5 Excellent Resources for Free PSD Web Templates


The Internet is such a great resource for learning almost anything. You can practically start a whole new career based on all the free available information that can be downloaded online. Thanks to very generous people who don’t mind sharing their talent and resources for others to learn from. For those who want to try their hand at designing web templates, one of the best ways to learn is to mimic the good ones that are out there. Thankfully, there are excellent resources out there if you know where to look. Here are some of the best that’s out there today and the great thing about it is that these resources are absolutely free. Check them out:

Blaz Robar

Blaz Robar is a graphic designer from Melbourne, Australia and is part of a web design studio, Eleven Media that specialises in creating unique WordPress themes. Below is one of the many PSD templates available on his site Blazrobar.com and you can also find his work on www.thelayoutlab.com.

Luis Zuno

Luis Zuno is a full time web designer & developer spends his time creating themes and templates. Below is a sample of one of the free PSD files on this site were created by him. According to him, you are free to download, and use them in both your commercial and personal projects. Luis Zuno’s work can also be found at ThemeForest.

Martin Fabricius

Martin Fabricius is a young and talented web designer from Vejle Denmark and has won several awards in his homeland. According to him:

My big passion is usability and web and app design. I make web and app design on a freelance basis apart from my job as CTO to Ungarbejde.dk

Below is a sample of the kind of work that is available on his website:

Elemis Freebies

Cemile and Volkan are two graduate students at VCD in Istanbul and work as freelance web designer/developers. Currently they are working on creating user-friendly and clean website templates on Themeforest.
Below is a sample of their work which can be downloaded for free on their website:

Premium Coding

Premium Coding is an interactive multimedia design website that provides tons of resources for web developers, designers, and the web community. Below is a sample of one of the many free resources you can download from their site.

With all the free tutorials, templates, and design resources available out there, you can jump start your web design skills in no time. So bring out your text editor, your editing software and get started. All you need to add to the equation is your time.

BuddyPress WordPress Themes 2013: Trends

BuddyPress has come a long way since its conceptualization in 2008. What is BuddyPress anyway?

According to WPMU.org:

“BuddyPress is a suite of plugins for WordPress that transforms into a fully functional social network platform.
When installed on WordPress Multisite it provides features that lets your members socially interact with each other within a multi-blogging platform environment. It provides all the features that allow you to build a community on your network. BuddyPress enables you to build passionate users around a specific niche.”

Buddypress.org puts it quite succinctly:

“BuddyPress is Social Networking, the WordPress way.”

The concept of turning a WordPress site into a social network is indeed radical and has not been lacking in challenges. What is amazing is that BuddyPress users of today find a plugin that fully integrates into ordinary WordPress as opposed to the few who were tinkering with WPMU a couple of years back. With its latest version, 1.6, BuddyPress is an easy to use plugin with good content management capability. You can enjoy the benefit of user generated content with the ability to moderate and control spam posts using existing infrastructure on WordPress. BuddyPress also gives you the functionality you expect from any social networking site. You can add and remove friends, create groups and much more.

With all that BuddyPress is offering now what more is store for this great plugin? The battle cry of the developers is theme integration. More and more people would like to turn their existing sites into social networking sites without discarding their existing theme capabilities. Come to think of it, if you have a great ecommerce theme, why would you want discard your eCommerce capabilities for social networking. The challenge for theme developers is to create or redesign themes that integrate the capabilities of buddypress. Social networking, in tandem with mobile devices, has made our world smaller, closer, and within reach. It is undeniable.On the other hand, BuddyPress developers also have to do their share to make the plugin more seamless. While the task doesn’t seem easy there is indeed a host of talented, highly motivated people working to reach the summit from both sides. We are looking forward with much eagerness to their success!

