View Full Version : Blog theme originality
RDude
10-24-2009, 11:28 PM
I see a lot of blog themes out there that look pretty similar to one another. Judging that most free themes are a lot of times based around the same structure, this is expected.
Most of the people who hire me to do their themes do so because they're looking for something that matches the niche of their paysite, or they want one that is more unique. Affiliates as well of course.
How do the rest of you feel though? Is originality very important to you when it comes to blog themes, or do you not care so much other than a different header and that everything works ok?
While the originality matters a lot to me at this initial point, it's truthfully set me back in my schedule. Part of that is my learning curve, but I can see why websites may not be as "original" as ideally we would like. It's a lot of work and time is money. Plus, how original can you be if you're making hundreds of sites.
This was a hard realization to make because I still cringe at the design of some sites. Then I look at my own and think...this is OK but not the "wow" I ultimately want. Then I look at many fantastically designed sites, hope I can make something like that someday and just go one day at a time.
(meant "it has truthfully")
I have to add it's annoying when a number of related sites are exactly the same but the background color or header font is different. Still depends.
Gaystoryman
10-25-2009, 09:09 AM
Frankly, I find most 'adult themed' blogs very similar in nature, structure, and the use of the 'normal free themes' available, actually are different enough, that it makes it seem more original.
For myself, I prefer to use different 'free themes' for the blog, so as to simply make them 'different'.
It comes down to how much work one wants to do, to be different enough, or pay to be different enough.
My only beef with most stuff for wordpress, is the 'supplied instructions'. Either they are non existent, or written so only a Rocket Scientist can understand them, and then, only if they've been a scientist for decades. :bang:
HunkMoneyLuke
10-25-2009, 10:09 AM
I like a bit of variety so try to use interesting themes that I have not seen before, and I hope that my readers like that bit of uniqueness too
RDude
10-27-2009, 04:52 PM
Thanks for the feedback guys.
Northstar
10-29-2009, 02:41 PM
I use a cool little program called Artisteer (http://www.artisteer.com/) for my blogs. There are thousands of design combinations. It works great for WP and can even work in Blog Organizer with some html tweaking.
basschick
10-31-2009, 03:16 AM
this seems pretty cool - have you been using it long? it's a very tempting program...
I use a cool little program called Artisteer (http://www.artisteer.com/) for my blogs. There are thousands of design combinations. It works great for WP and can even work in Blog Organizer with some html tweaking.
RDude
10-31-2009, 10:52 AM
I've used Artisteer. While it's pretty good for coming up with a general layout and color scheme, it still has it's limitations. For one thing, it puts a lot of css and xhtml code in that doesn't need to be there. Also, the footers, borders and gradients can't be customized any way you like.
Take the theme I did for Homo Emo here - http://homoemoblog.com/ - The header navigation menu could only be done by slicing the images and assigning each it's url. Also, the footer on this theme had to be completely customized, as Artisteer will not implement a footer like that in itself.
If you're familiar with css, xhtml, and photoshop, Artisteer will help you get exactly what you're looking for. If you're not familiar with them, then Artisteer might frustrate you.
This all being said though, it is a pretty good program. Although, I'm finding Dreamweaver is helping me a lot more now when it comes to WP themes.
My 2 cents
RDude
10-31-2009, 11:18 AM
1 more thing about Artisteer. When you call in a customized header into the program, it will render the image at a pretty low resolution when it renders the theme. As a result, you will have to re-upload a high resolution header if you want it to look as good - or almost as good, for fast page loading results - as it does in your image editor.
basschick
10-31-2009, 12:49 PM
as far as i can tell you can always edit the css afterward in notepad++, and rename your own header graphic so that you simply overwrite theirs.
Northstar
11-01-2009, 04:57 AM
Maybe I'm using a different version then you RDude but I can customize the footers sizes and borders in Artisteer. Also for header and gradient BG images I just change the images in PS before I upload them to the way I like and every thing is fine. I do agree the program does have some limitations but they are easy work around with some minor html and image tinkering. The program isn't perfect but it does save me tons of time with creating blogs.
RDude
11-01-2009, 12:29 PM
Maybe I'm using a different version then you RDude but I can customize the footers sizes and borders in Artisteer. Also for header and gradient BG images I just change the images in PS before I upload them to the way I like and every thing is fine. I do agree the program does have some limitations but they are easy work around with some minor html and image tinkering. The program isn't perfect but it does save me tons of time with creating blogs.
There are 2 versions of Artisteer - Home and Standard. I'm using the Standard version, which has the most options. I assure you that there is no way to customize the size of the footer in the version I'm using, other than to render the theme and then alter your footer image. As well as the css if need be.
Anyway....it does make things faster and is a decent program. Just keep in mind that the css it pumps it out is not W3C compliant and in order for it to be so, it needs to be edited.
I really am finding that creating the theme css files from scratch in notepad is netting me much better results. However, Artisteer creates the php for you, making life much, much easier.
One thing about Artisteer, is that it generates an insanely complicated css for a relatively simple layout that when I load the page in DW, it either freeze or crashes making it almost impossible to do further editing. Looking closely at the css reveals overlapped layers of margins and paddings it would have been so much easier to just write the code myself.:no:
RDude
11-02-2009, 08:56 AM
One thing about Artisteer, is that it generates an insanely complicated css for a relatively simple layout that when I load the page in DW, it either freeze or crashes making it almost impossible to do further editing. Looking closely at the css reveals overlapped layers of margins and paddings it would have been so much easier to just write the code myself.:no:
Yes, exactly what I was saying.
Northstar
11-02-2009, 02:13 PM
One thing about Artisteer, is that it generates an insanely complicated css for a relatively simple layout that when I load the page in DW, it either freeze or crashes making it almost impossible to do further editing. Looking closely at the css reveals overlapped layers of margins and paddings it would have been so much easier to just write the code myself.:no:
You are correct. I wish they would fix these issues. My DW CS3 locks up also but when I load the page in DW CS4 it opens very quickly.
Also the pages made with Artisteer usually have a hundred errors when validated with w3c. Although I don't think w3c really effects your rank in search engines, it may cause errors in older browsers.
I just downloaded the newest update of Artisteer and created a new blog and it only came up with 3 errors in w3c. Maybe they fixed some of the issues.