Somebody Should Port This Theme To WordPress

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the positive feedback and constructive critism. The Origami theme was originally built for the typo theme contest as you already know. The contest ran over a short period with an evolving code base. So I hope you all understand that the theme had many flaws that time did not not allow to correct.

The port to WordPress 2.0 was a magnificant effort by IanD ( https://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/ ) who passed the code on to me. The port unfortunately included all the original flaws of the Typo theme.

I am attempting to correct the flaws and implement the design and features into a Tangram ( https://www.leevigraham.com/2006/01/31/tangram-alpha-01-wordpress-20-theme-sneak-peek/ ) scheme. This does however take time. I am planning a trip to the UK in a couple of weeks so my focus is not 100% on the port.

Saying that the theme is available in its original port at https://www.leevigraham.com for everyone to download.

THE THEME DOES HAVE FLAWS! DO NOT USE IT ON A COMMERCIAL CLIENTS SITE. THEY MAY WANT TO KICK YOU IN THE SHINS.

I welcome any feedback on the theme, enjoy..

Leevi Graham
https://www.leevigraham.com

??
nice statement lkh

The beta version of this theme is now available.It’s not working for me though.I just get a white page.Let me know if any of you have the same problem.

@lhk: Thanks for your constructive critism. Do you have a personal weblog of your own? If so what is the URL. I am keen to see how you have tackled the issues you have raised on your own sites design.

@bhoney: I have copied the implemented theme from my site and provided it as a download. Hopefully it should work for you.

Cheers Leevi

Hi Leevi,

no, I don’t blog myself (I never even maintained a diary while in puberty ?? ). And I’m also not at liberty to publish clients’ URIs. But from my choices below, you’ll be able to gather how sites made by me look like.

I can however illustrate what I mean about “visual design” and individuality, fun and zest and what I do miss, both in your design and in that of many WP themes, especially those mostly liked by hardcore users.

Not all of these here are blogs, not all are even CMS, but this essentially doesn’t matter. All of them would make me visit again, if applied to a site with the kind of content they’d match, all have a clear message about their owners, most do not at all take themselves too seriously, and those (commercial) ones which do, do so in a toned enough down way to not scream “I wanna make money outta you!”. Even the one front page which really wants to go deep into your pocket.

Here’s a recent one from the Zengarden which made me say “Holy Cow!” and immediately run for the Bordeaux in the cellar. It also would make me come back for repeated leisurely reading, especially if e.g. the blog of a gregarious food and wine connaisseur:

https://www.csszengarden.com/?cssfile=/179/179.css&page=1

A couple of commercial-type designs which do not crawl all over the visitor with selling/ads/bargainhall or run of the mill atmosphere:

https://www.csszengarden.com/?cssfile=/094/094.css&page=12

https://www.cornell.edu/

https://www.livingpixel.com/site/

And among them a frontpage hard to improve:

https://www.ferrari.de/

“Quaint”, however quite personal, and exuding that “comfy”-feeling, which also would make me come back for more reading:

https://www.csszengarden.com/?cssfile=/091/091.css&page=12

https://www.alistapart.com/

A photo-“blog” which blew me away and still belongs to my favourites:

https://lumilux.org/

And another such photoblog, different, yet also very classy:

https://jamesmuspratt.com/widescreen/demo/

“Fluid” CSS designs, (very) personal, well-styled and (just as important as the coding) visually intriguing, creating that “gut feeling”:

https://www.csszengarden.com/?cssfile=/014/014.css&page=22

https://www.csszengarden.com/?cssfile=/001/001.css&page=23

Great blog designs, mostly clearcut, some with frills, all very personal, speaking loudly of their owners:

https://thehumanmuseum.com/blog/index.php

https://themes.wilshireone.com/waw/

https://www.csszengarden.com/?cssfile=/186/186.css&page=1

https://joshuaink.com/

And here are two articles about the topic, which nicely explain as well, what I go on about:

https://www.andyrutledge.com/painting-a-better-landscape.php

(one of the single most important sentences in this article: “I’m sorry, but design has nothing to do with divs or semantics”)

https://www.thinkvitamin.com/features/design/how-crap-is-your-site-design

It should clear up what I’m talking about: programming is only half of the deal, if even half at that.

I agree with lhk – One hundred percent. I see people pimping ugly themes all the time and I can’t understand the appeal. Especially with these “commercial” looking things. I don’t want to look like I’m trying to rape my reader’s wallet. I want to connect with them and make them feel at home.

Those websites lhk listed are really nice. They have a good, clean, elegant, and sophisticated sense of aesthetics.

To each their own.

Well my work here is done.Hemingway down.Origami down.Time to move on to Blocks.I look forward to seeing you all whine and complain like little babies about that theme as well.

Chin up soldier. I didn’t say that I didn’t like the theme at all. It’s definetely better than a lot of the other crap out there and I think it would make a good addition to the choices. As I said, to each their own.

I was just agreeing with lhk about having a different sense of aesthetics than what’s popular with so many people in the blogging community. People just don’t respect us for having an original opinion. Can’t we be friends again?
='(

I enjoy a good discussion about design, themes… even personal preferences – as much as anybody else.
But, please, try to avoid any personal remarks and/or “attacks”. Let’s respect each other’s personal taste and talk only about the topic of this thread and general design issues.
Thank you all!

I love this theme.
I am having problems installing it though.
I get some error about a time_since call.
?

This is a really nice theme. I just downloaded it and I’m doing some testing but so far so good.

If everything turns out fine what I’m goint to do is translate it to spanish so that other spanish speaking bloggers can use it also.

Greetings ??

“I am attempting to correct the flaws and implement the design and features into a Tangram ( https://www.leevigraham.com/2006/01/31/tangram-alpha-01-wordpress-20-theme-sneak-peek/ ) scheme.

THE THEME DOES HAVE FLAWS! DO NOT USE IT ON A COMMERCIAL CLIENTS SITE. THEY MAY WANT TO KICK YOU IN THE SHINS.”

what are these ‘flaws’ exactly?