WordPress, Really? 5 Amazing WordPress Sites to Inspire You

Below are some amazing not so typical WordPress websites to inspire you to think out of the box:

1. Yoke by Jay Bigford and Alister Wynn

“Having the power to manage the content of your site and update it when you want gives you valuable autonomy and gives us more time with our colouring pens. We can provide simple elegant WordPress solutions to fully fledged e-commerce sites to get your online shop selling.” – co-founders Jay Bigford and Alister Wynn (eCommerce, Open Source, WordPress)

2. Girl with a Camera by Matt Brett

“This was my first venture into HTML5, and I took the opportunity to deck out Ashley’s photoblog with all sorts of CSS3 frills as well. One of the main challenges, was deciding on a colour scheme. Since each photo set could potentially have a dominant colour throughout, I came up with the idea of having the background colour change for each post (set).” – Matt Brett

3. Crack by DCOED

“We have created a fully responsive masonry-style website for Crack Magazine, designed by Fiasco. Mobile and tablet users can now enjoy a comfortable reading experience that does CRACK’s editorial and imagery justice.” – DCOED (WordPress, CSS3, HTML, Responsive Design)

4. Grind by Magic+Might and Co:Collective

“We leverage WordPress to manage content and templating for the site. WordPress is also used to manage the content for our members-area site, and our blog, the Grindist,” explains Josh Campbell. “We picked WordPress for a number of reasons. First we wanted a stable, feature rich platform but without a large investment, that would be able to grow with our needs.

“We also wanted a clean management interface for our writers and editors so they can focus on creating great content.” There is a fantastic community surrounding WordPress and the guys ?at Grind feel that this reflects on the kind of collaborative community that they are all about.”

5. Rodesk by Laurens Boex and Jasper van Orden

“WordPress is the best CMS for sites such as Rodesk, we’ve developed with it for quite some time,” explains Boex. “With a ton of plugins and extensions and a worldwide community of supportive developers it’s easy to work with and integrate quickly.”

The Basic Parts of a WordPress Theme

Language consists of words that are classified into different groupings depending on their function. The English language is divided into 8 parts commonly known as: nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. These words can be used in combination with one another to express a complete thought – a sentence. Other languages may have different classifications but generally, each language is comprised of several word classifications which when combined with each other express a specific thought.

We have been slowly laying the basic foundation to understanding WordPress these past few weeks. Last week, we learned common phrases that you hear in and around the WordPress community that you might not fully understand but have become familiar with because of common use. This week we shall be a bit more technical and try to introduce a little bit more of what goes on behind a WordPress theme, its basic parts, and how it is put together to function the way we normally see it.

A WordPress theme is quite similar to a sentence. It is a combination of several parts to express a visual representation of a design thought. Let’s take a look at these basic parts (not necessarily 8) to give us an idea of what they are and how they function.

A WordPress theme is comprised of as few or as many template files as you like. These templates are PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) source files used to generate the pages requested by visitors and are output as HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). (source: codex.wordpress.org) Each of these template files can be configured to function according to a specific design.

WordPress Themes use a combination of template files, template tags, and CSS files to generate your WordPress site’s look. If you are currently a WordPress user (self-hosted or not) you can familiarize yourself by checking out the templates listed below in the backend admin panel of your site. You can look for them under Appearance>Theme>Editor. These may all seem Greek for now and and hard to understand but the goal for now is to simply observe how the codes are written in these templates. Just make sure you don’t edit them by mistake.

Below are the basic templates that you will find among the many other templates in your WordPress theme:

style.css

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a language for defining the formatting used in a Web site. This includes things like colours, background images, typefaces (fonts), margins, and indentation.

The basic principle of CSS is to allow the designer to define a style (a list of formatting details like fonts, sizes, and colours) and then apply it to one or more portions of one or more HTML pages using a selector. To every CSS style definition there are two components: the selector, which defines which tags the style will be applied to, and the attributes, which specify what the style actually does.

