Antbag.com

My new Wordpress theme is called Finishline, and will look familiar to some of you. I had this design on my blog the first few months. At the time, I was using the Cutline theme, which I customized to look like this. Since that time, I’ve rebuilt the theme on my own framework.

One very cool thing about this design, is the header image………or images I should say! First of all, this theme has random header images which is totally cool! The photos were taken by Jeff Keeton, a.k.a. Mulsanne. I used the same images before, and asked the photographer for permission to use them if I ever offered the theme for download.

It’s been exactly two months since I made the Networker theme available. It has become my most popular at this point, with over 4,000 downloads. Now obviously, I would love for Finishline to surpass it. Please check it out!

You can preview and/or download from my Themes page.

Tags: Design, Wordpress Themes by Anthony ∗ 25 Comments »

With all the changes that are happening at the Wordpress Theme Viewer, I’ve decided to offer my Wordpress themes for download here on this site. Since Wordpress made the decision to no longer include sponsored themes, they’ve been going through the whole database of themes they have and weeding out the sponsored ones. During this process, they’ve closed the site to ALL designers who would like to upload new themes or update the ones they presently have featured on the site.

The situation has made me realize that no matter how great a tool the Theme Viewer is, to use it exclusively for offering themes is putting the availability of my themes completely in someone else’s hands. I have several new themes that will be available soon, and I’ve been waiting several weeks for the Wordpress Theme Viewer to open back up for designs. I hope to continue using the site in the future, however, they will still be available here.

I’ve set up a demo site which will feature the previews of each theme. When you go to my “Themes” page, for each theme is a screenshot, a preview link, and a download link. Hopefully, this will also make the process easier for those interested in downloading…..one less click.

If any technical issues pop up with this new set up, please let me know.

Tags: Design, Wordpress by Anthony ∗ 10 Comments »

This past week, I introduced you to a new design I created for my wife’s embroidery business. I had built the site with XHTML and CSS on static HTML pages. I asked for constructive criticism, and I got what I asked for pretty quickly. Based on the feedback I received plus several ideas of my own, I’ve made several major revisions. Here are the changes:

• site is now built on Wordpress 2.2
• changed the domain from .info to .org - (.info address is forwarded to .org)
• new item pictures that are more consistent with each other
• did away with the sidebar - same links are in the horizontal nav bar
• h1, h2, etc. are being used more appropriately
• front page photos now click-thru to the appropriate pages
• added dialogue to the contact form

At some point, I may still change the site over to a shopping cart system such as OSCommerce. Presently, I believe this set-up will serve the purpose of the site. I also think using Wordpress opens up some new possibilities, all of which I’ve yet to grasp. Wordpress is such an awesome system, the possibilities are endless.

Embroidery and More

Tags: Design, Web, Wordpress by Anthony ∗ 5 Comments »

This week, I’ve redesigned my wife’s online store, Embroidery and More. Her site has gradually shifted to 100% children’s items as that’s been the far majority of her business online. Offline, shirt designs for local business seems to be her niche.

The Tools

What CMS platform is the store built on? NONE. I’ve looked at and tested multiple shopping cart systems and haven’t found the right fit as of yet. So at the moment, the site is powered by static web pages and Paypal’s free shopping cart solution. In the future, I would like to add a full shopping cart if I find the right one(that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg). I’m undecided what to do as far as the domain name. Presently, the store sits on a .info domain. I also own the .org address of the same name.

The Design

As for the design, I wanted the store to have a simple, clean design with a color scheme that screams KIDS! I’m very pleased with the results. IMO, the different shades of blue provide just the right contrast for the subtle pinks, greens, and yellows.

I would love to get some feedback. Constructive criticism anyone?

Tags: Design, Web by Anthony ∗ 7 Comments »

This post is the 2nd installment in my Wordpress Theme Tips series.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that practically all themes that you can download for free, have text in the header which links back to the blogs homepage. I’ll just bet you’ve visited other blogs that have a logo instead of this title text. Trying to figure out things like this can drive you nuts without a little direction. In this post, we’re going to look at replacing anchor text with an image. Creating a logo is not covered here, so we’ll assume you already have an image you want to use.

The easiest way to make this replacement would be to simply delete the text out of your document, and put the image there in it’s place. The only problem with that is the fact that a search engine can’t read what you’ve written in an image. So, the better practice would be to disguise the text with an image. Using CSS, we can leave the HTML text in place, and use a background image to hide it. Sound interesting?

[Read more →]

Tags: Design, How To, Wordpress Theme Tips by Anthony ∗ 60 Comments »

Almost every blogger would like their design to be different from everyone else’s. After all, that’s one more thing that can set you apart from the crowd. However, not every blogger has experience with CSS. If you fit that description, I’ve written this just for you!

This isn’t really an introduction to CSS. It’s more of a guide to change specific elements within your theme. Over the course of several posts, I’m going to cover some things you can do to your current theme to add your own flavor and style. In this post, we’ll take a look at the text.

[Read more →]

Tags: Design, How To, Wordpress Theme Tips by Anthony ∗ 7 Comments »