As I write this, my Checkmate Theme has 800 downloads and so far the feedback I’ve gotten on it has been great. The theme is and has been used on large sites and been successful and for the most part error free.
I think Checkmate is a great theme and I want to build on its frame and use what I’ve learned to improve it. I want to update the look of Checkmate and add some more functionality to the theme. This is where all you users come in.
I want to know what the people that are interested in Checkmate want out of the theme’s next version. What do you want to be able to customize? More custom widgets? More theme options? Let me know what features you would like to see Checkmate have!
Site specific browsers(SSBs) are my new favorite thing. If you haven’t heard of SSBs yet, this will change the way you use the web, and your life will change for the better forever and ever. SSBs are just what they sound like: a browser specifically for one website. Sounds ridiculous and useless doesn’t it? Why would I want a bunch of browsers when I can have tabs in Firefox? Well I’m going to show you.
Continue Reading
It’s alive! And almost error free. I was never happy with the previous designs of this site, they seemed pasted together like a bad 80’s collage. So I set on the adventure to re-design my own site, something I hate doing because I always want to go in a thousand different directions.
Continue Reading
Designing a website is sort of like planning a large event, after a trip down the California coast to two large events I picked up on a few things. Mostly I wanted to complain, but these same complaints can be made of websites, and a few of my designs are guilty of them too.
Plan It Out
Bimmerfest, ah how I love thee. Tons of nice BMWs and even more traffic, a lot more traffic. Bimmerfest has been going on a few years now, and there is always a traffic jam. I can excuse the traffic outside the event but it is inside the event that gets my panties in a bunch. Whats this got to do with web design? Continue Reading
No new posts in 10 days! I can hardly believe it myself, but when you are having fun time flies. And by fun I mean busy(oh and those few days I took off). I feel it is important for me to unplug from the interwebs every now and then and recharge the batteries. A few updates:
Template for Sale
I have a WordPress Template for sell on DigitalPoint right now, if you are in the market for a unique design this could be a great way to get a website from me for CHEAP. Check it out now!
Template for Free
You are probably more interested in this one. I am releasing another free WordPress template! It’s name? …CHECKMATE! Yes the theme that was going to charge you for is now going to be free, sorta. By sorta I mean the blog portion of Checkmate is going to be free. It is jam packed with features and customizing options, this is one you will want to “check” out. Look for the release very soon.
Freelancing
I am concentrating more of my efforts into freelancing. This will mean some changes to the site, but probably not much. I also don’t foresee a change in the direction this blog is currently heading content wise.
If you want to hire me drop me an email, leave a comment, or use the form on the about page!
Side Projects!
Can’t tell you much about this, but I am working on a new side project that is sure to make you laugh…or cry…we’ll see about that later! Just thought I’d throw that teaser out there.
Wow I got all sorts of goodies in my RSS reader today!
TimThumb
First up is the release of TimThumb by Tim McDaniels. This was a script created for use in the Mimbo Pro Premium Wordpress and Darren Hoyt and company have released it as open source. I can’t wait to try this out and start incorporating it into my themes. What it does is resize images so the user doesn’t have to anymore, and I think no matter what your level of skill this is much appreciated. Grab the files at Google Code.
bbPress ver. 0.9
The bbPress team has released a new version, which is primarily to update it to work with Wordpress 2.5. There have been a few improvements though.
- New Installer, better integration with Wordpress
- New RSS feeds
- Support for gravatars
- New core theme
- Better Security
Check out the release notes for a full list of the changes. I’ve been meaning to get my hands dirty with bbPress and I think now will be the time. Look for some themes and tutorials in the future for bbPress.
Checkmate
My premium Wordpress theme Checkmate is coming along nicely and will be released “soon”. The first release will be the blog only portion. There will be an advanced business version that will function more as a CMS coming out soon after the blog version. I’ll write a more detailed post in the coming days about the features, design, and all the rest of the details.
I was planning on posting part two of “Speed Up Your Website” but unfortunately I need to move to a new web host. I won’t go into the details but I am leaving Dreamhost for a more reliable host at Eleven2.
More tutorials, and goodies after the move to come, including the launch of Checkmate.
Update: The move to the new host has gone smoothly and everything should be back to normal except no downtime.
I told you a surprise was coming, and this is it. A free theme! I’ve named it Solid, why? Because it was the first word that came to mind when making the theme AND I believe its a pretty solid theme. While looking around at some blogs I started noticing some really nice simple blogs (design wise). These were the blogs I was stopping at and actually looking at the content. I decided to design my own theme in this fashion and this is the result.
Check out the demo page now!
Continue Reading
A few days ago I posted about a new premium theme, today I show you screen shots of that theme. It’s name is Checkmate and it is a departure from all the magazine and news type themes. The theme will be in two parts a business theme and a blog theme, more details on that later.
The shots below are of the blog theme, which has entered the testing and polishing phase. Checkmate will come in several color themes, has many of theme options, is easily customized, and comes with built in widgets and ad management! The design is simple and professional but is very modern.
I also will have another wordpress related surprise coming very soon.
I’m developing yet another premium Wordpress theme(Check out Chocolate if you haven’t seen it). The theme is still in it’s infancy so I don’t want to show too much, but I will tell you it has already entered the coding phase.
Continue Reading
