How To Find Inspiration For Customizing Your Wordpress Theme
Wed, Sep 3, 2008
If given the opportunity, it’s likely that everyone would choose to have a Wordpress theme that was unique to their blog. Unfortunately, not all of us have the knowledge and/or skills to design custom graphics or dig into the code of a Wordpress theme and manipulate the layout. I’ve spent a lot of time tinkering with code and graphics, so I can usually tweak a good portion of a theme myself. However, I’m completely self-taught, and most of what I’ve learned is from seeking out the information online, which means anyone can do it!
So, even if you are inexperienced, don’t be intimidated. Get under the hood give it a shot!
You’d be surpirsed how much difference a few small changes to a theme can make. Often, all that is required is an idea, determination, and a tutorial or two.
Finding inspriation from viewing what others have done to customize their themes can be a big help in sparking new ideas regarding what types of changes to make to your own theme. The hard part after that is choosing the right theme and finding tutorials that will allow you to implement those ideas. Here’s a few tips on where to find inspiration and also where to find free information and tutorials that will help you add a few customizations to your theme.
Where To Find Ideas For Customizing Your Wordpress Theme
Other Sites In The Same Niche
Looking at other creative designs in the same niche can ignite imaginitive ideas for your own theme (colors, style, layout, features to include, etc.). Obviously, you never want to copy something because that defeats the whole purpose of customizing in the first place. Once you find something you like, think of ways you can put a twist on the idea or implement it into your own style.
CSS And Wordpress Showcase Galleries
I view showcase design galleries often, not just for ideas, but simply because I enjoy discovering all the new creative sites that are sprouting up everywhere.
If you haven’t been to any showcase galleries before, what are you waiting for? There are a million out there, but here’s a few that I visit frequently:
Best Web Gallery - Althought this isn’t focused on Wordpress blogs per se, the gallery features some of the best website designs examples of creative CSS and Flash online. It’s a great reference to visit often when you’re looking for a little visual inspiration.
CSS Elite - Another kick ass gallery site that features amazing designs. Navigate through site color, style, etc. They also have a ton of great resources listed like icons, shopping carts, and all that extra stuff you need.
WP Premiums - Here’s a fantastic resource for finding creative customizations of Wordpress themes. The cool thing about this site gallery is, all the sites featured in it have been custom built on a premium Wordpress theme.
We Love WP - This is another design gallery but as you can probably guess by the title of the site, this one is also focused on showcasing the best site designs that are powered by Wordpress.
Choosing The Right Wordpress Theme To Customize
I’m constantly on the lookout for unique Wordpress theme designs that I think will be a good fit for a nproject I might be working on. Sometimes, just the theme alone will spark an idea for a new niche to tackle and/or website to build. It can be tricky to choose the right one, but if you know you want to change it quite a bit, there are a few things to look for on the front end, visual aspect of things:
- Space
Find a theme that already has a lot of white space. This makes it easy to chnge a lot about the layout and still have the content fit well. - Typography
Make sure the typography is stylish and already looks good. This will save you a lot of time not having to change too much of that aspect of the theme. - Header
If possible, find a theme that has a pretty wide open header, meaning that there’s ample room to do whatever you want at the top. A custom header across the whole width of the top of the theme can often be enough to make your site look unique.
Woo Themes - You might know by now that these are my favorite Wordpress themes so I won’t go on and on about them again. These themes pretty much speak for themselves anyway. My own theme here on SuiteJ.com was built using their Flash News theme.
Revolution Themes - You’ve probably heard of the Revolution Wordpress magazine themes? If no, definitely take a peek if you’re considering using a magazine style theme. The package over ther just keeps growing and the themes are perfect for customizing.
Press75 Themes - If you have a blog that’s focused on video posts more than anything, then you have to check out these themes. Two of them are built for video and they look spectacular. They also are very open and leave room to customize even though they look great the way they are.
Where To Find Help If You Want To Customize Your Wordpress Theme
If you want to find tips, tricks, hacks, and tutorials on how to customize your Wordpress theme, there are countless places to find help. Here’s a few of my favorite resources:
Blog Perfume - This links directly to a category dedicated to customizing/hacking information, but the entire site is worth visiting. They review the best Wordpress themes and also cover things like plugins, monetization, etc.
Hack Wordpress - Another site with a plethora of Wordpress information at your fingertips, but this is a direct link to a catgeory on the site showing posts that will help you with code tweaks and other Wordpress customizations.
Web Designer Wall - Visit Nick’s site just to check out the beautfiful design, if for nothing else. However, you will find tons of great tips and tricks with CSS, Phtooshop, etc. This particulat link leads you straight to a great list of easy to understand Wordpress hacks.
If you’ve been thinking about possibly adding a little customization to your Wordpress theme, then I hope that this has given you a little push to go forward and see what’s out there that you can add. Have fun! 
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Cheers!
Jay
Tags: Design
September 4th, 2008 at 2:41 am
I have recently just changed the comments section of my free theme on my website because I saw SlyVisions comment section and I loved it.
I paid someone from a forum to change it for me for $15. Pretty cheap considering it is exactly what i wanted.