CSS allows you to store style presentation information (like colors and layout) separate from your HTML structure. This allows precision control of your website layout and makes your pages faster and easier to update.

index.php

index.php is a universal template, it is what any page (home, archive, single post, etc) will use if no other template is available for it. The index file controls what the homepage looks like.

For the visual learners out there, a very helpful visual resource you can check out is this infographic Anatomy of a WordPress Theme made by Yoast. More on this next week!

The Business of WordPress

The root word of ecosystem is “eco,” a derivative of the Greek term for house or home, and “system,” is a set of connected things or parts forming a complex whole. A closer look at nature reveals a highly integrated system of living and nonliving components capable of sustaining life. Each species, element, and energy source plays a crucial part in maintaining balance on our living planet. In the same token, there exists multiple layers of ecosystems within social and business structures that are interactive and interdependent upon each other. We have witnessed in the last few years a social networking phenomenon where our world has become more and more interconnected digitally and business environments are turning into digital ecosystems.

Caught in the midst of all this is a thriving WordPress community comprised of WordPress professionals, authors, developers, theme providers, marketplace vendors, web hosts, and other commercial entities that have evolved and conglomerated into this dynamic WordPress ecosystem we have today. These key players have all been instrumental in empowering the world’s most popular Content Management System (CMS) today, fueling this digital economy with WordPress powered websites, themes, plugins, and web consultancy services all around the globe.

One of the exciting events to look forward to in the WordPress scene is the upcoming Pressnomics 2012 conference in November. Pressnomics 2012 – The Economics of WordPress is the first of its kind gathering of the brightest minds in the commercial WordPress ecosystem represented by 7+ countries around the globe. The goal is to foster dialog, share and discuss business best practices, teach a mix of WordPress and general business strategy, et cetera, to help propel those who are active WordPress professionals even further as well as inspire those who are contemplating a future in the WordPress ecosystem. Among the list of speakers are familiar names in the WordPress community: Collis Ta’eed, Pete Davies, Alex King, Cory Miller, to name a few.

There is still much to learn and more room to grow in this realm as the world becomes smaller and smaller because of the recent technological advances especially in the mobile tech industry. The crest of this WordPress wave has yet to reach its peak and even as the wave rises so do the rest of the little boats floating along with it.

For more details about Pressnomics 2012, visit their website at pressnomics.com.

The Beginner’s Guide to Learn Almost Everything About WordPress

So you’ve been blogging for quite sometime now and you’ve been posting random personal and business stuff on one of those free hosted sites. Everything has been going on well so far until one day this free hosted site suddenly announces that it is shutting down and all your content including all your contacts, posts and thousands of images will no longer be available after a certain date. Horrors! You now scramble to download every last post you’ve made and backup all your data before the clock strikes twelve or else everything disappears forever. Have you ever had that happen to you?

And then you stumbled upon WordPress. The thing is you know very little about it and so you start googling about it which is also probably why you ended up here and you are now reading this post. You want to know more.

Below are some useful resources to help jumpstart your WordPress journey. These resources are mainly aimed towards the novice or beginner level so WordPress savvy professionals might find some of these a bit elementary. Nevertheless, these references can someday come in handy whether you are a beginner or a true blue WordPress guru. We would also like to ask our readers to join the conversation by leaving a comment, any helpful suggestions or additional resources to add to our list.

For those who are about to begin their WordPress journey, check out these resources we have compiled to help you get started:

Websites to Bookmark

  • WordPress.com – A blog web hosting service (free) powered by the open source WordPress software. A good starting point on how to learn the how WordPress actually works at the backend and also to familiarize yourself with running a WordPress site. You can always upgrade to Premium status once you know your way.
  • wpmu.org – The number one source for WordPress news, tips, plugins, and theme reviews.
  • WPBeginner.com – A WordPress resource site providing quality tips, tricks, hacks and other resources for the WordPress community.
  • Speckyboy.com – Web design magazine that offers tutorials, time-saving techniques, inspiration, and useful resources for the web including WordPress.
  • wp.tutsplus.com – A site dedicated to teaching people how to use WordPress, develop widgets, plugins and themes.

