.
Kikolani
April 22nd, 2009 11:12 amI’d like to see something artsy yet clean, with several different background images to choose from. Very dynamic, but well commented throughout the programming (php, css, html) so that any WordPress user can customize/hack it to their hearts content.
~ Kristi
Lelik
April 22nd, 2009 11:15 amI’d love to see a cool handcrafted magazine WordPress theme.
Trevor Geene
April 22nd, 2009 11:28 amI would like to see a WordPress layout that shows the back end of web design with an elegant and cyber look and feel to it.
irfun4ever
April 22nd, 2009 11:35 ama theme like this could be perfect
http://demo.gavick.com/index.php?year=2009&month=Feb
Dena Williams
April 22nd, 2009 11:47 amA clean theme that incorporates a great deal of information or sections. Design-wise, you guys rock, so you’ve got that covered. Most of us have a lot of information we want users to be able to get to quickly, but not enough ways to “highlight” certain areas, except through categories.
I would just like to see more block/box section (with small photo and limited text)on the home page for access to other areas or even other categories. Some will be plugins, but the home page should cleanly show the following sections (or links to them):
1. video player (scrollable like the popular flicker widgets)
2. access to podcasts
3. photo stream (flickr, etc.) or access to the gallery
4. a document section (integration with something like scribd or slideshare)
5. multi-level category navigation
6. easily viewable live chat (like a meebo widget)
7. search box
8. featured section
9. easily accessed RSS, social bookmarking, tweet/email this post, etc.
10. access to print-friendly pages
11. easily accessible and viewable contact information and form
12. “follow on twitter” box
13. nicely laid out blog area (not too small that reading a paragraph requires scrolling) that displays a small portion of blog with a photo/title identification.
14. Similar posts section accompanying the blog
15. section for other networks I can be found
16. At least one block/section left for the blog owner to customize
17. And the BIG ONE – Community or “Members” section that either integrates with a wiki or a social network like “ning”…or maybe both :) It could even be as simple as a nicely designed forum, but this is the biggest thing I think that’s missing from most websites today…the ability to create community beyond comments.
18. Last ones would be nice to have…(poll section and an editable calendar)
Magazine styles are great for a ton of information like this, but even those can get a bit hard to navigate.
The main thing I want is to have better navigation/visibility around important features other than the categories of your blog…which, of course, I want great navigation of that too :)
Shortshire
April 22nd, 2009 11:53 amMake a theme that has an outside feel. Make the grass vibrant but pleasant at the same time so when people see it then can just say, awww, that is nice. Think of it like this, sitting on a porch over looking a field and that will be the background.
A two column look will work well with that.
That is my two cents on this and Thank you.
MattX
April 22nd, 2009 12:34 pmI would love to have a personal blog with a portfolio section integrated … it should be a bit grunge and hand-drawn style, paper textures in the background and such things … a bit like http://www.davidhellmann.com/ and http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/
Thank you for this great event :)
Feli
April 22nd, 2009 1:10 pmI love the idea of a clean, minimalist portfolio theme!!
My suggested contents map:
- A homepage including: Text intro + 1 featured project + latests news (from blog).
- A project’s section with an easy admin for administrating projects.
This section would be the heart of the theme.
It’s important to have a proper space to include a description of each project and good usage of image display css.
- A blog section (for news)
- About page
- Contact page (with contact form included)
Plugins:
- Sociable plugin. For socialnetworking options
- Transalte plugin (Most of us non-englsh native speakers need this ;))
VERY nice to have: Some other SEO plugins:
- Google XML Sitemaps
- Hyper Cache
- Platinum SEO Pack
Helvetica font embedded would be too much!??
Thanks for this opportunity!
Sanity penguin
April 22nd, 2009 1:30 pmA clean theme that is a bit of a mix between a portfolio and a magazine style.
I’d got for the typical style of 3 columns. Utter left being the actual posts and being the biggest. Then a column dedicated to archives, links … and the utmost right one should contain some reference to social networking (facebook, twitter …)
Up top I’d make the wink towards a portfolio theme by adding a sort of image viewer across the screen. Make it (flash?) scrollable as well so you can go left and right and view more photos. Perhaps link it to a post as well, so that the uploaded images of a post for example can appear there.
