WordPress › Support » *tired* of magazine themes.

ebedgert
Member
Posted 3 years ago #

OK, I don't know where else to potentially reach a large number of WordPress theme designers (both free and premium) but I have to say it:

Stop with the lookalike magazine themes already.

They all look the same: big graphics boxes with superimposed headlines, big images bulleting every entry, too much white space, serif fonts, etc. Everyone is copying everyone else like lemmings, and has been for about a year. A lot of these themes are mainly about the cool photography in the sample images, not about the structure and usability.

It's getting impossible to find a decent blog theme where text and information are front and center. I'm happy to pay for good themes but I'm just not seeing any out there any more, not even among premiums (in fact the premium theme authors seem to be the worst offenders). Guess I'll have to shut up now, and take up coding.
Saurus
Member
Posted 3 years ago #

Perhaps your best tactic is to design your OWN theme that meets your requirements? I wonder how many "different looks" there are? Ever notice how cars all look basically the same these days? That's because the parameters required are limited in scope. You are basically using a CSS layout format with a set number of columns, a header area and a footer. While any of those can be eliminated, or added ...what else is there? The difference is in your content, and that is up to you to style.

Maybe you should check the codex on designing your own theme and spend some time thinking about how to design something exactly how you want, and trying to make it totally different from anything you've ever seen before.

Not so easy, is it? :)
ebedgert
Member
Posted 3 years ago #

The problem is not with the limited kinds of layouts that are possible. The problem is that EVERY designer has jumped onto the magazine bandwagon, yet they are all still using the same fonts, same transparent black dynamic overlay boxes for blurbs, etc. Everything is big, chunky, and uses the screen space rather poorly.

Yes, of course I could always teach myself to code (as I mentioned up top) but this post was primarily a general complaint to any and all theme designers that they're glutting the "market" with magazine themes.

Of course I do think the dirty secret is that -- five or six years in -- there really aren't any more possible variations on WordPress themes. Everything's been done. So people just copy each other.
demetris
Member
Posted 3 years ago #

It’s getting impossible to find a decent blog theme where text and information are front and center.

I imagine this was an intentional exaggeration. :-) But it is not very far from the truth. In my opinion, if you are serious about your content, there are no more than 20 or 25 themes in total that you could consider seriously, but that is not a bad number, given that all can be customized very easily, either via their settings or with a child theme.

Here is a few that I like:

Atahualpa
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/atahualpa

Basic2Col
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/basic2col

blog.txt
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/blogtxt

Carrington
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/carrington-blog

Elegant Grunge
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/elegant-grunge

Fluid Blue
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/fluid-blue

Hybrid
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/hybrid

MiniMoo
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/minimoo

Moo Point
http://iamww.com/wordpress-theme-moo-point/

Plainscape
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/plainscape

Sandbox
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/sandbox

Simplish
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/simplish

Simplr
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/simplr

Tarski
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/tarski

Thematic
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/thematic

There is a also a couple of “premium” themes that I like, but I won’t mention them here because of something that I consider a serious disadvantage in “premium” themes: You cannot try them on your content.
ebedgert
Member
Posted 3 years ago #

Yes, as for premium themes the only recent one I've seen lately that actually honors text content in a non-bare-bones way might be Platformate (example at http://michaelhutagalung.com/2008/06/platformate-personal-magazine-wordpress-theme/ ) But, as you said, you can't test-drive it.

I find that theme designers don't seem to like to design for widgets and RSS feed inclusions. My frustration comes from trying to find a theme (free or premium) that gives you a nice presentation of text-based widgetry - with SENSIBLE fonts, not oversized serif stuff. (yes, you can always change the fonts yourself, but some of these "customizable" themes where they have written big complicated control panels for customization, don't even include an option to change the typeface!) I have a blog but would like to highlight others' RSS headlines too; things tend to get lost when they're marching down a side column.

The magazine themes are frustrating because not only do they emphasize graphics (a trend I think is on its way out), but they aren't really very widget-friendly. I thought the whole point of RSS was to syndicate the headlines on a website, not just read them in a feed reader.
gazellethemes
Member
Posted 3 years ago #

Ededgert raises a good point, and one I completely agree with. Something I should address in my themes. I think the key is to leave the little options to the people and to not assume they want something one way or another. In my wp magazine theme I included 16 widget locations, which might be overkill, but no one says you have to use them. Widgets are simple and familiar to most WordPress users. No hacking of the code, nothing. Just slap a widget in there.

I also included a try before you buy option, like demetris mentioned, so you can try it on your own content. Fair warning: I tried to add nag screens and lock it down for the demo only. While most PHP folks can probably undo the damage, I think people will appreciate the option and be honest.

That being said, I really like platformate, it is lightweight, slightly new wave and readable. This is the direction that most themes and theme developers should move (especially for those cookie cutter magazine themes).