Books to Read

Channels/Videos to Watch

  • WordPress.tv – A visual resource for all things WordPress including tutorials, updates, and the latest news.
  • WordCamp.tv – Presentations, highlights, and behind-the-scenes look at WordCamps around the world.
  • Lynda.com – Online courses and tutorials on anything WordPress.
  • StudioPress.tv – Step by step video tutorials for the Genesis Framework for WordPress.
  • Youtube WordPress tutorials

Authors/Developers to Follow

Straight from the Source

  • WordPress.org – the ultimate source for all things WordPress.

There are so many resources out there and so many tutorials that can help you get started. These are just a few to help point you in the right direction.

WordPress Theme Marketplaces 2013: Trends

A good way to spot emerging trends in the WordPress themes market would be to look at the behaviour of theme marketplaces like Themeforest, Mojo Themes and other boutique WordPress marketplaces. Here are some of our observations of what is currently ongoing and our take on what is to be:

Themeforest – The WordPress Marketplace Giant

With about 2500 themes in its inventory, Themeforest is probably the largest theme marketplace there is. Collis Ta’eed, founder of Envato which runs Themeforest, observed that the main trends on theme sales for 2012 have been: responsive, e-commerce and app themes (themes that have app like functionalities).

These trends are indeed reflective of trends observed by developers in the industry. With mobile platforms taking their place as the new mainstream it is just fitting to find responsive themes becoming more of a necessity rather than a trend.

The introduction of Jigoshop and WooCommerce plugins are making people realize the viability of turning WordPress themes into robust e-commerce solutions.

Specialized app themes will remain and will continue to flourish because of the specific niches they service. These niche WordPress app themes will continue to evolve as the themes market matures.

Mojo-themes and other WordPress Boutique shops

A look at the top 10 sellers on Mojo Themes similarly shows 4/10 themes are already responsive indicating that the trend towards mobile friendly themes is indeed a phenomenon. Their top selling theme is an e-commerce theme validating the emergence of WordPress as an e-commerce solution. The rest of the themes are multi-purpose or portfolio themes which target professionals, small or medium scale businesses and corporations.

Boutique theme shops and clubs such as StudioPress, Thematic, Press75, iThemes, WooThemes, Templatic and many others continue to thrive with their own loyal following.

Outlook for 2013

Major and minor WordPress theme marketplace vendors are experiencing the trends towards responsive themes and e-commerce. The question is how will these trends influence these marketplaces as they prepare for 2013 and beyond?

It is our opinion that responsive themes will continue to be in high demand as the transition to mobile platforms is still ongoing. About 6.1B mobile subscriptions are still yet to convert to internet ready smartphone subscriptions. The recent introduction of WooCommerce and Jigoshop indicates that the market is also only in the early stages of adaptation and mainstreaming of this technology. 2013 will be a year for continued acceptance as more sites exploit the democratization of e-commerce with these two plugins. Perhaps more eCommerce plugins will be introduced into the market and WordPress users will have more options and solutions to choose from.With a big year ahead for responsive themes and e-commerce, developers now have to bid for the best products to serve these markets as well as look at what lies ahead in 2014.

As ThemeForest continues its commitment to evolve and improve its review standards on what WordPress themes are made available in the marketplace we can expect higher quality WordPress themes that will satisfy even the strictest Code gurus out there. The renewed commitment to become more involved in the WordPress community is also a welcome move that will surely benefit us all.

How To Make Your First WordPress Theme

With WordPress being one of the most popular content management systems available today, many WordPress users, developers or not, are beginning to realize that there is a market out there seeking for new and innovative themes for their WordPress powered sites. So how do you start make your very own WordPress theme? Let’s look at a few resources available on the web to help us do that.

