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| The World’s Best Corporate WordPress Themes You Can Actually Afford to Buy Posted: 24 Jan 2011 10:00 AM PST Since the boom of Content Management Systems (CMS) like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla, many websites started offering free and premium pre-built and made-to-order themes. The market was doing great on its own until it became oversaturated. Oversaturated how? There now exists tens of thousands templates and themes for these CMS, the problem lies in the quality. Many will agree that majority of the themes and templates available are lacking in quality. This affects the whole community, even Theme Forest.
Click for Themes Below!A "too long; didn’t read" (TL;DR) version is: there is a never ending supply of free themes. Anything that tends to be too popular destroys itself through fame by the people. Let us delve deeper into the problems people are currently experiencing. Market OversaturationImagine a lengthy street lined up with peanut vendors only a foot apart from each other. Now imagine half of them give free taste, the other half boasts their "SPECIAL" peanuts through signs. Heaven for an elephant but a very horrible scene for someone who’s after quality peanuts. Same goes with templates and themes. With themes here and there it is only natural to arm your self with fear of dissatisfaction. War for QualityOf all the wars in man’s history, war for quality is the only moral war. It is already demonstrated that many templates and themes are way below average quality. Such a thing does not exist in Theme Forest because every submission needs to pass through the lens and extreme examination before being approved for the marketplace. Talk about TSA-like examination, this is it, only loved by everyone. Halt! It does not stop there. Envato, the company from which Theme Forest came to existence not only offer themes but also almost everything you need to create a business website. From 3D models to codes and sound effects, they have it. Properly regulated and properly priced. One of the best things that ever happened in the internet. An advantage of joining this fantastic community is you get to interact and use the services that experts offer. I know this will be stingy but who will let this chance pass and choose amateurs? You Need Not Go Far for ReviewsUnlike most websites that offer free and premium themes and templates, Theme Forest has already set its roots. Hundreds, if not thousands, of satisfied customers leave their comments and suggestions that will absolutely be of help when choosing a perfect theme. Buyers or lurkers can check how the product works through a preview, satisfied customers even rate the themes for you. Automatic customer service, I tell you, and it’s more credible when you see a 4.5 stars with applauding people in the comments. There are also a lot of authors who are ready to help you in case a problem arises from the product. Oh. My. Gosh. 225 comments and I assure you that most of them are either comments from satisfied buyers or the author’s reply. Need I say more? Hint: You Can Sell Yours TooSince Theme Forest is only after themes and templates that are of high quality, if you are like their authors whose excellence is driven by passion then feel free to be a member and start earning your dollars with their massive audience. A product being approved is already an honor. Massive CategoriesAlmost anything from personal website to eCommerce are catered at Theme Forest. With a wide selection, people of different goals can really find high quality materials there that suits perfectly with their goals be it for business or for personal blogging. PricingI’ve read several comments and one prevailing element is on how affordable products are at Theme Forest while maintaining quality. As the homepage proudly states, there are items that you can buy from $1. Below is a screenshot of a newsletter and an under construction template. Here’s another screenshot, all highly rated with great number of sales for a very affordable price. Not satisfied with what I’ve told and shown? Visit Visit Theme Forest now and see for your self. We will really appreciate if buyers and authors will share their experiences in the comments section. Corporate WordPress Themes1. Noblesse – $35Noblesse is a powerful, rich graphics theme with features oriented for content presentation. It comes with 7 color variations, 7 different fonts, 8 custom widgets and 8 different template pages. Although the theme is very rich in graphics (90% done with css3) it is very flexible, giving you the possibility take it to the next level. The homepage has a multitude of variations and can be completely changed. Each page has the possibility to display a headline, description, image and switch sidebars. Packed with over 50 shortcodes (embedded in editor) the styling possibilities are endless. Please find bellow other features of the theme. Some Features:
2. Colorwave – $35Colorwave is a clean, modern and professional template which is perfect for portfolios, companies, agencies, Photographers and even more… Some Features:
3. Phenomenon – $35Phenomenon is the ultimate and one of a kind premium hosting wordpress theme that was created with hosting companies and businesses in mind. Phenomenon is very easy to customize and it comes with a great documentation that includes 6 screencasts that help you get the theme up and running in no time! Some Features:
4. Periodic – $35The simple, clean elegant interface is meant to be a perfect backdrop to your content. The theme is ready to start working, out of the box, with a multitude of theme options, custom widgets and shortcodes to help you personalize your environment. Some Features:
5. EZINE – $35EZINE is clean, elegant, modern and minimalist premium wordpress theme that can be switched as blogging, magazine, community and portfolio wordpress theme, there's 4 skins color and background pattern variation available with EZINE theme, Please explore the demo to see more theme features. Some Features:
6. Gadgetine – $30Gadgetine is premium blog magazine theme that will also work well for a serious news portal. It has 3 columns, 8 news sections and a LOT banner spaces on the first page. The theme is very friendly for affiliate marketers or just regular bloggers who wish to monetize their hobby. They will appreciate the ability to easily promote specific posts and create their own pages with no limitations (read landing pages). Carefully placed banner spaces will help to make that sale. T heme has its own configuration page, so you wont have to edit any code files! Setup is very easy. With built in thumbnail generator, you will have no problem creating great looking articles. The theme also includes automatic picture resize script, that will save you hours of resizing those pictures from older version of your website. You will also have a special page for your RSS feeds and many more great features. Some Features:
7. EXPO – $30EXPO is a highly customizable WordPress Showcase and Resource Theme, integrated with rich feature and enhanced administrative options. You can use this theme to promote good products (themes, web, design) at your website and earn referrals money. Other possible use is a simple showcase website with products reviews, photos, etc. Since this theme is widget base theme, you can easy manage the layout of your site using WordPess widget manager. Some Features:
8. MAJALAH – $25MAJALAH is magazine style WordPress theme with clean and modern layout, and also can be switched as community theme. There are 2 Slideshow options in MAJALAH theme, 3D slideshow and Javascript slideshow that easily configurable from admin theme options, and also 2 colors available in dark dan white color with 4 combination background. Some Features:
9. Affair – $20A 2 column, magazine flavoured WordPress theme, designed to put your content at the forefront and give your blog a modern, stylish and professional feel. Featuring automatic thumbnail generation and custom social media links. The perfect theme for bloggers wanting a magazine look! Affair is coded in Valid Xhtml and CSS , is ready to run straight out of the box and for those who like to tinker, customizing the theme is also super easy! Features:
10. Maglicious – $30MagLicious is a throughout professional premium WordPress Theme which is perfectly suited for News and Magazine style Websites. Some Features:
11. FlibBlog – $35FlipBlog is the hottest new thing since sliced bread. This theme is like a Rock Star buisness/portfolio theme got together with a hip blog theme and had a baby. Yeah… FlipBlog is the whole package. Some Features:
12. Beatific – $30It is a full W3C Valid PHP coded WordPress website theme, easily customizable. All PSD files are attached in the file ZIP so you can modify everything on the site, and you can easily create your own themes too, since the documentation is very clear on how to modify. The site uses jQuery for the image scroller on the Home page and for some minor tweaks. Features:
13. Nesnel – $35Nesnel is a premium portfolio and business theme for WordPress. It has user-friendly admin panel with configuration wizard, slider management system, shortcode generator; modular page layouts, 90+ advanced shortcodes and more. And it's incredibly easy and quick way to have a website. You can setup in minutes to your WordPress. Some Features:
14. Lifeline – $35Lifeline is a clean and sleek WordPress theme that is built for easy customization and enormous flexibility. It's powered with our custom Theme Options Panel, JWPANEL. Some Features:
15. Survive – $30Survive is clean and modern WordPress theme made for Business, Portfolio, Personal Blog or any kind of website. Some Features:
16. brandNew – $35brandNew theme for WordPress is a modern web 2.0 theme with spacious layout, clean typography and better readability. The theme is best suited for corporate ventures, blogging requirements and personal portfolio. Backed with useful short-codes, custom widgets, multiple skins and language localization support – the theme is versatile enough to fit into your web requirements. Some Features:
17. Uniquate – $35Uniquate is a Powerful Professional WordPress theme. It's perfect for Corporate, Business and Personal Portfolios. It includes powerful and minimal admin panel which give you full control over every major and minor design element throughout your website. It comes with 11 skins and I am sure you can create your own skin easily. Some Features:
18. CleanSlide – $30CleanSlide is a professional & clean premium WordPress theme. It can be used for almost every type of website project. It comes with a detailed documentation, which includes all the main instructions you will need to customize this theme. All the html and psd files are included. Some Features:
19. Stealth – $30Stealth is a sleek, stylish and simple theme that you'll be able to setup for you or your client in no time. Some Features:
20. Sniper – $25SNIPER is a clean and robust WordPress theme, best suited for decent corporate websites, photography portfolio, and personal blog. The simplicity and straight-forward design style opens a wide scope for modification and flexible configuration. Backed with powerful widgets, useful short-codes and language ready functionality, SNIPER can be useful for your next corporate project. Here are some of the features: Some Features:
E-Commerce1. WP FlexiShop – $35This theme utilises the powerful WP E -Commerce plugin to create a versatile and feature packed WordPress powered shop, with 3 different layout options and unlimited color possibilities. Make this theme your own. Mix up content on the homepage with swappable content areas, and change between 2 different footer areas, or use both! A theme so versatile that you can re-brand it to suit your business by simply changing a few settings. Some Feautres:
2. Sofa Shoppr – $40Sofa Shoppr is WordPress based webshop (e-commerce) theme. It works in conjunction with PayPal payment gateway which means that users can safely checkout either by using their own PayPal account or a credit card. Beside the fact that this theme is extremely easy to setup and maintain, it does include all of WP 3 .0+ features, built-in widgets, advanced layout control, user reviews and an ample Options page through which all the crucial sections of your future webshop are settable. Another cool thing is a featured products banner rotator – Piecemaker (Adobe Flash app), fully integrated into system. Webshop owner can simply upload all the slides through WP Admin panel and set all of Piecemaker variables via theme Options page so no need to edit XML file or upload slides by using FTP client. On top of that, each banner can be linked to a certain/featured product page – if needed. You can select between 3 different layouts for your webshop Home Page; it can consist of Widgets only, it can be a grid of listed products (no sidebar) or a combo of grid and sidebar. Both grids may optionally be mixed with Widgets too which is another great feature – you can literally create your own layouts. There's plenty more but I guess you'll discover on your own as soon as you install Sofa Shoppr. Some Features:
3. The Clothes Shop – $40Some Features:
4. enVirashop – $30enVirashop is a WordPress eCommerce theme that has an in-built shopping cart feature that requires no plugins. The theme comes with plenty of options so you can personalize your store to suit your needs. Please check the screenshots to see the design variations and the options available. Some Features:
5. Cars Dealer – $35Cars Dealer is a full featured WordPress 3 theme developed for car dealers looking for something a little bit different. Cars dealer is not a "corporate" website, it's just a clean and elegant design focused to inspire everyone that come to it. Of course you can easily use this template for any other markets. Some Features:
6. Time for Food – $25Time for Food is a beautifully designed WordPress Theme for all you foodies. It can be used to share recipes or just write articles based about food. The site works in IE6 , IE7 , IE8 , FF, Opera and Safari. The Theme uses the TimThumb Script, so you need the GD libary installed for this to work (99% of hosts have this installed, if not just ask them to enable it). 7. The Jewelry Shop – $45Some Features:
8. The Furniture Store – $45Some Features:
9. EStore – $35EStore is a clean, modern, web 2.0 style wordpress theme suitable for online store, shopping cart and business sites. This theme is fully compatible with WP Ecommerce plugin. Some Features:
10. Hansum – $25Hansum WordPress theme is a clean, beautiful and easy customizable theme. It's perfect for corporate, photography show case, personal/company portfolios, blogs and clean looking websites. This theme comes with massive and functional theme option page which gives you entire website under your control. It comes with 4 page templates, Portfolio, gallery , blog and contact. It comes with 2 skins with light and dark Some Features:
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| Learn How To Create A Detailed Portfolio Layout In Photoshop Posted: 24 Jan 2011 02:00 AM PST Hello there everybody! I really enjoy spending time writing web layout tutorials, as such here comes another one. Are you ready for another PSD web design tutorial here at 1stwebdesigner? Today we will create a Detailed Portfolio Layout. A few techniques discussed in this tutorial include the use of proper spacing, patterns, typography, and colors. Stay with me till the end so that you will not get lost in the process, everything is important so do not skip!
