If you follow WordPress theme designer blogs then there’s probably little chance that you’ve missed the big showdown happening between Small Potato (WP Designer) and Adii.
I’ve followed both of these young designers since they’ve been designing WordPress themes and consider both to be at the top of the WordPress designer list. My two favorites, actually. I’ve never compared them because their styles are so different. Both were even mentioned in my Weekly Roundup. I’m fairly certain they were the first two to get added to my new feed reader.
Now, there seems to be a war going on, and nobody’s the winner here.
Small Potato lit the fire and it turned out to be more than just a little flame. It became an all-out explosion. He was reviewing Unique Blog Designs, a website boasting designs of John Chow and Shoemoney, and didn’t have a lot of nice words to say. Adii releases some of his themes on that site, and what became of Small Potato’s review seemed an almost personal attack on Adii himself, a good friend and fellow designer.
Obviously, UBD’s main designer for the “exclusive themes†is subtlety-intolerant, contrast-intolerant, design-flow-intolerant, and focus-intolerant.
He earlier references the main designer as none other than Adriaan Pienaar (Adii). Excuse me if he was talking about someone other than Adii in this quote. I’m writing this post because of it.
I’ve had some time to give this a little thought and look at it from several different angles. While Small Potato has every right to say what he wants on his blog, he crossed a line that no one should cross with a friend. The line he stepped over was going from a brutally honest review to a personal attack. He reviewed the designer and not the design when he typed those words.
I don’t want to take sides, even though it looks as if I have by my previous words. What I want to do is call for some sort of a truce, a peaceful solution to all this because I don’t want to split any of the WordPress community.
That’s exactly what could happen in this case. If you’re a reader of their blogs, then you almost feel obligated to take a side. You want to reassure somebody that they’re “right.” The WordPress community is what gets hurt here.
I will continue reading each blog because I like both of their designs (and both people). I just hope that, once all this settles down, they can overcome their differences and become friends once again.
Let’s make WordPress peace, not WordPress war!
By the way, I really only wanted to write this post to show off my “peace” and “war” WordPress icons. I was going for the hippie/tie-dye feel with the peace icon. Obviously the camouflage represents war, or hunting, or nature in general—I say war.
Thanks for the backing Justin. I don’t expect anyone to pick sides – but I would like everyone to acknowledge that I’m not in the wrong here…
I assumed you and he both don’t expect anyone to take sides, and I hope it doesn’t come to that.
Just keep doing what you’re doing, creating great themes, and writing great posts.
Should it also be noted that the peace WordPress icon resembles a target?
Didn’t even notice that. I thought it did look a little hypnotizing though.
Let us not beat around the bush
Many of you would’ve followed some of the recent developments in the Wordpress design community and in particulary, the situation that has developed between me and another Wordpress designer. And instead of just watching the situation fizzle out,…
Hi Justin -
I’m not sure that “Peace” exactly equals respectable debate in the best sense of the word — that is “debate” as used in education. You see, I’m all for debating the finer points of web design(s), but when an argument is presented without clear premises and backed up with visual examples, we are simply left with… huh?
I too have followed this story and Small Potatoe’s points are not supported by any examples. In fact, though I’ve taught graphic design at the College Level, I’m not really sure what he means by the sentence you quoted above.
What does “focus intolerant” mean when it comes to web template design? Can he clearly define that terminology, then make his case by comparing designs that he thinks are focus tolerant, to those that he deems focus intolerant?
Let’s agree to disagree — constructively. In this case, a number of statements were destructive and so went the friendship. Beyond that, I can learn nothing else from what was presented.
Yours, Scott
Scott, I’m not sure what we’re agreeing to disagree on.
You say that “I’m not really sure what he means by the sentence you quoted above.” You’re looking at this from a design standpoint, when it was quoted not for what he said about design, but what he said about the designer.
I still consider both of these guys friends of mine though. This discussion is a little old anyway.