Cozmoslabs » Theme Design

The new Smarter and WordPress 3.0

Adrian — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 13:12:52 +0000

As you all know, WordPress has made the 3.0 transition, which brings the long-awaited merge of MU and WordPress and a lot of new features to the table.
Trying to keep up with the goodies we developed a new version of Smarter, which runs smooth on 3.0 and takes advantage of the new feature list.

A Smart WordPress 3.0 Theme

As mentioned before Smarter theme was designed as a powerful CMS for company websites. It’s a business wordpress theme, with a SEO friendly structure.

This being said, here are some of the new things that Smarter 2.0 has to offer.

The News Items was implemented using the custom post type feature from WP 3.0. Now, adding and editing news is simple and straight forward, leaving no room for confusion.

The custom navigation menu has been set as the theme default menu, so now you will be able to insert and organize things like pages, categories, news or custom links in your theme menu.

Smarter also comes with a big package of different color child themes, giving you the option to choose the right color range for your business.

In case you’re aiming for a multilingual website, Smarter 2.0 has been tested and works great with WPML plugin.

Smarter Theme Options, which let you customize your site looks, comes with a lighter interface which includes all the options from the previous version. So you have options like: selecting between multiple theme layouts, uploading a header image, editing the featured slider page etc.

To find out more about Smarter 2.0 and it’s new features check out the screencast below:

Pricing

For 25$ you can purchase Smarter 2.0, which includes all the functionality of the old version, plus the new features mentioned before. The zip also includes the psd files and the color child themes. Being released under a GPL license, Smarter can be used on an unlimited number of websites.

Support

If you have any suggestions or questions regarding the new version of this theme, please visit our forums (http://cozmoslabs.com/forums/).

Charisma, Free Genesis Child Theme

Cristian — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 10:37:21 +0000

Charisma is a free Genesis child theme that will work perfectly for your WordPress personal blog.

When I started designing Charisma I had in mind an elegant, simple, well structured theme which highlights the content and gives the user a pleasurable reading experience.

Charisma, Free Genesis Child Theme

The home page has a beautiful slider, and below it lists the most recent post titles. I created a new widget area that appears only on the homepage and you can add the default featured articles widget or featured page widget from Genesis Theme Framework.

So why Genesis you might ask? To be honest I wanted to experiment with frameworks other then Thematic to see how they work. I’ve used bits from Hybrid in the past and this is how I’ve tested Genesis, by building a child theme for it.

To be honest I was pleasantly surprised. The code is really easy to understand, there are plenty of tutorials on the support forums, the css is straight forward and the html really let’s you create any layout without any problems. I’ve also liked the widgets Genesis comes with by default. They speed up things quite a lot.

Charisma was built on top of the Genesis framework, so it inherits all it’s functionality. In order to install it you have to buy the Genesis Theme (this is an affiliate link), upload both themes (Charisma and Genesis) to your server in the themes folder AND THEN ACTIVATE the Charisma theme.

Support

If you have any question regarding this theme you can always visit the Cozmoslabs forums for help (www.cozmoslabs.com/forums/forum/charisma).

However, for questions regarding the Genesis Theme Framework please make use of the excellent support StudioPress provides.

Theme Teasers

Cristian — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:36:26 +0000

Themes in the Work

The last two months have been really productive. So I thought I’d share with you two of the works in progress. While still far from ready to be released, they are ready to be shown.

Both will be child themes, but with a twist. This is as much as I can tell you at this point, but I’ll post more details by the end of the month.

Charisma Teaser

TypeLog Teaser

Smarter WordPress Theme

Adrian — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:18:21 +0000

As I’ve mentioned in the teaser, Smarter is a powerful CMS and business WordPress theme.

A Smart WordPress Theme

It gives your blog a personal look, with easy customization, without getting lost into too much options.
Its friendly interface and design work together giving your readers a pleasant experience every time they visit your site. Besides, you can get the most out of it’s SEO friendly structure by using the all in one seo pack plugin.

Pricing

For 25$ you can purchase Smarter, which includes the psd files.
Smarter is released under GPL license and that means you can use it on an unlimited number of websites.

Smarter theme options include:

multiple theme layout
optional use of breadcrumbs
logo or header image upload
customizable text areas (home page description, footer site info)
featured slider pages
different page templates (blog, news, login, register)
menu management, exclude pages from navigation

They are all meant to allow you to improve and customize your website without having to touch a single line of code.