And as for colours, I’m a big fan of dark themed. And if if some neat green (#9db500? :p) would be in it, I’d be in heaven ^^
Dalton
April 22nd, 2009 1:45 pmI would love to see a clean, easily usable portfolio theme. Where you can update your portfolio design pieces by a new post, and where you can edit the look easily.
Jessica
April 22nd, 2009 2:10 pmWould LOVE a new PORTFOLIO theme.
* Has a blog integrated
* Has multiple colour options in the theme (blue theme, red theme, etc.)
* Homepage have a Featured Portfolio piece
* The portfolio be easily navigable (Logo Design, Web Design, Print Design)
Emma
April 22nd, 2009 2:20 pmA clean theme but stylish!(allot of light, mostly withe and you can chose the details from 3 different colors? Blue, pink and green.) I think your themes often are either too clean or to much.. I want something that really blowes my mind! I think you should make a quality e-commerce shopping cart theme for WordPress, that would be great. I think it would really benefit WordPress too. Maybe one with three columns.. one for category, one for content and one for ads and login/shopingcart?
I think some good features would be:
* So you can have pictures to show what you are selling. (and prizes) And a good plugin so that you easily can see different items in the store.. and their description.. (maybe you can chose between a popup or not?)
* A really good gallery-plugin with different albums with gallerys in it.
* the easy use of Paypal
* Easy product insert in the WP write post.. and so you can have different product categories.
4. Shopping cart page and have it in the sidebar.
Timothy Armstrong
April 22nd, 2009 2:54 pmI’m thinking a theme for a food blog, like with fancy edges like restaurant menus and the like.
Style
April 22nd, 2009 3:13 pmA magazine style theme with a portfolio section built-in. I’ve never seen one and I think you guys would be the first to EVER to do such out of this world concept.
J Cook
April 22nd, 2009 4:15 pmSmart neutral corporate WP theme pls.
Paul Adam
April 22nd, 2009 5:35 pmWordPress as a fully fledged CMS + the WordPress Multi User landing page included.
Emma
April 22nd, 2009 7:46 pmI’d love to see a portfolio theme with a gallery option that makes use of a front page blog and lifestream. Like a one stop shop for a designer, artist or photographers personal website :) Oh, and I totally dig themes that have different colour options!
Raquel Gonzalez
April 22nd, 2009 9:12 pmI would LOVE (and need!) a WP theme specially designed for displaying HD video with a quick way to review photos. Clean and slick. with horizontal scroll for previous posts. Is it too much to ask?
tuckchin
April 22nd, 2009 9:54 pmwith combination soft colors together with soft surface and durable material will enhance the uasability and statisfacion in usage
Konsehal_14
April 22nd, 2009 10:23 pmA not simple but not complex portfolio.
Robert Heine
April 22nd, 2009 10:43 pmI would like to see you make a Portfolio Design that does not look like the standard-templates.
The Portfolio-Theme schould aim to Webdesigners, have a modern look, ajax-powered, full of Icons for the different categories and (if possible) the color-scheme could be changed in the Backend (eg: dark-theme, bright-theme, silver/chrom-theme, blue-theme, and so on) or even in the Frontend.. I prefer backend ;-)
It should also cover the different needs from a simple to a complex-portfolio. But easy to manage and regarding all the usability standards.
Chaitanya VRK
April 22nd, 2009 10:54 pmVery good idea. Really Smashing.
I think a magazine style theme with following features will fullfill needs of people from different streams
1. JQuery lavalamp top menu on far most top of the theme.
2. JQuery featured posts slideer.
3. Widget ready sidebar and footer.
4. JQuery tabber in sidebar.
5. News scroller
6. Mini blog in sidebar
7. Gallery (for portfolio)
Themes like our magazine in themeforest provide a good reference.
Thank you again for the theme idea.
imrul
April 22nd, 2009 11:44 pmA ecom site, similar to shopit found on joomla called shopit.
Phillip Hullquist
April 23rd, 2009 12:04 amI would like a magazine-style theme which combines integrated video-blogging using a major flash video player (like JW Player or Flowplayer). Most existing blog themes only focus on one or the other giving up video features for regular blogging or ONLY work with video. I would like to see a combination of both.
Simon
April 23rd, 2009 12:38 amI’d like to see a great magazine style theme but with hot colors like orange or red, would be nice.
