Gossip

Gossip is a three column WordPress theme, created for gossip and celebrity related blogs. (It’s also the first released theme of WPDesigner’s themes club.)

Although it displays three columns, Gossip actually has four sidebars (more flexing room). Click here for the live demo (this demo allows you to preview only the front page).

Additional Screenshots

Examples of Text Styles

Gallery Template

Features

• 4 widget-ready sidebars
• 300×250 advertisement template loaded as a text widget
• expandable sidebar search form that fits perfectly in any column
• inter-post advertisement template (banner in between post 1 and 2)
• custom templates:
  • archives
  • links
  • gallery
• typography / text styles:
  • alert
  • download
  • info
  • note
• integrated plugins:
  • Author Highlight
  • Comment License
  • WP-PageNavi
  • WP-PostRatings
• compatible with Firefox, Internet Explorer 6, Opera, and Safari
• translatable

Upcoming Features

• improved comments template and design
• more plugin integrations
• theme options
• more text styles
• celebrity A-Z listing template
• custom templates focused on photos and videos

Known Issues

(None so far…)

Design notes

Above is the final version. As you can see, the header changed drastically since the last preview. Mainly, I wanted to use grunge and line-art in the header, but couldn’t convincingly mix those styles with the glossy and pop looks that gossip blogs need. I need more practice with each style before trying to mix them together again. The image above is a preview of the front page. I’m not going to post previews of other areas of this theme until the whole theme gets coded. Although the design has been finalized, I’m not going to code it yet. I’m moving on to another design for a different theme. I’ll start coding all of the designs after I’m tired of designing. Miscellaneous I had a pretty rough new year and right now I’m trying to keep personal issues off my mind and just stick to my hobby, which is learning how to better my design skills. So… yea… I’ll be going on a design binge. Also, WPDesigner is becoming an important part of my life and I need to take it more seriously. Therefore, I’ll separate personal from business blogging. My new personal blog will be at Braintied.com.

Design Concept Lately, I’ve been working on a blog design for gossip blogs. You can click on the thumbnail to the left for a larger view. The preview image is only a rough layout. It’s supposed to be a grid-based four column theme, perfectly sized for BlogAds advertisements. But, I guess I’m experiencing designer’s block and can’t seem to move on from what you see in the preview. Its style is a mix of Subtraction, Virb, Apple, and the previous 5thirtyOne design. Ramblings As theme authors strive to turn WordPress into a CMS, WordPress themes get more and more complicated. Are theme authors thinking about the users? How easy is it for someone to use and modify your theme? Can their established blogs, with many different types of content, adopt your theme? Although I prefer to read content from a three column layout with the main column centered because my eyes naturally gravitate toward the center of the monitor, I’m starting to see the usability advantage of a left-aligned main column. Justin Tadlock recently released one impressive Structure.

Hi Small Potatoes… Good… late Sunday! The image below is what I’ve been up to.   Photos within that design were used for artistic purposes only. Don’t sue me 🙂 . It’s a throwaway concept with no graphics. I actually got a little further down the road before deciding to restart with a new direction. I’m working on something more graphic intensive (experimenting and trying to find my own style).

After throwing away countless concepts (I’ve been frustrated with this theme for weeks), here’s what I have and what I’m going to stick with: (The left sidebar is for style points only. I might create a separate version with no left sidebar.) Right now, what you see is the basic style, layout, menu, photos area, main content, and sidebars. I still have to create, style, and finalize the following elements: logo, blog description, search form, submenu, header, comments template, alphabetical celebrity name listing template, footer, etc., and etc. There’s a lot more to this theme than what you see in the preview. I wanted to post the complete design. However, I’m not finished and I haven’t updated this blog for about a week so I’ll have to leave you with only a preview until I have time to come back to designing and blogging. I’ll be back next week. Happy holidays. By the way, my birthday is on Sunday, December 23 🙂 .

2.0.0 — Rebuilt as a modern block theme with accessible templates, responsive layout controls, and current WordPress and PHP compatibility.

We will keep the theme compatible with supported WordPress and PHP releases, refine accessibility, and publish focused improvements based on real user feedback.