Monday Intro To This Weeks Theme: Design
by Eric and Sean on January 26, 2009
in Vlog
Sean needs a haircut, and two two talking fall into round one of the Thesis theme vs. Flexx smack down.
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All the cool kids buy Thesis.
It’s like a pair of low-rise jeans just a few years, or Uggs just last year…I thought about it – but decided they wouldn’t look good on me.
This week might be a good time to finish off my theme.
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Yeah, Thesis is for lazy bloggers. It’s for forty year old men. It fits me like a glove, but I’ll save it until Thursday. I’d be interested to see how I might look wearing another theme, so I’ll be interested to see what Eric has to say in the matter.
First appearances are important but as we’re not all design experts. How do you go about causing least offence to the eyes of the readers?
And Sean, get your hair cut you damn hippy! *GRIN~*
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In addition to the great content,I’ve also had Writer Dad bookmarked for a while, in a folder called ‘great themes and templates’. (I’m a blogging newbie and have been compiling ideas as I’ve been surfing. I have a free WP theme already but no matter how I tweak it, it’s not giving me that ‘homecoming’ feeling.) The Writer Dad theme also felt ‘familiar’ and after scrolling down to the footers of some of my favourites, it dawned on me that I had another few Thesis sites bookmarked in the same file. It’s worth mentioning that there’s a gallery plus a great Thesis community of helpful folk at the DIY Themes website – useful, if, like me, you don’t have your very own technical support theme. This post was pure synchronicity – I feel a Thesis purchase may be imminent! And by the way, your videos are so relaxed and fun-loving, you make the learning easy. Thanks guys!
My take on themes: Thesis is definitely pretty slick… but like you say, it took a guy like Eric to make it shine. Flexx (I see you have it advertised…) would be my recommendation for people wanting to buy a theme they could use out of the box (often what people look for in a premium theme). I recommend Thesis to developers and those wanting and willing to do customizations on it. Granted, the stock look is good, but with the popularity of Thesis, it’s over-used.
Well I don’t have theses and as a beginning blogger is it really important to spend money to switch or just continue doing great content and moving forward? It’s easy to keep spending money on every new thing that comes along. Because there are a ton of new things daily.
I’m looking forward to what you have to say about the Thesis theme and theme customization – I just purchased the Thesis theme myself and am just beginning to customize it. I certainly am getting a crash course in CSS, if nothing else. I do like the theme though.
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Matthew: It’s funny because it’s true. When I started, I had no coding skills whatsoever (not that I’m bursting with them now). Thesis had yet to cover the blogging landscape and it allowed me to get going with some amount of confidence right out of the box.
Dave: True that. I think Flexx is a fantastic theme. If I didn’t already give the I do to Thesis, I’m sure Flexx could have swept me off my feet.
Janice: Thanks for that Janice. Twas the gallery that did it for me. I saw what some people were able to do with Thesis and felt totally inspired. Granted, I’ve only walked about a block of the journey, but still, I’m glad to know it’s possible.
Ryan: No doubt, Ryan, I think you have twisted Thesis into my favorite version. You have continuously done some really cool stuff that I could only dream of. Oktober 5 is inspiring for many reasons, but your design is definitely at the top for me.
Tess: No. Content is definitely the most important. Honestly, if I was starting today instead of six months ago, I wouldn’t spend the money on Thesis. I could afford it then and felt it was worth every penny. If I was starting today, I would choose an attractive free theme and wait until I could afford it. Then I would probably check out Flexx and purchase Thesis.
Roger: Congratulations on your purchase! Definitely check out the user forums. They’re super helpful.
I think my design is spot on, and I will assume from the fact that you designed it,you agree.
But honestly I have used other paid themes and they were messy especially for those of us where coding hurts their noodles. Thesis really is the best theme for the lazy, coding hating, slick looking bloggers!
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Can’t wait for your insights into design. I’ve just done the design for my blog (Thesis powered by the way
) and whilst it’s not a “professional” job it will suffice for now.
@Tess: I agree with Sean. You don’t need a premium theme to get going with. However, a paid blog design is something that should be pretty high on the ol’ to do list. If I were a newcomer to blogging my list would be:
1. content
2. content
3. content
4. blogopolis blueprint
5. custom blog theme
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FLEXX RULES!!!!!! And THESIS DROOLS!!!!!!
Not really, but Sean needs a haircut…
Eric
I use Thesis but I think it really depends on the blog purpose and the audience. I think some blogs would be *horrible* with Thesis without some serious modifications, because I think it comes across as little more serious and thoughtful – it can be made to look playful, with some work done on the colors etc, but I actually wanted something serious and relatively unadorned for my site – so that’s why I purchased it. I’ve also got a ton of “todos” to customize it, but I’ll get there when I get there!
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