Fifteen Artistic WordPress Themes

If your business is art, design, writing or any other creative endeavor, you want a blog that reflects your style and gives visitors to your site a whole different experience than they would have at a tech blog or a mommy blog.  That’s why I’ve picked out fifteen gorgeous (and free!) artistic Wordpress blogs templates that you can use to represent your independent or freelance business.

1. Mosaic:  http://www.freewpthemes.net/preview/mosaic

Lots of texture and muted colors give this blog template a unique look without overwhelming the eyes.  Freelance technical or architectural drawing would be at home on this site.

2. Imagination: http://wordpressthemesbase.com/view/?theme=Books%20and%20Imagination

Perfect for a novelist or writer, this blog is whimsical but can still be used for both men and women.  Features adorable mini-notepads for recent blog posts and recent comments.

3. Cool Star:  http://wordpressthemesbase.com/view/?theme=Cool%20Star

Asian influenced design that combines   modern design and strategically placed vibrant red alongside a neutral organic motif.  This might be a nice choice for interior designers.

4. Creativity Within:  http://wordpressthemesbase.com/view/?theme=08%20Rainbow%20Feather%20(v3)%20-%20English%20Version

Beautiful use of contrasting yellow and blue color and a gorgeous rainbow quill makes this theme a great choice for creative writers.

5. Lalaland: http://topwpthemes.com/lalaland/

Bright, funky, with an ultramodern tree design in the header, this theme can work for a multitude of businesses including graphic design.

6. Rainbow Garden Theme: http://topwpthemes.com/rainbow-garden-theme/

A stunningly gorgeous theme that combines elements of fantasy and nature with vivid color.

7. Trendy Theme:  http://topwpthemes.com/trendy-theme/

Features olive and khaki colored background with a provocative Rorscharch inspired header.

8. HuaHua:  http://test.nattywp.com/?preview_theme=HuaHua

Indie artists or crafters will love this charming 1970’s inspired theme.  Think:  Partridge Family meets Hobby Lobby.

9. Triplo: http://test.nattywp.com/?preview_theme=triplo

Perfect for a freelance artist, this simple, professional blog features a set of rainbow drawing pencils in the banner.

10. Whiteplus:  http://test.nattywp.com/?preview_theme=whiteplus

A simple blog design with a fabulous artistic multicolored banner.

11. Deep Green: http://amazingwordpressthemes.com/wordpress-themes/deep-green-10/

A deep, moody design that calls to mind dreaminess and the psyche.

12. Swan Melody 1.0:  http://amazingwordpressthemes.com/wordpress-themes/swan-melody-10/

Watercolor swan design on unfinished paper-colored background.   Very unique design.

13. Scruffy 1.1:  http://wordpressthemesforfree.com/detail/25.html

Show your blog to be what it really is:  A work in progress.  This ‘unfinished’ looking theme looks like a well-loved first draft.

14. Butterfly Trip:  http://wordpressthemesforfree.com/detail/495.html

Finally!  A butterfly motif that isn’t all girlie!  This theme is creative, strong and features ‘graph paper’ background and neutral colors.

15. Art: http://wordpressthemesforfree.com/detail/541.html

Appropriately titled, this blog theme is a work of art.  Features urban-style black and white design with vivid red and yellow accents.

Amazing New Water-Powered Jet Pack

I thought this was a super innovative idea. It’s a jetpack, but it uses water to propel you in the air. You are tethered, but it looks like you still get some good distance, and you just drop into the water if something goes wrong.

Sign me up for one of these as it would surely be fun on the lake!

Amazing New Water-Powered Jet Pack - Watch more Free Videos

Taking Design Outside (Away from the Web)

Inspiration can come from all sources, and one of the popular sources is architecture. I don’t want to go into using the lines and flow in buildings in terms of a website, but more of an interior sense, to train your eye to make you the best designer possible.

This is more aimed at serious web and graphic designers that might be looking to take their skills to the next level. We all know everyone can always improve. You may not write some things down on your latest performance review, but personally you always have some self-conscious weaknesses.

To me, the one thing you can train is your “eye”. A simple way to put it is “talent”, but that designer’s instinct is something that is constantly developing in one’s mind and needs to be tended to, so you are always on your game.

You Have it

First, let me say this: everyone has that natural gift of design. You know what looks good to you. That’s all that matters. From there it’s just a matter of execution (your vision in conjunction with other skills, ie software) and how your views line up with the General Public.

So imagine you’ve walked into a restaurant. Say the last sit down place you’ve been, for example.

A Designer Sees…

Someone trained or self taught in the ways of design sees everything different than “everybody else”.

• Colours. Interior design has to have great colour, because they don’t have the luxury of being able to casually whip up gradients and images. So, it makes sense that you have to have colour matching skills like no tomorrow to design interior space.
• Lines. Many interior designs are very linear, for the same reason above. Sure you could soften every edge and have less linear presence, but inside a rectangular prism it is costly and more or less pointless.
• Accessories. The little things, down to the salt and pepper shakers on the table to the outfits the servers are wearing. It all matters, just like every element to a website matters.
• Big Picture. Last week we talked about what you look for in the big picture. Similarly, step back observe this building you have entered. How’s the atmosphere?