Suki
April 23rd, 2009 1:04 amSomething with an education theme that can be used by teachers, students, schools, colleges etc. These are really hard to find! :)
Dries
April 23rd, 2009 1:21 amA great movie look a like theme, including nice integrated movie features and showreels.
Looking forward to see that happen :-)
hely
April 23rd, 2009 1:27 amI would like to see a magazine theme, full of features.
eliana
April 23rd, 2009 1:30 amI’d like a portfolio, with diferent galleries, pages of details…
lili
April 23rd, 2009 1:35 amI’d like to see a wordpress way to make a social network, with diferent categories of users, some of them could post, some of them could add content to determiated pages… and all of them could comment, vote, report… It would be exactly what I need.
Polya
April 23rd, 2009 3:33 amI agree with commenter 443, about the many different features to be included, but as far as the design, I would like to see something promoting sustainable lifestyle, using nature friendly resources, etc. So the theme could be an ecology news, info and resources blog for example.
Brow
April 23rd, 2009 4:08 amI really would love a theme for my webturd.com. I am never happy with my theme and I change it weekly.
Something with some shades of brown, earthy and very easy to read big fonts. (like Smashing Mag) Simple and clean, yet room to insert ads and other content if needed.
I have tons of readers but no one leaves comments…would be great to “encourage” that part as well.
Jeff
April 23rd, 2009 6:06 amI think it would be nice to have a theme that is more of a base that people can work off, rather than a particular styled theme in and of itself.
For instance, a modularized theme that pulls from something like the 960 grid system which can run in a variety of different ways. A more static portfolio based site, an informational blog, a photo blog, or a combination of them could run on the front page, maybe even with customized posting options. A lifestream with some of the basic elements, etc.
Nothing terribly complicated design-wise, just something that’s well-organized that people can use as a jumping off point would be a great addition. You and others have posted plenty of great designs, what is really missing is a viable, customizable base template that fits a wide variety of designs instead of just a single design that will fit a few people well.
Jessica
April 23rd, 2009 6:07 amAs a photographer I’m still in search of that perfect “show off” theme that allows me to post several images in one post and see them all – scrolling down the page. Most of the freebies tend to be multiple columns, not making photos center stage – which is very important. I think it should be clean and classy, allowing the colors of the photography to POP… probably using greys, black and whi
Yötua
April 23rd, 2009 6:29 amHorizontal designed portfolio theme would be amazing!
bobmartien
April 23rd, 2009 6:42 amI’d like to see another great magazine WordPress theme !
Or a showcase/portfolio theme !
That roks :=
Dawn Martinello
April 23rd, 2009 6:42 amIn a dream world …..
I’d like to see a theme that has a lot of room to pack in content on the main page that people could link to each of the pages. Kind of like a “buzz” of each page. Love the caricature look and would like to see those used throughout the site. I really like the look of some themes that look lik you’re looking down at a desk – but wonder if there is a way to make them feel more real.
Social media is my life right now – could we add a social aggregator sidebar?
And hey, if you could make it in my website colours too … that would be cool ;)
Andreas
April 23rd, 2009 7:14 amI would like to see a Videoblog Theme with a Flair of Internet-TV-Style like Bunch.tv… with a cool and clean design…Come on…let’s make a new gorgeous Theme…
Marta
April 23rd, 2009 8:12 amCampaigning against Speciecism, I would like to have a WP theme related to that. Very clean, fresh and with a green style, to alert consciousnesses all over the world.
Antonio Fernandes
April 23rd, 2009 8:20 amA music based magazine wordpress layout with the twitter update ability like the wordpress theme prologue
Ricardo
April 23rd, 2009 8:39 amFor me a theme should be as complete as possilbe. I would love to see one that’s made so i have my portfolio showcased upfront, below that i would like to see some 3 columns love, each one of them suitable to manage news, designs, and my flickr pics (again 3 columns of icons in there).
To the side of it (preferably to the right side) i would like 1 or two columns more where i can put a logo, some bio stuff and maybe some nice ads (two columns of small ads on a column, 3 columns of small ads if there’s two side columns)
I want some nice RSS, Twitter, etc picture buttons there as well.
