• BY MAJOR TOM
  • October 6, 2007 | 8:46 pm

  • Comments (3)



Blogsome Themes, Wordpress Themes

White Space

I have decided to port Brian Gardner’s excellent minimalist Wordpress template called White Space into the Blogsome module since it is one of the simplest 3-Column design that I have worked on so far. Therefore, Blogsome users would find it easy to install and would encounter no possible hitches in its implementation in their blogs.

The first time I looked at it, I never knew it was absolutely plaintext in structure. There are no images involved in the design yet it looked like it is a template designed with all the pomposity involved, with all the curves and the shadows, the bold headers in eye-catching colors. Maybe it’s the cool gray tagline that is just under the headers that make White Space look like a very finesse design—despite that it’s all fonts and colors; no images whatsoever.

Maybe Mr. Brian Gardner is not only a superlative Wordpress theme designer, but also a magician at that. He was able to make plaintext look so deceivingly advanced. It’s a very rare ability I am sure.

For Blogsome users, please download the files here.

See this demo site.

For the full Wordpress design files, please visit this page.



  • BY MAJOR TOM
  • August 1, 2007 | 12:36 pm

  • Comments (17)



Blogsome Themes, Wordpress Themes

Lust Not On This “Lust” Wordpress Theme

I have some problem with its theme name but for certain, I have no such acrimony for how it looks in its entirety. This “LUST” Wordpress theme is so neat and remarkably clean that despite the liveliness of its very red headers, it remains soothing to the readers’ eyes upon initial browsing.

I have decided to port “LUST” into Blogsome since most of those who downloaded my ported templates prefer mostly clean and easy to read designs, with lots of spaces for images in their posts. Mostly, Blogsome users who delve on technology stuffs prefer these characteristics in a template mold and this latest addition to my portfolio of ported designs is dedicated to them.

Besides, newbie Blogsome users would surely find it’s simplicity and modernity so appealing and therefore not be stuck with out-moded default WP themes available in the Blogsome Themes section—most of them still WP version 1.1. With this very simple-to-install design, I hope more and more newbie bloggers out there would find Blogsome as the suitable blog for them.

Check out this live demo.

For Blogsome users, please download the files HERE.

For pure Wordpress users, please visit this page on WPDESIGNER.



  • BY MAJOR TOM
  • June 23, 2007 | 5:42 pm

  • Comments (4)



Wordpress Themes

Subtle Theme For Wordpress

This is one most recent Wordpress theme release from Christopher Frazier of Glued Ideas and I find it so alarmingly admirable that I could not help but blog about it. It is called simply as Subtle. This design is probably so high on my list of fine-looking Wordpress themes—and it is actually too gorgeous to be merely referred to as fine-looking. Blogging Pro simply describe it as beautiful and one theme that “makes authors look good”.

It’s general look approximates what the latest trend in web design demands and it is so inculcated in it the main characteristic of Web 2.0—big candy-colored fonts, elegantly shaded backgrounds and is fully-widgetted.

This design probably wasn’t intended for public released when it was created by its designer and would have been one of those included in sites that collect great CSS designs like CSS Remix and CSS Beauty and copyrighted and not available for reproduction. But surprisingly so, it is made publicly available.

Mickeymotoc of Stepping On Poop had most recently suited-up this Subtle theme for his site and it looks so fine on him. It shows how this template could easily be customizable.

See here the demo site.

Download the Zip files here.

I’d be porting the Blogsome codes for Subtle a bit later on.



  • BY MAJOR TOM
  • June 20, 2007 | 9:50 pm

  • Comments (8)



Blogsome Themes, Wordpress Themes

Blue Zinfander Wordpress Theme For Blogsome

This is the ultra-neat 3-Column Blue Zinfander Theme by the prolific designer/blogger Brian Garner. It is especially created for magazine type blogsites and may as well be so suitable for a personal site. This theme synergizes the newspaper-look and the very personal feel some bloggers look for. It’s simplicity is matchless and minimalism is its one great virtue.

