Friday, August 03, 2007

introducing Sakeena for WordPress

Download Sakeena from the Sandbox Competition site.

Sakeena is a very simple and elegant theme. The thumbnails at the top can be feed from a Flickr stream, so that they can be the users personal images.

I decided to enter the competition because Sandbox is a really great theme to work with, and although I don’t know Scott, I think I like him! You see, back before the competition was announced, I thought of building my first free theme and I decided on Sandbox as the base, I then emailed Scott to ask what he preferred in terms of linkage, I was pleasantly surprised when I got a thoughtful and helpful answer almost right away. I am even more impressed by the way the competition was conducted, I really appreciate the time and effort that went into both the theme and the competition.

More details on using Sandbox in an up-coming post, but for now, you can check it out here: Sandbox Theme

Sakeena is technically available for download, but since I did put it together in a day, it is missing a few key styles, so I will be working on a slightly modified version for a public release after the competition is over.

See the demo

Saturday, July 14, 2007

introducing Life for Textpattern

When I first started blogging, I started with a self-hosted version of WordPress and although it was extremely easy to use and quiet robust, I just felt very restricted by it’s limitations. This is not to say that I don’t like WordPress, in fact I love it, and I often develop for WordPress, and my first WordPress theme is due to launch in 2 weeks, but I just felt 100% more comfortable when I started using Textpattern. Textpattern is a really powerful and flexible content management system, much like ExpressionEngine, but clearly not as beautified.

I do however, love the simplicity of it’s control panel, and the built in Textile, which really is beautiful and ‘humane’! One of the biggest benefits is the easy of creating multiple weblogs and feeds, this feature essentially allows the user to run multiple blogs from the same install – very cool and convenient. If you haven’t experimented with Textpattern, and you’re a code-friendly kind of person, I strongly suggest giving it a whirl.

Life for Textpattern

A very simple, but easy to customize theme. The style sheet is separated so that the ‘skins’ or color scheme is controlled from one style sheet, while the layout is controlled by another.

You can see it in action or download the theme, and as always, feedback is welcomed and appreciated.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

contests that I enter knowing that I have no chance of winning

First is the Sandbox Designs Competition because I was going to use this theme as a base for a new free WordPress theme anyways…

And

The TAKE CREATIVE LICENSE ADOBE STOCK PHOTOS DESIGN CONTEST or the “mashup” contest, which I may or may not enter, depending on how inspired I feel, although, I know I am not that good!

Wish me luck! And good luck to those entering as well!

Monday, May 14, 2007

speaking of building websites that reflect the owner

Yesterday I launched Willow’s redesigned website and I was probably just as excited as she was about it! I totally love the design, and how it really reflects her new role as a comic writer, but still maintains an Eastern and Islamic feel.

Interestingly enough, this was actually the first draft that I sent to Willow (with a few improvements of course), and she loved it! I knew she wanted a fusion of the things that she was passionate about, and she did a great job of giving me all the information I needed, but still initially I was very un-inspired.

This is an excellent example of how changing your perspective on something can make all the difference… almost literally! My first attempt at this was with the left vertical bar being horizontal, and it was plain… nothing to get excited about… but once I flipped the entire layout, I felt it worked much better and I suddenly got that much needed inspiration!