Above all this i would like to see a menu that has to work horizontally but displaying a vertical list of it’s secondary elements. Just between this menu and the content, i would like to have some breadcrumbs going on…
The full page would be almost like the front page but it would feature the news columns, and a different smaller, banner like pic slider to showcase my work above them. It could be also that if we used to columns to the right, we could lose one of them, ads here would be positioned differently (even in between the content) so we should not use them to the right side. The breadcrumbs should still be up there as well as the menu for consistency
The full portfolio area should showcase the latest work with a medium to big picture and some decription to it. Below it, in a three columnar fashion, the other recent works i’ve done. One interesting addition could be the separation of this area into two rows, one for latest and one for random or related artowrk (pictures, paintings, gigs at a concert place… whatever). Same one column to the right, menu and breadcrumbs above
If i click into a bios link i would like to see something where i can display a CV. For this i would like complete control over the CSS (so i can work on it as i please). Same columns to the right and menu and breadcrumbs above.
If at all possible i would like to have also a lifestream (kinda, sorta) with all my stuff i have posted on the website chronologically ordered, but placed on a vertical list (you know, pic to the side, big bold title then short description and link). The twist would be that each entry would have a common class (pictures, news, portfolio, etc) and i would have links above (maybe keywords and might be a tag cloud) where if i click on a word, it automatically filters the list (by hiding what i don’t want to see via jquery). If i click any other tag, it hides everything else and makes items tagged like this one i just clicked, visible.
Given the fact that many of us have renounced to IE6, why not make it so that i can chose colors? Most of the design elements would be transparent PNG’s and i would have only to change element’s background colors to change the theme’s colors.
Sifr for the titles please, and if our images are going to be sliced (in the theme i mean), the PSD should be made available to figure out how to replace them for our own work (maybe?).
Niks
April 23rd, 2009 8:40 amI’d like to have a considered functional theme that can be used on huge music portals. (music news, albums releases, tracks, etc.). Simple but very beautifull.(like lastfm). Included cool additions like a lot of “Top 10″, cool votings, discussions, functions for community. I haven’t ever seen theme like this.
shn
April 23rd, 2009 8:49 amI’d really like see a innovation and creative wordpress magazine theme!
Adam Trojanczyk
April 23rd, 2009 9:00 amI think it should be another magazine blog, or blog about designing.
It should have mulitlanguage options and autoresize photos.
I have started my own company in Poland and I would like to see something that I could used :)
brian
April 23rd, 2009 9:20 amim creating an internet radio show that will soon be available as a podcast
what i would like is a wordpress theme that has a collage styled design, using photos & illustrations in juxtaposition to create a contrary, but somehow holistic, look.
hahahha
contrary but holistic.
don’t you love being designers?
think, hideaki anno directing style for kare kano
whatever that means hahah
Paletta
April 23rd, 2009 10:59 amA portfolio theme with twitter and social networks integration please!!
Hope to win a laptop sleeve…my bag is autodestroying…
Darren
April 23rd, 2009 11:23 amA simple blog theme framework, based on a shades of a single color:
*with plenty of widget room
*2 columns, plus header image, title/tagline and footer
*wherein the background gradient can be selected from a swatch of colors (user-control that swaps CSS maybe), and changed on a whim by the blogger (think moods)
*an uploadable header
*this same theme could be modified by the webmaster to have a patterned background (think photoshop brushes) to match the color (again controlled by swappable CSS)
*threaded comments
*photo gallery
A theme like this could serve 3 markets, the everyday blogger the webmaster of multiple blog installations, and a WordPress MU admin. Easily modified to suit each customer of the webmaster. Also would be bexcellent for users of WordPress Multi-User, as it would offer countless options for customized themes (via multiple,switchable CSS files) with a single installation.
Plus with it being basically a framework (controlled by CSS) it could easily be built-upon by others and released as child themes. Build once, benefit many!
Stig
April 23rd, 2009 11:38 amI’d love to see an artists’ portfolio theme that allows for differentiation between different types of work.
Too many portfolio themes focus solely on images, it’d be awesome to have a theme that has a well-designed audio and/or video template for displaying stuff like voice work or demo reels. It’d also be cool if the portfolio allowed live demos of website designs, so people can check out the functionality as well.
Robert
April 23rd, 2009 11:59 amI’d like to see a WP theme that successfully integrates a WP blog and an ecommerce system. Preferably Magento :)
Bobby Burdette
April 23rd, 2009 12:28 pmI am looking but can’t find a theme that works like a portal to other themes in a network. The idea is that there is a main site. On the home page there is a grid 4×4 or 4×5, in each box in this grid there will be the latest post/image from the in network site. Similar to this: http://www.elegantthemes.com/preview/eGallery/ only each box will take you to a site that is in our network of sites.
probably not for this contest but have been thinking about this for a while and would like some help finding or building it.. if anyone is interested.