Resources you will need to complete this tutorial:Here is what we will be making, click the image for full preview: Step 1: Working with Site StructureBefore we get started download first 960grid system for easy Guideline creation. Open 960_download\templates\photoshop\960_grid_12_col.psd We also need to make sure that our Rulers and Guides are in view by pressing:
CTRL + SHIFT + C to change the canvas size. Using the Paint Bucket Tool(G) fill the background layer to #151515 Now we need to create folders. Here are the folders that we will use in order to be organized all throughout. When you’re done let’s get started! Step 2: Working with HeaderCreate new guideline by going to View > New Guide and set the position to 150px, orientation to horizontal. Repeat the step and change the position value to 100px and 5px. Inside the Header folder create a new layer and name it header_top (Make sure that you have created the folders as said earlier). Select Rectangular Marquee Tool(M), make a selection in the 5px guideline we just made and fill it with #000000. Add this Blending Option: Drop ShadowNow create a new layer and name it header_bg. Select Rectangular Marquee Tool(M), make the selection as shown in the screenshot below. Set the foreground color to #242424, background to #151515. Now select Gradient Tool(G) > Radial Gradient. Fill the selection by dragging from the center to the right. Add this Blending Option: Inner Shadow Step 3: Working with LogoInside the Header folder create a new folder and name it logo. Were going to create a quick logo. Select Text Tool(T), follow the screenshot as shown below. Add the following Blending Options: Drop Shadow For the Quick logo Select Custom Shape Tool(U), follow the screen shot as shown below. Also add the following Blending values: Drop Shadow Gradient Overlay
Step 4: Working with NavigationInside the Header folder create a new folder and name it navigation. We are going to add navigation links, so select Text Tool(T), use the values below: Duplicate the text layer. The duplicated layer will be place on the top of the original layer, select the original text layer and set the color to #000000, press up arrow once on your keyboard. This will make the text beveled. Now we will create an active/hover effect. Select Rounded Rectangle Tool(T), Radius to 10px. Set the shape fill to 0% at the layers panel. Apply the values as shown below: Drop Shadow Inner Shadow Gradient Overlay
Step 5: Working with Search and BreadcrumbsInside the Header folder above the header_bg layer create a new layer and name it bg. Select Rectangle Marquee Tool(M), make a selection as shown in the screen shot below and fill it with any color. Then follow the given values for the Blending below: Drop Shadow Inner Glow Gradient Overlay Stroke
Inside the Header folder create a new folder and name it Search. Now were going to add the search input background. Select Rounded Rectangle Tool(U), set radius to 10px and place it as shown in the screen shot below. Add this Blending Option Drop Shadow Inner Shadow Select Text Tool(T), label it with any text you are comfortable with. Now open up the social media icons you have downloaded and place it beside the search bar as shown in the screen shot below. Inside the Header folder create a new folder and name it Breadcrumbs. Open up the home icon you have downloaded and place it as shown in the screen shot below. I added a Color Overlay #696969 in the home icon also with the same color in the text. Step 6: Working with SlideshowSelect Slideshow folder and create and new layer inside of it, name it slide_bg. Create a new guide line by going to view > new guide > set Value to 430px orientation to horizontal. Make a selection in the guide we have created and fill it with color. Blending values as follow: Drop Shadow Pattern Overlay Stroke Now were going to add a highlights to our slide_bg create a new layer above it and name it highlights. Select the Pen Tool and make the shape as seen below and make a selection from it. Fill the selection with #ffffff and set the layer options as shown in the screen shot below. Now we were going to add some text in our slide show. Select the Text Tool(T) and follow the text formatting. Step 7: Working with Read MoreNext will be the read more button. Inside the slideshow folder create another folder and name it read_more. Select Rounded Rectangle Tool(U) then set the Radius to 10px. Place it like seen below. At the layers panel set the fill color to 0%. Add this Blending Option: Drop Shadow Inner Shadow Gradient Overlay
