Mastering Tumblr Theming
Here is a short history of Adri in the still-ongoing blogging world.
Before I discovered this super-powerful blogging/CMS platform which I refer to as WordPress, I started in to the blogging trend back in the late ’90s with Blogger (now owned by Google, which very soon they will be getting rid of the name and call it Google Blogs or something like that). Back then, Blogger was completely web-based, as I used to create its core blog themes using good ol’ Adobe Photoshop, upload the files in to the server and then use Blogger’s web-based panel for me to write my entries. In short, I had to go to Blogger’s website all the time just for me to publish my blog entries and then cross-post it to my site (privately-hosted with a subdomain). Some months or so later I graduated from the simple web-based system in to something a lot more independent and robust: Greymatter. For all the youngin’ bloggers out there, if you’re unfamiliar with Greymatter, here’s a quick down low. Greymatter is (or was?) as CGI/Perl-based software that was the in-thing system for bloggers back in the early 2000s in which webmasters can download its own software, upload and install it at their own domains. Apparently this software stopped development by its owner as a whole more advanced, more robust software (not to mention it’s the rise of PHP-based platforms too) such as b2, the predecessor baby that lead to the creation of a future great blogging platform that we now know as WordPress. Still though, before WordPress, I did get in to yet another cool and slightly more advanced CGI/Perl-based platform: Movable Type. Even today I still think Movable Type was one of the best blogging/CMS platforms out there with a very easy templating system that made me a true master of custom themes with Movable Type. Sadly though, I had to force myself to ditch Movable Type when its originally Open Source software licensed changed in to commercial-based software. In other words, I had to pay to get the latest version of the software along with the tech support. I’m a supporter of open source software that you can get something fully-featured without every having to pay for it, and with Six Apart’s move on Movable Type, that was when I had to migrate to that awesome yet still difficult-to-understand-system that, again, what we call now as WordPress.
Sometime in the middle of last year with all the social media hoopla is still on the rise I signed up for a Tumblr account. I was getting used to Twitter for my microblogging system, but there was this whole hoopla about Tumblr being another microblogging system that’s somewhat similar to Twitter except it resembled a lightweight blogging system. When I started getting used to my Tumblr I also learned that I can create my own custom theme to match the personality and purpose of my account, however my impatience of learning the development side of site customization got me all confused on Tumblr’s seemingly (definitely, should be) easy template system. It was bad enough that I still couldn’t get the whole theming concept of WordPress with its PHP-based template system, but somehow I couldn’t seem to figure out Tumblr’s template system.
Not this time though. I found a few tutorial sites that broke down the entire Tumblr system that was easier to follow and easier to understand than the tutorial that the Tumblr site itself provided. I would probably do what many designers are doing by modifying existing frameworks and pre-built templates, but somehow my pride as a designer was preventing me from doing that. I could do the modifications thing with WordPress themes, but with Tumblr?
So here’s one of my few goals in order to populate this portfolio site. I would like to contribute and provide free Tumblr themes for hardcore Tumblr users to use and customize to their own liking. I can finally utilize my almost-dusty Tumblr account in to something a lot more productive and worthy. That would be something.
Along with Tumblr, should I ever get around it, free WordPress themes. Maybe free Blogger themes also if Google would remain Blogger’s system similar as it is now. When I do come around, I’d also like to make free themes for Movable Type. Greymatter’s pretty much non-existent now, not to mention that it’s one of the most insecure scripts that still exists (I also did use Cutenews and Fan Update before… I wonder what happened to those…) and you know how it is with spambots and hackers these days…
Once after I’m finished migrating some sites I’m currently maintaining to this new account I can finally dig in to studying Tumblr themes. Yay! 
Themify First Anniversary Special!
I’m one of the very few WordPress newbies who still have yet to master the rather complicated templating system. Though mastering the templating system shouldn’t require a vast knowledge of PHP, still, the system itself is still intimidating. With that being said, newbie designers like me have to rely on using existing pre-made themes and templates and do some custom modification to personalize it and make it as our own. However, as a web designer in this competitive field I feel that with this, I wouldn’t be taken seriously by fellow designers (and developers?) as one of their own by modifying pre-existing frameworks and then claim the entire design as my own.
That was the past though where real web designing was defined as doing everything from scratch from graphics to full fluency to markups such as HTML and CSS, and in some cases, added other server-side scripting languages such as Javascript and PHP. Today, the web designing and development community have come up with various methods and styles that should simplify web designing work as trends continue to change (ie. using pre-made frameworks such as the 960 Grid, etc.), and made the field a lot more welcome to those who want to get in to the field. With this, and with a lot of patience and enthusiasm, any ordinary person can learn (at least the basics) web designing with the right tools and methods that are now available all over the net for free (and in some cases, for a fee).
In this case, for a fee, Themify, a known web designing service that create and sell pre-built WordPress templates (and Photoshop PSD files for overall customization instead of using the default design) for those who don’t have much experience in overall designing and markup, as well as for those who would like to have those special features to be used for a client’s website project, is celebrating their one-year anniversary of their successful firm presence in the net by selling their fee-based Developer Club-level membership and all of their existing templates for only $69 (USD). Best of all, this one-time price of $69 is a lifetime fee, meaning unlike their regular membership pricing where there is a one-time membership fee and extra recurring fees a month right after. For designing professionals, this may be worth it, but for the starters who can barely afford to purchase the right software for web designing, may even find these intricately-designed themes too expensive.
You can take advantage of their Anniversary Pack today, as this huge blowout sale will end this Sunday, August 14th. I immediately took advantage of it as I want to use different templates to create custom designs for future projects (personal projects that is) and for future potential clients yesterday and I’m already excited and motivated.
Yup. This is actually the first time that I’m plugging a WordPress theme service site and also promoting its awesome sale.
At Long Last! Custom-Made Portfolio Theme!
I’ve had this domain for almost three years now I believe, but I haven’t had any inspiration on building a custom-made theme because I wanted to run a portfolio site with automated features. I’ve seen many portfolio sites that were run by WordPress and for the longest time I’ve been trying to figure out, or how I’m going to arrange the layout of my featured work at the main page or even at the Works section. For the longest time I have been using pre-made portfolio-style templates just to upload and display whatever work that I wanted to showcase in the site.
The blog section of this portfolio would primarily be for site updates or even just general commentary of anything related to designing, web trends and such. I’ll also be using this blog section for case study commentary of my projects, which would be heavily focused towards website projects.
Still building up and adding more features that would be more convenient for social networking, but for now I’ll stick to what I’ve got so far.
(due to bandwidth issues, please download the link button and upload it to your own server or an image hosting such as ImageShack or Photobucket)
Get Social!