Visual WordPress Theme Preview

Click here to preview and buy the theme

Last year I began working on what was to become Visual, a WordPress theme aimed at bloggers and web publishers who wish to make more of the images they use with each blog post. The theme makes  use of thumbnails and post excerpts to offer visitors an overall view of the website’s content.

I consider this theme to be ideal for visual blogs (hence the name) such as  food blogs or travel blogs. I actually started designing this theme with my own food blog and travel blog in mind, thinking I would create personalized versions of Visual for each one, once I gather enough articles.

You’re probably wondering how can a theme’s design and development take so much time? Think of it this way: the first pixel was placed back in October 2008, but I didn’t actually work on the theme every day. Not even every week! I changed my mind a few times, then reconsidered, plus there was a lot of procrastination involved, so that’s where the huge time frame comes from.

Affordable premium WordPress theme without the “premium”

I don’t know how this heading sounded to you, but what I meant was that I’ve tried to put all my knowledge into a theme that’s really useful and easy to use and not just an excuse for using the word “premium”. I don’t really like the term “premium theme”, cause now everyone seems to be using it. Everyone is more “premium” than the next guy! ;)

As for the affordable part, I’m gonna be honest with you here: I asked around, I did some research of myself when I decided to put a price tag on this theme. I really feel this theme is worth much more than what it’s being sold for (which is $25 at ThemeForest), but I chose this road for two reasons:

  1. ThemeForest is an established marketplace, that can give theme developers a boost. Yeah, they set the price for you. Yeah, I only get 40% from sales, but I can live with that. This is not a “get rich quikly” scheme for me, so I plan to take my time and develop a few more themes for ThemeForest before maybe creating a mini-marketplace of my own.
  2. The fact that they set the price was actually my second reason. I know theme usually get a price tag between $20 and $35, so this way the theme will be more accesible to more people. Those who want additional design or functionality on top of what Visual already offers can always contact me and get a nice custom design for a fraction of what a “design from scratch” type of theme would cost.

Screenshots

Home Page

Visual WordPress Theme Home

Category Page

Visual WordPress Theme Category

Single Page

Visual WordPress Theme Single

Theme features

The theme doesn’t use a complicated admin panel and it doesn’t use a lot of effects either. It does however provide an easy way to edit all the content, as well as the look & feel. For more info please check the instructions provided with the theme. Here are some of the theme’s features:

  • Three built in color schemes and and a very flexible skinning system that allows you to create your own skins, while keeping the layout intact. And you can do it in under 5 min!
  • Very clean and simple artice carousel, allowing you to bring back some of your favorite articles or the articles you really want your users to read.
  • Easy way to edit the categories that should be part of the main menu, the category blocks featured on the homepage as well as the posts that should show up in the Featured Articles section.
  • Smart scripting that prevents duplicate article links, ensuring more of your content will be featured on the homepage.
  • Two widget ready sidebars (one for the main category pages, one for the single pages and archive pages), as well as customization for WP-Polls and FlickrRSS.
  • Clever visual navigation inside the single article page and thumbnail integration for the archive pages, both ensuring more page views.
  • sIFR implemented for block and widget titles, for an even nicer look and feel
  • You get all the main design source files (6 files), both in PSD and in layered PNG (I personally use Fireworks)

Preview and Buy

Click here to preview and buy the theme

You can check more screenshots, as well as preview and buy the theme on the ThemeForest page. Feel free to leave a comment there or on this page. I’m monitoring both and I will do my best to answer all questions.

If you buy the theme and pimp out your website, I would love to hear about it. I’m really looking forward to showcasing the best Visual based websites.

Check the new Rubiqube Forum I created for tips, tutorials and updates, subscribe to my RSS feed and stay tuned! ;)