Hello,
April 23rd, 2009 1:24 pmHow about a very simple design theme Simplistic style But with lot’s of functionality like jquery sliders tabs, fancybox, and others. Some kind of beautiful out of the box Framework. Something we can really work with straigh away but still customize easily.
Let’s face it no matter how great the design is everybody ends up transforming it.
What I would like to see is finally a theme that goes really beyond what it’s suppose to do. Make options even if they are not used .
Regards
Sara W
April 23rd, 2009 5:54 pmA photo-blog would totally rock hard! Displaying exif tags would be a plus.
Snivellius
April 23rd, 2009 6:10 pmA perfect wordpress template in my opinion must:
-Have a settings page to configure the theme as much as possible without touching code.
-Have various color schemes.
-Have a pair of “font schemes”.
-Be no image heavy.
-Work out of the box.
-Be easy to customize and highly customizable.
-Incluide the PSD files.
-Include big gravatars in commments.
-Comments must be clearly separated from each other.
-Posts separation shuld be more evident also.
-Have a tabbed widget to show latest comments, most popular posts, and such, customizable and managed through settings panel.
-Hability to change the fonts used in the theme by the settings panel without touching css.
-Differentiate author comments from the rest.
-Put comments and trackbacks apart.
-Nicely numerated comments.
-Include the autor of the post, tags, date, share it on the post info.
-Have space for 125×125 ads and manage it through the settings page.
-Feature various custom p classes.
-Follow usability guidelines to its max.
-”Highlight” a comment or differentiate it on mouseover.
-Hability to choose wether to use a text or image logo from the settings panel.
-Big and nice typo for posts titles.
-Have a good form design, with subtle color changing of the active fields and such.
-Well tought out and balanced, catching design.
-Three column layout.
-Clean, well organized and commented code and css.
-Have a print stylesheet.
-SUPPORT CHILD STYLES.
dewde
April 23rd, 2009 7:03 pmA versatile and clean non-profit / charitable organization theme. Charity and non-profit orgs are serving others selflessly all over our planet. Let us serve them for a change with a world class wordpress theme so they can feel proud of their web presence.
Features:
- Blog.
- Featured Events/Projects Rotator.
- Call to action or About Us page.
- Lifestream/twitter
- Link to associated Facebook Group or Cause
- Donate
- Events / Projects Section.
—- Each Project/Event can have photo or video embeds.
—- Each Project/Event can link to a Facebook event.
- Colors driven by CSS styles with little to no reliance on images. Nonprofit orgs don’t have graphic designers on staff. Some don’t have staff on staff.
They should be focused on changing the world for the better, not online fashion sense.
peace|dewde
Azmodan
April 23rd, 2009 8:25 pmHow about a framework to develop any kind of portal website, regarding the content with the ability to:
- Manage various types of media (swf,mov,pdf, etc)
- CSS skinning of various sections without interfering in the functionality of the overall site
- Modules for managing paid content
- Sitemap generator
- Blogging
- Some kind of reward system for users with the best content/articles/comments, etc
- Ads manager
To be honest, I haven’t found any decent portal theme/framework anywhere, so I guess this could be the opportunity to create a kick ass framework for creating portal sites.
YQ
April 23rd, 2009 8:58 pmI would love a theme for webcomics with twitter integration.
Features include:
Latest post will appear on the front page with the latest comic
Avatar pic next to your blog post
Option to have page peel effect when going through archives
Easily navigate archives with calendar.
Thanks SM!
Simon Harlinghausen
April 23rd, 2009 11:33 pmA wordpress theme that can be used
for a normal website. Comments
function should be functionally and
should be set on active/inactive.
Also flexible horizontal navigation
including submenus.
Stay tuned …
gNcWebmaster
April 24th, 2009 12:35 amI would love to see a creative magazine style theme… Thanks…
MOSH
April 24th, 2009 12:52 amI would really like to see a wordpress as cms theme but not yet another magazine-style theme. Perhaps a beautiful, clean theme with a static home page thats styled perfectly – with a grid showing recent posts and which is as configurable as possible without touching code and works straight out of the box.