I’ve been blogging for almost five years now. The Blog-O-Sphere has changed radically, but one thing stays constant, and that is good design. I’ve used WordPress as my blog engine since the beginning and it has evolved into a highly sophisticated platform. Almost every week, someone comes out with a new widget or plug-in and raises the bar another notch.
This week, the bar was raised considerably. Brian Gardner, the founder of StudioPress, has come out with a significant update to his line of professional WordPress themes. It’s called Genesis, and the concept is simple. Make a structurally sound “parent” template and do most of the design work in “child” templates.
This dual design concept has a lot of advantages. The basic framework has lots of flexibility with 6 different layouts so you can find a look that matches your content. The parent blog engine comes complete with custom widgets for Twitter, featured pages, and a lot more. Once you get your parent site setup you can just add or modify a child theme to get the look and feel that you want.
Going forward, this will make it a lot easier to have a sophisticated blog design that doesn’t require a lot of background coding. Most all of the changes can be accomplished via the framework dashboard. Child templates will also have a control panel for added flexibility.
Currently if you have a complex WordPress design it can take days to change templates to update your site. With Genesis, all you will need to do is update your child template . The main structure will stay the same.
I have wanted to update Success Begins Today for over a year now, but the changeover has been a somewhat daunting task. I haven’t been able to find a two or three day period to recode everything. With Genesis, I can spend the time on the upgrade and have a site that will be much easier to customize in the future.
If you are an accomplished WordPress designer and want to develop a custom design with Genesis and use this blog as a showcase, let me know via the contact sheet or by direct message on Twitter (@success2you).
I am taking bids for a killer new look and I think Genesis will be the way to go.
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I hope everyone realizes that Genesis and Brian Gardner DIDN'T invent the concept of parent/child themes. There is nothing "Revolution"ary about Genesis. It isn't breaking new ground.
Thematic, Theme Hybrid and Thesis have all been rocking the child theme concept long before StudioPress. Not to mention Thesis was rocking out layout configurations long before Genesis…
Thesis, you are right. There are other great templates that work in a similar fashion. This is just a first for StudioPress and great news if you have their pro-plus package.
A first for StudioPress, maybe, but still way behind the curve when it comes to using WP as a cms.
Larry, what template/product would you recommend?
Thank you for the story…I just started blogging & finding its a HUGE world out there! Thanks for the story!
Hey There. I found your blog using msn. This is a really well written article. I will make sure to bookmark it and come back to read more of The Genesis of Better Blog Design . Thanks for the post. I’ll definitely return.