If you want to learn more about Smarter’s functionality check out the short video below, and experience the smarter way to start your online presence.

Support

If you have any question or concerns, visit the Cozmoslabs forums for help (http://cozmoslabs.com/forums/).

Smarter Theme Teaser

Cristian — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:00:13 +0000

It’s called Smarter and simply put it’s a CMS and business WordPress theme.

The idea behind Smarter Theme is to quickly build a presentation website for small and medium size companies without the need to touch a single line of code.

We’ve put together a screencast with a quick walk-through of the theme and it’s features. I hope you find it interesting and let me know what you think so far!

The theme will be released in January 2010 so if I got your attention
you should follow me on Twitter.

Early Morning Child Theme

Cristian — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:54:25 +0000

This elegant WordPress theme was inspired by the colors of the early morning as I see them from my window. It’s light, elegant and pleasantly surprising.

This theme doesn’t scream at you, instead it takes a step back and lets the user read. Please don’t spoil it by putting ads on it!

Early Morning - A refreshing child theme for Thematic

You also have some nifty options:

You can upload your own logo
It comes with it’s own custom designed Twitter widget, so your visitors can see what you’re doing from your blog
If green isn’t your style, it comes with 5 background options that you can select from the Early Morning Theme Options (Green, Turquoise, Brick Red, Gray and Black)
Has a one column page template and archive template
It’s been tested and works on Firefox 3.5, Safari 4, Opera 9, Chrome, IE7, IE8

In order to install it you have to download the Thematic Theme (from which this child theme inherits all of the functionality), upload both themes (Early Morning and Thematic) to your server in the themes folder AND THEN ACTIVATE the Early Morning Theme.

Inspired by: Adrian Pelletier

Street WordPress Theme

Cristian — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:45:00 +0000

Street is something that was created from a spark of inspiration, something that I felt should look like this. This wasn’t thought out nor planed.

It uses the beautiful Vegur Free Font for the headings and main menu, implemented by Cufon (text replacement technique). I’ve spent a great deal of time searching for the perfect free font for this theme, but I think I found the right combination.

While this child theme is just a skin for Thematic, because this exact reason is also functional. You have access to all 13 Widget Areas Thematic uses, the semantically correct HTML that is great for SEO, can use a page template that spans the entire width of the page without the sidebars and even you can upload your own logo or header image from the “Street Theme Options”.

An elegant Child Theme for Thematic

I hope you’ll enjoy using this theme as much I enjoyed creating it!

In order to install it you have to download the Thematic Theme (from which this child theme inherits all of the functionality), upload both themes (Street and Thematic) to your server in the themes folder AND THEN ACTIVATE the Street theme.

Future Child Themes for Thematic in the works

Cristian — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:18:55 +0000

Spring is at it’s end and makes room for a promising Summer. Finishing the new design was a fulfilling moment for me. When you put so much effort into something, your personal expectations are always high. Building something for myself and things are prone to be problematic. In the initial stages nothing really feels right and nothing is good enough.

But now that the new design is live I’m happy I’ve changed it and with it behind me I can start focusing on other projects.

For the near future I want to release two new child themes for Thematic, one of which might even be released as a stand alone theme also, for inclusion into the WordPress Theme Repository.

The first theme to be released will be my design for Cozmoslabs. I still have to clear it up since it’s full of hacks.

The second theme is an artsy-grunge kind of theme. The design is almost done so I only have to implement it as a child theme. Here are some screen shots.
Feedback is always welcomed.

Commune Child Theme – Update

Cristian — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:30:43 +0000

I’ve updated Commune Child Theme to version 0.2. This is just a bug fix release, most of them css related.

Thanks to everyone that submitted bugs through the comment form on the original Commune page.

Content design – what makes a good landing page

Cristian — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 08:09:14 +0000

Photo by divemasterking2000

I want a redesign. I need it to be forward thinking with easy access to most sections of the site. Although this sounds like I’m trying to sell something to a client, please bare with me. Creating an effective landing page (in my case the front page) is a must. This is not a tutorial, but a discussion, a way to put into perspective several elements of effective web-design. I’ll analyze a few blogs and web-sites that make good use of their front page and try to draw some conclusions that will help me in my own quest towards a full redesign.