I also paid someone in a forum to edit my header because it didn’t have a pages tab. This cost me $30. All in all pretty cheap
September 4th, 2008 at 2:48 am
@Jay - It would be good if you had a navigation toolbar on yoursite. So then you can have pages such as “advertise”, “archives”, “about” etc. This would be really useful to your readers.
PS. Just a heads up that you can win $50 by being a top commentor on my blog. Not trying to spam just telling you cos I like ur blog.
Ryan McLeans last blog post..Don’t Start A Business Teaching People How To Make Money If You Aren’t Already
September 4th, 2008 at 3:08 am
@Ryan: Cool on the cheap custom stuff. I used to have customized comments on my previous theme, but I just haven’t done anything to these really.
As for the nav…I don’t have any advertisement offers….there’s an “about” link on the top right.,,and archives is on the bottom.
I have plans for adding a lot more later, so I’m waiting on that for the archives link and some other things rather than work on it twice.
Thanks for lookin’ out though
Cheers!
Jay
September 4th, 2008 at 3:23 am
Your the man Jay. Thanks for commenting. I love blog friends. Keep in touch and so will I
Sounds good how your waiting. Do you monetize your blog at all?
September 4th, 2008 at 4:51 am
Hey Jay, thanks for sharing those resources. I haven’t heard of some of them before. I’m checking them out and I’m loving the designs!
Lucass last blog post..“Free” Doesn’t Always Mean “Poor”
September 4th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
I love Revolution and Blog Perfume. Some of the other resources are great.
Susans last blog post..Free Sample of a Ecologic Cleansers
September 4th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
I’m kinda expecting you to dish out another great tutorial on theme customization but still a nice collection of resources, Jay.
Yan
Yan Shall Blogs last blog post..Where Did They Go From Here?
September 4th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
thanks for the direction sir! I seen most of these during the week but didn’t have time to digest them…I will now! Thank you sir….
Normal Joes last blog post..Google Chrome, Asus eePC, Free Hostgator Hosting, and a Monkeyblogger
September 4th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
wait…crap, wrong post, I came from my reader which was the link love RSS post, and I had your site open as well, to this one! SUM BEE……
carry on, I’ll be back to comment on this one for real lol.
Normal Joes last blog post..Google Chrome, Asus eePC, Free Hostgator Hosting, and a Monkeyblogger
September 4th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
@Ryan: Right now, I de-monetize my blog by giving away money instead of making bringing it in. You know, keepin’ it real. lol
@Lucas: Cool man, yeah, I like going to some of those just for the Hell of it sometimes. I’ve found some interesting sites from those galleries.
@Susan: Thanks for dropping by! I’m a regular reader of Blog Perfume. They usually are pretty up to date with the latest kick ass themes.
@Yan: Dude, did I let you down? I’ll have to work on something that’s similar to the logo design tips I guess, just for you.
@Joe: LOL. Everything ok over there in Joeville man? Glad you liked the article, whichever one you’re talking about. lmao
Cheers guys!
Jay
September 4th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Awesome inspiration from you, indeed.
I was just doing some Wordtracker lovemaking and I think I stumbled onto an affiliate site of yours… I’m not going to blast it out here, but if I wanted to get a bull tattooed on my ass, would you have a site to provide me with resources?
Tisk tisk.. hint hint.. lol, I’m playing dude. I really do think it’s your site though, totally your design style.
Elijahs last blog post..How The Rich Stay Rich: An Internet Marketing Reality Check
September 4th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
@Elijah: LMAO! You only came across “one site”? Damn, I’m not doing my job right then. You should have stumbled across about 12 or 13 in the same niche.
Use protection when making love to Wordtracker. I hear it gets around!
Cheers!
Jay
September 4th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Great post.
The tips you shared with us is exactly what I’ve done when I first launched the new theme for SlyVisions. I looked around many different blogs and checked theme sites as well just to get an idea of how I would want my blog to look like. It’s a free theme (made by Adii from Woo Themes) but it sure seems like it would be a premium one with all the tweaks and changes I’ve made.
Sly from SlyVisions dot Coms last blog post..Quick Links - September 4, 2008
September 4th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Inspired? Well, I think I’ll “borrow” your header illustration. We look nothing alike, but I can’t draw worth a darn, and I think it’ll look nice on my blog. Hope you don’t mind.
LOL
But looking at other blogs is definitely the way to get ideas. I’m currently working on my theme now (no joke) and will be activating it very soon. Everywhere I go I take note of what it is I like about the themes and decide if I can integrate it somehow into mine. No matter how you do it, it’s definitely worth putting forth the effort to make the theme you adopt your own in some fashion.
September 5th, 2008 at 1:17 am
@Sly: I know, that’s a nice theme. Definitely one of the best freebies out there.
@Mark: LOL@ “borrowing a mini-me”. What theme are you going to be using?
Yeah, there’s a lot of creative stuff out there, but you’re right, even adding a little bit of “something” can make a difference andmake you stick out a little. more. Ca’t wait to see the new “look”.
Cheers!
Jay
September 5th, 2008 at 10:01 am
At some point i should start to learn how to do better theme tweaking. I do know how to tweak many themes, the trickier ones for me to mod on, are the magazine themes. Some are downright complicated.
Will look into some of the resources pointed out above. Good stuff.
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