Our first stop is the WordPress Codex. This compendium of WordPress resources is rich with “how to’s” from installing your WordPress theme to playing around with code. If you go to the Codex’s Theme Development section, you will find all the useful information from the structure of a WP theme, to template files to practically everything you want to know about WordPress. It has links to sections on theme design, teaching about the proper layout and other design aspects of the theme. Studying the Codex is essential to serious players in the WordPress community.

When you’re ready to try our information you learned from the codex, siteground.com has an interesting tutorial to build a simple wordpress theme. The site helps you go through the process of creating simple code to generate a simple WordPress theme. You can play around with the code to make more complicated themes if you wish. This would be a great place to help you take your baby steps a little further as you work towards being a more experienced theme developer.

If you’re really in a hurry to build your theme because of an opportunity you just can’t miss, you can probably start off your first few themes with Artisteer. This is a WYSIWYG theme builder software which enables you to make professional looking WordPress themes in minutes. You can create a theme in Artisteer then export it to WordPress in the form of a folder containing the normal WordPress files. Studying the files and your Artisteer rendition will give you a lot of information about building themes. The Artisteer’s home edition is available for download at artisteer.com at a price of $49.95.

A lot of folks who want to develop themes are more designers rather than code geeks. If you feel more comfortable with photoshop than messing around in notepad to tweak code, then you might fancy psd2cssonline.com. This utility enables you to convert your photoshop design into the equivalent wordpress files in a few minutes. Now you can spend more time working on the aesthetic aspects of your theme and worry about the code later. Check out this video to get an idea of how easy it is to use psd2cssonline.

You can also check out an excellent article on Lifehacker entitled “How to Create a Custom Theme for Your WordPress Blog with Minimal Coding Required.” What’s great about this article is its simple approach on what you can expect as you go through the process of creating your own theme. It also has valuable resources like links to creating photoshop files for your theme as well as basic html/css knowledge for you to complete your task. The article also explains the structure and files of a typical WordPress theme.

Other Resources You can Check Out

These resources will definitely whet your appetite for theme building skills. There’s a ton of other resources available out there for your to refine your WordPress coding skills. As the WordPress mantra goes, “Code is Poetry.” Start writing your WordPress poems today.

CSSIgniter Goes After Elegant Themes

In September 2010, CSSIgniter started churning out Premium WordPress themes for the WordPress community. What was intended to be a side project to augment the founders’ day jobs didn’t bring in the cash they were hoping for.

Early this year, CSSIgniter put some focus and resources to keep its creative engines running consistently. In the last 7 months, this developer has released 16 new themes, half of its existing inventory of 29. A closer look at their last 7 releases show how they have significantly up their game by joining the responsive bandwagon and now this dynamic development team of 4 is now cooking up their 2nd responsive e-commerce theme.

CSSIgniter offers members a year’s access to its catalogue of themes for the price of $39. This brings them in direct competition with Elegant Themes who offers similar access to its members at the same price. What differentiates CSSIgniter is its willingness to give out PSD files to all its members. Elegant Themes gives out these files to its Developer members who pay $89 annually. While Elegant Themes continues to create stunning, highly functional, easy to use themes, CSSIgniter isn’t far behind. Considering the bold shifts in pace and design the Greek quartet have taken in the last few months, it would not be surprising to find their products standing toe to toe with Elegant Themes in the very near future. Their Aegean Resort Theme now offers visuals which can be developed to generate the stunning effect of Elegant’s Gleam.

CSSIgniter still has to master how to showcase their work on their website. A casual visitor, would probably find their Theme descriptions too concise in comparison the level of detail one finds on Elegant Theme’s website. To offset this, CSSIgniter may consider including video introductions as part of the live demo similar to the video introduction on their blog post to introduce Femme.

CSSIgniter appears to be beyond the stage of ignition and is now beginning to burn up really bright. We looking forward to the next releases of this rising star among the current WordPress premium theme providers community.

Check Out CSSIgniter