There are several flaw in the current design, conceptual and technical. Technically there are some issues with IE that simply annoyed me to the point that I just ignored them. I want to integrate threaded comments and the footer isn’t exactly what I would like it to be. Also, I never got a chance to update to the latest Thematic version on which this blog is built because I didn’t need any of the new features. The content I had was simply happy with the current design.

From an usability point of view there are bigger problems with the design. Right now the articles are accessible through a right column with nothing but text and to be honest it looks like a big blurb. I want a better way to differentiate my categories, WordPress Themes and the services page.

To make it clearer this is what I want to achieve with this new redesign:

Better navigation
Easy access to all of the content
Article suggestion at the end of each post
Pixel perfect in all modern browsers
Instant understanding of what this blog is about by new visitors (tough an about widget perhaps?)
A more useful footer. This should be a place where one can find other info site related and introduce the visitor further inside the website

Inspiration

I’ve browsed around for ideas. Seeing and analyzing how others have solved their problems will help me come up with my own solutions for the content I have. There are quite a lot of websites and blogs that have really good content design and this is really important if you want your users to stay more on your website.

1. http://boagworld.com/ – Boagworld is the blog of Paul (the Wurzel) Boag who lives in the heart of rural Dorset. He produces a weekly podcast with Marcus (pop star) Lillington on all things relating to building and running websites.

What I found interesting were 4 areas:

The main menu. It’s one of the first things you see when you enter the website. The fact that it has only 4 elements (and one of them the search box) means that they removed a possible home link or a contact link thus giving more importance to the remaining 3 links
The banner. I really like this! Not just the graphics, but the idea behind it. This is the first thing I read once I entered the website. It has a clear message and you instantly know what to expect from this site: A podcast for those who design, develop and maintain websites. The RSS and iTunes buttons are a really nice touch also.
The blog post introduction. Made to draw your attention, it dose so not through graphics, but using a short and differently styled text that makes you curious. What do they have to say next?
Latest Shows. This is probably the second thing you see when you view the page, right after the banner. The way this was orchestrated is simply beautiful. We normally read from top left to bottom right, thus after you find out what this blog is about (which is a podcast) you immediately find the latest shows. There is absolutely no effort from the user to find what he’s looking for.

2. Lifehacker.com – Tips and Downloads for getting things done.

This is one type of design that is not really common online. Most themes and designs follow the header->menu->content->sidebar design. This on the other hand has several differences:

Top Featured Articles. Lifehacker dosen’t lose time introducing you to the latest and hottest news and articles.
Article Listing. There isn’t anything spectacular here. Each article excerpt has an image to the right and little text, but since there are so many articles here, the short info makes it easy to scan through and view just the ones that interest you.
Latest Comment. Instead of putting ads in the right bottom corner, they chose to engage the users in the conversation. While most blogs display just the number of comments, they show you the latest comment on that article.

2. Themeshaper.com – a WordPress-powered thinking machine disguised as a Blog, home of Thematic, the popular and free WordPress Theme Framework.

I really like the new Themeshaper redesign. As Ian said in a blog post, there are several reasons why this design works! This kind of complex landing page makes for a really good introduction and urges the user to go deeper into the website.

Featured product. This is the biggest thing on this page. It’s the first thing you see when you enter the website and you’re compelled to read about the product. There must be something good there, otherwise this wouldn’t be so big!
The short description. Meant to introduce new users to the site it dose a good job attracting attention. The color difference make it stand alone and clear, even when there’s so much info around it
The good, the bad and the ugly. Or more exactly “Must Read Ideas”, “Blog Design Tips” and “Recent Items From the Blog”. These are your introduction into the large article archive. From here you can navigate to different sections of the web-site and get your share of useful information.

As you can see what I’m really interested is a different content design, a landing page that will help users better navigate the entire web-site. The three web-sites I’ve presented are just a few. If you are looking for more great ways to arrange your content I would suggest taking a good look over:

darrenhoyt.com
outlawdesignblog.com
problogger.net – there is a lot of content here, but somehow it’s manageable… the way color is used makes this possible

Now that I’ve done my homework is time to actually start arranging my content. I will come up with a wire frame shortly and hopefully you’ll be able to give me some feedback.