As some of you know, I recently took over a new site reviewing popular culture — Pop Critics.
Being a WordPress theme developer, it was in my nature to change the look a bit.
The previous design didn’t focus well on the content. This is not to knock what Jason and Mike (previous owners) did with it. They had great content, but it was a bit hidden away amongst everything else.
The problem
I needed to get out a new design quickly.
There was little time to focus on completely making a new theme. I also needed something that could easily handle multiple authors without any individual author breaking something.
Child themes to the rescue
I’ve been talking a lot lately about how child themes are changing the face of the WordPress theme community. Ian Stewart has been letting us in on this little secret for a while.
I also recently released the Hybrid theme framework. That was my starting point.
I spent a good deal of one day mocking up the design in Photoshop. The next day, I laid out about 90% of the code. On the third day, I finished the child theme, tested it, and put it on the site.
I done this with a style.css file weighing in at 10.9kb and a functions.php at 3.96kb.
That’s it. Nothing more. Nothing less.
I had given the site a complete overhaul with minimal work because I used a solid framework to build from.
What do you think?
There’s still more design tweaks to come as we take on new writers. I’ll probably go with a more magazine-style front page once the content warrants it. I still need to add some things such as a search bar, email subscription form, and a more dynamic sidebar.
For now, the basic design is on the site and I’m fairly happy with what we have.
There’ll be more to come in the next part of this series as I lay out some of the specific things I done from my child theme using functions.php
It looks very nice. I love your design style, its very simple and clean. Also the red works very well IMO.
I probably would have tweaked some of the details a bit more, but then again, I imagine you were in a hurry to get the new design out. Overall: a really clean design, with focus on the content.
Here’s how effective your new design is: when I read your first post about PC, I went to the site and even though I’m definitely in the target, the clutter prevented me from subscribing. Now: clear content, read the post about 24 and I instantly subscribed!
Guees this is what design is all about!
Very cool indeed! An amazing transformation, especially in such a short time.
I agree that it could use a less “bloggish” magazine-style format, and I’ll be looking forward to seeing your continuing changes and your descriptions of them here!
Can’t wait to see it released on Theme Hybrid (wink)
Jylan Wynne
Thanks. I like “simple and clean.” No matter how many bells and whistles added to all the sites across the Internet, simple and clean is what users will come back to.
Adrian
Yes, tweaking will come. I’m happy I’ve made a subscriber out of you.
It just shows how a cleaner design can actually change a viewer’s idea about a site completely.
CircleReader
I’m picking up new writers every other day now. When we get our writers regularly posting new articles, the magazine-style front page will go up. I’ll probably do the same with category archives as well.
Craig
Well, maybe one day.
I might make a similarly-structured layout with a different design for release though.
making me believe move in the hybrid theme
will start using it when wp 2.7 is out.
I have to say i never saw the old layout, but i really like the new design its eye catching , without being to overpowering..
I wish you all the best for the new venture there..
Nicely looking template.
Clean, not to many colours, overal its eye catching.
It could be a strange comment, but your rss icon got my immediate attention :p
I just hope you wont get any ugly banner in the advertise spot on top.
Kind regards
http://goowik.com
dinu
Just wait until I release the first official child theme this coming week.
Ian
Thanks. I probably should’ve shown an image of the previous layout, but I can say that it’s a totally different design than before in every way.
Peter
The RSS icon is actually a design from a friend that we’ve added to one of Hybrid’s future child themes. I liked it so much that I decided to use it on Pop Critics.
I’m not big on adding ads in the header, so I’m hoping I don’t get anything too hideous.
I admire your development and design philosophy: simple, quick, clean. In this day and age, this is what businesses need. As I consider options for the domain for my own business – presence for a freelance writing, editor and analyst business – you’ve given me immense food for thought.
Thanks. I’m not big on adding a lot of flash to a website. I like things to be simple and straightforward.
hi justin,
i’m interested.:) check out my blog and see if you think my posts would be a good fit for you. i blog about books, movies, pop culture, politics.:) my most recent movie review is for “australia.” plan to see “milk” this weekend.:)
mary
http://marycuevas.blogspot.com
Cool. I sent you an email.
Looks nice, I’ll be keeping an eye on your site to see how it comes along.
Justin, have you ever thought of using Intensedebate on you blog? I started using it a few weeks ago and really like it.
Once we get all the writers we need, things will really start rolling. I’ve already picked up six new writers, which is a lot more than I expected so soon. I’m thinking another 10 or so would be ideal.
I don’t really like Intense Debate as it is because it’s not in the WordPress core. I’ll be using WP 2.7’s new comment features when that’s officially released though.
Thinking about it now maybe I should have waited for WP 2.7 before trying Intense Debate. What got me more motivated was the fact that automatic bought them out so I would expect some sort of integration to take place.
Great looking theme. Can’t wait to start playing with all the functionality you have managed to pack into it. Well done!
Nice theme. Clean style with a cool appearance. I will used for myself. Jaja. Thanks a lot