Over the past few months, I’ve noticed the surge of a trend in blog theming – magazine style layouts (or portals). I actually made a little prediction about this, but what I didn’t anticipate was how vanilla the designs coming out of this trend would be.
Many of those I’ve seen typically have very sparse visuals and zero style. As a matter of fact, some of them just look like a bunch of columns spanning a page. I don’t consider that design. In some instances, the term minimalist has been taken too literally.
Designing on a grid and integrating a couple plugins, while ignoring graphic elements and the importance of color does not automatically equal a magazine layout any more than simply straying from the standard two column layout in favor of three or four.
Granted, we’re talking themes here and not customized websites. They’re specifically built with the intention that someone else will tweak the concept to completion. But what happened to design all of a sudden? A theme should still convey a message. A little personality can and should be included. Minimalism does not have to be boring.
So where do I find some cool themes to study?
Take a look at the exemplary magazine style layouts that follow. If you want to know how to accomplish this brand of theming, any of them would be a good starting point. Download, hack, test, rinse & repeat. It’s the best way to learn!
The Morning After is a brand new and very impressive theme in terms of quality and flexibility. It’s solidly coded, features a content-rich layout, and has plenty of room for adding your own creative flourishes. The author has also documented use and customization well.
Victoria uses a simplified layout, and although it doesn’t look to be quite as flexible with regard to manipulating posts, there are three sections for showcasing content which would at least provide for easy modding of the design.
The first of it’s kind (that I know of) Revolution is a premium theme by Brian Gardner, and it looks promising. Though I have not purchased it for myself to scrutinize, I’m familiar with Brian’s work. I have no doubt this theme was put together with thought, precision and thorough testing.
I’m not a big fan of left-aligned sites, but Gridlock would provide a solid foundation for adapting your own site to a magazine layout, and has a few home page customization features built right in the Options panel. The code looks a little convoluted but then I’m still a beginner with PHP, so if something isn’t really obvious to me, I struggle.
Small Potato’s latest theme Wrath, which he’s currently running. is about as clean a layout as you can find. Although I suppose it’s not categorically a true magazine layout, it could easily serve as one without a whole lot of tweaking. In fact he has several tutorials on his site that would get you on your way quickly.
Learning by example is a great way to not only gain a better understanding of theming, and the capabilities of WordPress, but you’ll also build upon your experience and eventually create something truly remarkable of your own!
9/20/2007
I am a big fan of this new trend in theme design and appreciate the rather stark, minimalist approach most of these designers have taken. When I first came across Victoria, I immediately started tinkering with it and eventually created a variant I call Victor. I had big plans for Victor, namely cleaning out a lot of the old, unused code and even deployed it to my family blog at TheFarlands.Net. I have since stopped working with the theme completely and I’m back to looking for a suitable replacement for that site.
I first came across “The Morning After” a few days ago and was so taken with it that I actually created a site just for it. I had been toying with the idea of creating a magazine style site dedicated to the Boston Red Sox and “The Morning After” led directly to my creation of UnMatchedSox.com. The theme has some peculiarities of its own, but the quality of the code and design is significantly improved over Victoria (or Victor for that matter).
Last but not least, there is another theme that I think you should be aware of. BlogOhBlog v2, like Wrath, is more of a traditional blog design, but with a little e-zine style. I’m currently using the theme on my political/civics blog, and the theme is solidly constructed, easily modified, and completely free.
I’ve got a project in mind for Revolution, but I’m having a hard time justifying the cost.
9/20/2007
Hey Don, not sure what’s going on with the display of your comment, but thanks for the links. Nice job on your Victor project. :) Looks good!
I hadn’t seen the BlogOhBlog& theme, but I just downloaded it and will definitely play around with it this weekend.
p.s. Relinked those for the benefit of everyone who cant see your post, sorry about that.
9/20/2007
If I had to guess, I bet I left a tag or quote open in one of my links.
9/20/2007
Well I checked through your post and didn’t see any errors. The link “allowance” settings aren’t the problem either. This has has happened twice before (on 2 different themes) and I never have been able to sort out the cause. My apologies.
9/20/2007
Hey Charity, thanks for the plug – great review of some good themes! Check your Yahoo email, Santa left you a present.
9/20/2007
Yay! I adore presents. :)
10/05/2007
[...] of good information into small screen spaces. While you are at it, check out Charity’s “Creating a Magazine Style Theme by Example“. (No Ratings Yet) Loading … Sphere: Related [...]
10/05/2007
[...] of good information into small screen spaces. While you are at it, check out Charity’s “Creating a Magazine Style Theme by Example“. Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and [...]
10/05/2007
Interesting themes. I’ve been wanting to do a mag theme for my site, but I can’t design for squat. These should be nifty.