Someone Else Sees…

If you’re not observing the table layouts and paint colours, chances are you’re there for food and you’re hungry. In your mind the number one priority is to get in, be seated and start the waiting process for food.

That’s something you have to keep in mind when laying out your space. Just like you have to assume when designing a website that the user will not read things in the order you want them to. Design accordingly.

Newspapers

I love newspapers for their design aspects, and it is actually quite close to web design (especially blog design). We’ve been getting a new one in the mail that aims to sort of bridge the gap between two regions. The content? Garbage. The design? Fantastic.

I’ll be honest in that I hate actually reading newspapers. When I want depressing news of murders and abductions, I’ll turn my TV on. Though I do make a point of looking at every newspaper I come across for a few things:

• Typography. Most newspapers have 90% great typography. I just hate it when they through in a really bad Sans-Serif sub heading for no reason. Ruins the whole paper, if you ask me.
• Lines. Design is all about the lines, whether you seem them or not. A good layout for a paper runs on a nice grid layout that remains somewhat consistent throughout and isn’t broken by images and other features.
• Variety. It’s too bad you can’t find the one formula that works and keep beating the horse until it dies. Nickelback has done this already, so were left to create variations on the themes originally stated. This keeps people interested for longer.

Taking design inspiration from these sources is a great way to create unique designs, but the gold lies changing your perspective. What would you do in the shoes of an interior designer? A newspaper designer? A clothing designer?

Could you use your current knowledge and apply it to something else related to the field? I bet if you spent a week with an interior designer you’d start designing more simple, detail oriented and bold websites. The example runs all over the design world.

I’m not saying the trades are interchangeable, but the insight you can provide yourself by changing your train of thought is invaluable.

Design Thursdays on Blogtrepreneur are brought to you by freelance web designer Connor Wilson. 

What’s The One Thing you Look for in a Design?

When you visit a website, what is the most important thing that you need to see to be fully satisfied? Forget about first impressions. Spend some time and evaluate. Step back and look at the big picture. What do you want to see there?

With the upcoming design of Blogtrepreneur, there were a few things in particular I wanted to accomplish. Especially with a site of this proportion and the ideas bouncing around, the coding of the site is half the battle, if not more, but it’s Design Thursday, so we’ll be focusing on the visual elements.

Consistency?

Looking at an entire site, this is always an important factor. Something designers often take for granted when designing blogs because it’s something so easy to accomplish. Usually you’re only using one main stylesheet anyway. On larger sites with a spectrum of features, things can get a little on the confused side. PayPal and Microsoft have been guilty of this in the past.

But for me, I don’t think this is going to do it for me. It’s always nice, but this is something that should come standard with a design. Like you expect power windows on your new car, you expect your designer to create something consistent.

Stunning Design?

I’ve had some people say the sheer quality of the design and the beauty it exudes are main factors in the overall judgement. While the huge presence of nice graphics (or lack thereof, it goes both ways) is great, I think this is more of a first impression kind of thing.

Straight up visual authority could make an argument as an immensely important factor to what makes one believe it is satisfactory. On the contrary, I believe some of the best designs can be actually quite ugly.

Holding the First Impression?

Some sites make great first impressions but die after you scroll a little. This sort of tags back to the two prior points of great design and consistency. One thing I always worry about is that the page looks just as good halfway down, right to the bottom, or anywhere for that matter.

Maintaining that level of impressiveness throughout a whole site is, well, impressive! One could argue being able to do that would make the whole thing what it is. By “what it is” (something I’ve used a few times now), I’m referring to the final product. Good, bad? However it turned out, that is what it has become.

I Want you to Keep Looking

The perfect design, in my mind, does not allow you to pinpoint that one thing that makes it what it is. Behind the scenes it’s part planning and part execution. That’s a pretty standard equation to success, but let me put it this way:

Plan each section, each feature. Have an idea for the author’s page, the archives, the category’s page, the comments, everything. Create variety by basically doing everything. Make a plan and let it all fall into place. In other words, know what you want and go get it.

Whether the site changes colours from one section to the next, or the page layout is different, these are the simple things that make users want to keep looking. From a designer’s perspective, that’s great. It works out for everyone else involved, too, including the owner and advertisers.

What’s Your Thing?

From what I’ve gathered, what I look for is rather obscure. Maybe you want something more simple, or even your aesthetic opinions are shallow (as they should be, no?). It’s a Thursday, which means the highlight of the article should be the comments. Add your thoughts!

Design Thursdays on Blogtrepreneur are brought to you by freelance web designer Connor Wilson. 

9 Design Styles to get you Into CSS Galleries

What does it take to get accepted into a top design gallery in this day and age? To be glorified as a designer and to reap the syndication of your latest masterpiece- to sit among the ranks of the designers you look up to.

This could be done in the form of firing off screenshots, but I want to go deeper than that. Through a few examples of each topic and commentary in between, the aim is for you to have the best shot you can get at inclusion of the VIP clubs of the web’s hottest property.

Illustrative

An Illustrator is a rare breed of graphic design with a combination of skills that make for one helluva talented individual. The ability to not only draw, but to take that and get it into a beautiful website adds another great skill to an already full selection of weaponry.

When a great illustrator can combine that art with good web design, it can make for some results that will have the CSS galleries up in a fit for months to come.

8 more styles after the break, read on!
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