This is probably the most important part of the project so far. I need to choose a theme upon which to build my site. This is important as it is the very foundation of the website. It controls the look and functionality of the site completely. The plugins are important but they are localised to one aspect of the site so they can be tailored specifically. The theme though runs through every aspect of the site. I need to get the choice right because it needs to fit with all the design work I have done so far.
When it comes to finding themes for Wordpress there are a few options. The first is just to use Wordpress' built in theme searcher along the left hand side toolbar.
You just click the "Appearance" tab about half way down and then choose "Themes":
Once there you can see the themes that you already have downloaded. I already have a few that I liked installed. From here you can install and customise the themes you have or search for new ones by clicking "Add New" at the top of the page:
Once that's clicked you can access Wordpress' theme download area. You can search themes by various categories. You can preview the themes and download/install any that take your fancy:
This is a good way of searching for basic, free themes and quickly being able to install and preview them. The themes are OK. They aren't usually anything special but they are functional and there are a few that stand out from the crowd. However, if it is a premium, high quality theme that is required there are sites like Themeforest:
This site offers professionally designed and built themes for various platforms. One of them being Wordpress. The quality found here is typically higher than that of themes found in Wordpress' default installer.
It is a good platform for professionals because themes typically will have a far greater amount of customisation options. The themes are constructed in such a way as to allow for maximum flexibility. This extra work comes at a price though. These themes begin at $3 most of them however, seem to be going for around $50.
This is a simple search I did specifying "Wordpress" as a search criteria. The themes displayed here all tend to be very modern and employing similar design principles. Here's an example of the theme called Flip:
You can go to the studios page to read more about the selling points of each specific theme and you can even preview a live working version of the site. This is great because it gives you an actual tangible example to play around with.
I think that for this project I might just go with one of the free themes available in the Wordpress search. I think that with my design being as simple as it is, I won't be needing anything too fancy or elaborate. I'm going to be creating a lot of the assets myself and so any aspects of the Wordpress theme that is slightly less than desirable, hopefully, I can just re-do myself and work around it. This will be a bit of a time sink but I don't think that, for this project, going with a premium theme will give me all that much.
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