10/06/2007
[...] The Best WordPress Magazine Themes Available列出了10款杂志风格的wordpress主题，不一定真的是最好的10款，但是每一款都很有特色。其它也有一些类似的列表，比如Brian Gardner’s Revolution的收费主题列表。如果你想自己动手的话，可以看看“Creating a Magazine Style Theme by Example“ [...]
10/06/2007
I’m starting to love these magazine-style themes. I just installed Victoria and suited it to my needs a little bit (http://psnow.es) but with this post I just got so much inspiration that I feel like I’m going to be making some big changes soon. :D
10/06/2007
I know what you mean Macrike. I fall more in love with magazine layouts with each one I discover! It seems I’m not the only once because they’re cropping up everywhere now. Or maybe it’s just one of those things where once you start looking for something, it’s everywhere.
I’m trying to piece together some ideas for a magazine redesign once Pink for October has run its course here… but there’s so many good ideas to mashup into one, I don’t know where to begin! :)
I’m glad you found the post inspiring!
10/06/2007
[...] Creating a Magazine Style Theme – Learn by Example | Design Adaptations Take a look at the exemplary magazine style layouts that follow. If you want to know how to accomplish this brand of theming, any of them would be a good starting point. Download, hack, test, rinse & repeat. It’s the best way to learn! (tags: wordpress themes design) [...]
10/22/2007
If you want to know how to accomplish this brand of theming, any of them would be a good starting point.
If you’ll permit the self-link, I wrote something this summer about manipulating Wordpress functions to accomplish a magazine layout, but this section of the Codex is also a good place to start. The evolution of the magazine layout is interesting – it was only a matter of time before people wanted their content broken into more compact chunks rather than displayed in traditional blog/sidebar format. Like everything else, those layouts will look quaint in a few years!
10/24/2007
very helpful, thanks!
10/29/2007
I agree with Darren and you too, Charity. Magazine layouts will gain popularity in a near future. Possibilities and adaptations are very large with some imagination, even for a photoblog or a gallery of pictures as i do with Darren’s Mimbo.
11/18/2007
[...] other magazine-style themes that I didnt’ know about and thus haven’t explored yet. Design Adapations also talks about creating a magazine style theme by example, reviewing some of themes listed here. [...]
12/12/2007
Cool themes! My company is looking to redesign their entire website with a magazine look and feel so I was just researching some layouts :)
12/12/2007
Just wanted to mention another new magazine style theme out there. I’ve just started playing around with Structure by Justin TadLock and so far so good. I think it could use a little more gloss, but the framework looks good. Like The Morning After, it does require a bit more knowledge on behalf of the user.
Structure by Justin Tadlock
12/14/2007
@dandyman – Structure IS a beautiful mag theme, I agree. I just had it pointed out to me a couple days ago and downloaded it for closer look later. I haven’t had time to crack it open yet so I can’t speak for the code, but the front end is very nice indeed!
12/19/2007
Oh, and did not know about it. Thanks for the information …
1/05/2008
[...] several other magazine-style themes that I didnt’ know about and thus haven’t explored yet. Design Adapations also talks about creating a magazine style theme by example, reviewing some of themes listed here. [...]
4/10/2008
[...] 5. Creating a Magazine Style Theme – Learn by Example | Design Adaptations [...]
7/04/2008
[...] Creating Wordpress-Themes im Magazine Style designadaptations.com [...]
9/16/2008
There aren’t many good ones out there. I personally love revolution theme.
Mike CMS PHP | CMS Reviews | Open Source CMS
12/09/2008
Nice set of usable web designs here. We see more and more clients looking for similar styles for their blogs. The trend is certainly catching on.
3/28/2009
I love the simple elegant magazine style blogs. Just beautiful. Hope to create some nice ones myself.
4/03/2009
The layout and design of wordpress blogs is fresh and very pleasing to the eye. I have seen a few messy blogs that were put together using other blog software and wordpress is by far the best.
4/09/2009
Wow, yeah, I’ve seen a few themes that were beyond minimalist that just looked like no one bothered to do anything creative with them. What you listed here is amazing. I’m inspired and now all I want is to get off work so I can go home and start playing around with these. Thanks for posting about these gems.
4/16/2009
I’ve seen a few themes that are total conversions, although this is cool you should be careful not to go over the top otherwise users wont know how to use or navigate your blog!
4/30/2009
[...] 24. Creative a magazine Style Theme- Learn By Example [...]
4/30/2009
[...] 24. Creative a magazine Style Theme- Learn By Example [...]
5/09/2009
I have only made a few themes, but none as beautiful as these, although I am not 100% sure a magazine theme is the best for conversions.
5/09/2009
A magazine style theme seems exciting. I will try one soon.