It’s grand and huge header font declares easily and elegantly the blog title and first-time readers won’t waste precious time in recognizing such.

For Blogsome users, download the files here.

For the complete Wordpress files, please visit this site.

See demo site and find out for yourself how it really look and feel like.



  • BY MAJOR TOM
  • June 5, 2007 | 1:21 am

  • Comments (12)



Blogs, Wordpress Themes

Most Comprehensive Listing Of Wordpress Themes And Some Helpful Tips

Bloggers with exclusively hosted domains mostly use Wordpress as the platform for its designs as well as content management. Rarely other modules—like Serepindity or Movable Type—get utilized. Aside from being an open source package, Wordpress secures to its users a wide array of design choices, far more varied and numerous than the others.

And often, bloggers resort almost automatically to Wordpress whenever they find the need to change their look and feel. I have observe that most bloggers modify or revise their themes every now and then, fascinating their viewers with fresh new sights and views, sometime coming to us like a radiant and full blooming of a beauteous flower, suddenly opening up before our eyes and then be awed by it. This is perhaps why I get excited whenever I see new designs being exhibited by some bloggers I often visit. It’s pure entertainment, I must say. Even I—despite that my website is not hosted exclusively—often resorts to Wordpress for my design needs, tweaking original codes to fit into the Blogsome module I am now using.

On the one hand, I feel that somehow, remodeling or redesigning weblogs—especially too often for comfort, like I do somehow—could unnecessarily turn-off readers away as the site’s look and feel get revised all the time, and somehow this would negatively affect frequent readers, for being taken out of sort—having been used so much to older designs and then to be suddenly be staring at a new set of structures and figures on the screen and quip silently in mind, “This seems to be not anymore the blog that I had become fond of yesterday..” and then decide not to visit it as often as possible. This is what I think the downside of redesigning.

But other than that, experimenting with other looks and theme becomes a positive activity to me, like creating is such an addictive activity—just like power as that famous adage states.

Now I have gone over to Blogosquare and read about this very informative and helpful post that offers tips in choosing or selecting the kind of Wordpress designs for you. Hans over there discusses quite effectively on the factors that one must consider when deciding to change themes. I know that most of us are already aware of the common issues like IE and Mozilla compatibility, fast or slow loading designs, easy-to-decipher codings but I feel that it is still necessary to be reminded by these elements of web designs. And for newbies, these tips would absolutely come in handy.

And besides, Hans had enumerated there a list of sites where some of the best Wordpress themes could be found—those that are not even in the theme viewer—and I found most especially robust is the list from Writerspace, where the gallery includes designs by local bloggers Derek Punzalan and Bryan Veloso, both having gained sharp reputation for their web designs not only here in our country, but also elsewhere. Also included in that list is a modified Simpla design by Jorge Cosgayon whose blog Far From Neutral Notions has just won the Best Blog Design award in the recently concluded Philippine Blog Award.

If you are browsing for that new Wordpress look you have in mind, this Blogsquare post is the opne for you—ultimately helpful and very comprehensive list of very good designs.

Get the comprehensive Wordpress Themes listing HERE



  • BY MAJOR TOM
  • May 18, 2007 | 6:17 pm

  • Comments (2)



Blogsome Themes, Wordpress Themes

MyJournal Wordpress Theme For Blogsome

Hans of Blogsquarethe sharp guy who invented this theme—stated that at one time, it had been downloaded 60 times a day. Now that’s pretty superflous and yet that’s true. Quite amazing feat for a wordpress theme that is not much talked about, unlike some other more popular ones.

Considering how neat (as a blogger friend had once described it) and so fluid it is, it would not be so surprising that this MyJournal-Ethereal theme is briskly downloaded.

See this screenshot:

Fluidity is the most apt term for it. And simplicity too. And it might simply be the one of the best, if not the best white minimalist theme available on the open source market. See the DEMO site here.

For Blogsome users—DOWNLOAD the files here.

For pure Wordpress codes, visit this site.