Make a selection to the shape we have just created by clicking the shape thumbnail in the layers pannel. Go to Select > Modify > Contract. Set the pixel value to 5px and fill it with any color. Follow the blending values as set below: Drop Shadow Inner Glow Gradient Overlay Stroke
Using the Text Tool(T), label the button with read more. Step 8: Working with Slide ImageNow were going to add the slide image. Select Rectangle Tool(U), set the color to #000000 and place it as shown in the screen shot below. Set the layer Fill to 0% then go to Blending Options and do the following: Drop Shadow Stroke I placed an image above the layer. So you may have something that looks like in the screen shot below. Step 9: Working with Next Prev ButtonsCreate another folder inside Slideshow folder and name it prev_next. Select Rounded Rectangle Tool(U) and the radius to 10px. Follow the step as shown in the screen shot below. Name the layer to prev. Set the layer Fill to 0%. Copy the following values: Drop Shadow Inner Shadow Gradient Overlay
Duplicate the prev layer and name it to next. Place it at the opposite side. Step9: Working with Active/Inactive IdentifierCreate another folder inside Slideshow folder and name it Identifier. Inside the Identifier folder create a new layer and name it inactive. Now select Ellipse Tool(U), fill it with #000000 and place it as shown in the screen shot below. Notice in the screenshot they have the same effect with our prev_next buttons. Refer to the layer styles of prev_next buttons or by simply duplicating the styles by holding the Alt + Click to the FX Icon in the layers panel and drag it to the inactive shape layer. Now we will create the active identifier. Select the first inactive shape. Go to Select > Modify > Contract. Set the pixel value to 5px. Use the following values: Drop Shadow Inner Glow Gradient Overlay
Step10: Working with ServicesSelect the services folder. Now were going to add the header title, so grab the Text Tool(T) and follow the text formatting as shown in the screen shot below. Now let’s add a divider. To do this select Line Tool(U), weight to 1px. Follow the screen shot as shown below. Create another folder inside services folder and name it service1. Open up icons you have downloaded and select an appropriate icon for each service. Now select Text Tool(T) follow the text formatting as shown in the screenshot below. When you’re done duplicate it depending on how many services you offer. For this exmaple I duplicated it 5 times and changed every icon for different services. Follow what I did in the screenshot below.
Step 11: Working with Recent TweetsSelect aboutme folder. Now were going to add the header title, so grab the Text Tool(T) and follow the text formatting (The same as we did to our services header title) as shown in the screen shot below. Using Text Tool(T) put up some about me information. Use the values presented below. Go to Blending Options and use the values as shown below: Drop Shadow Stroke Step12: Working with Latest TweetsSelect aboutme folder. Now we are going to add the header title and tweets, so grab the Text Tool(T) and follow the text formatting (The same as we did to our services and about me) as shown in the screen shot below. Add this blending option to the rounded rectangle. Drop Shadow Step12: Working with FooterIn the footer folder create a new layer and name it footer_bg, make a selection as shown in the screenshot below and fill it with color. Add this Blending Option: Inner Glow Gradient Overlay Stroke Now select Text Tool(T), put up your copyright info and place it on the center. Finally we’re done! Hope you learned something on this tutorial and I hope you like it. If you have Final Preview   |
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