You might have read earlier that I was in search of a new theme for my blog and I had it narrowed down to four choices. If you didn’t then you can read my “Four Killer WordPress Designers” post and review my choices. As you can see, I have made my selection and what a Revolution it is!
Ok bad pun but obviously my selection ended up being the Revolution theme from Brian Gardner and so far I couldn’t be happier. I took advantage of the 25% off December sale that Brian is currently running and I purchased all four themes via the Multi Use package. I have future plans for some of these themes and I think they will make an amazing foundation for some money making site ideas but that is a post for another time. The theme I elected to build on first for my own blog is the “Magazine” theme shown in the picture above.
These themes are a unique design and were not originally written with the blog community in mind but rather online newspapers and magazines were the intended target. Brian might have shown himself to be preminiscent as magazine style themes are all the rage these days, it seems like everyone is coming out with a magazine theme of their own.
I figured that I would take a minute and summarize my experience and thoughts on the themes to date, bear in mind that I have only had about 2 days experience with the software and I expect my site to morph as I become more familiar with the coding of the theme.
Pre-Sale
I spent about 2 weeks searching for the right theme and the right look before I finally decided to make a purchase. I have very little coding experience so I needed a theme that looked pretty darn good right out of the box as I don’t currently have the ability to modify the code extensively.
I had a few questions regarding the Revolution themes and a quick email to Brian and a phone call and he cleared up any concerns that I had. Very willing to answer questions and offer his assistance so for pre-sale support I give him an A.
Product Website
If you check out the homepage for the Revolution themes you will see that a lot of thought and design went into the development of the site. You can demo all 4 versions of the theme and play with the features or you can read the FAQs and see what common modifications people make to the theme and how to do it.
If that isn’t enough for you then you can check out the Forum where you can ask your question in a new post or you can search the posts from those who came before you and find your answers. He even has a little link love section showcasing sites using his templates as the foundation so you can see the potential that the template provides.
I am a person who likes to have instant gratification and when it comes to themes I am no different. If I pay for it right now then I want it right now but that too is no problem as Brian offers an instant download as soon as you pay. Another A in my opinion for website support and functionality.
The Theme
My first though when I uploaded the theme into WordPress was “Uh Oh”…..this didn’t look like any other template I’d ever used. The front page didn’t work, my posts weren’t showing, I basically had nothing. A lump appeared in my throat and I wasn’t looking forward to hearing my wife and her “I told you so”.
After I had a chance to look it over and go back over the instructions then it started to make sense but you should be aware that this theme does require more setup work to get it right than most of the themes you are used to using. The layout isn’t like a typical blog and what shows up where on your homepage depends on the way you set up your categories.
It sounds more confusing than it is so I won’t get into the details here but rest assured after reading the directions (READ the directions…don’t ask me how I know) it was a simple matter of tweaking and playing with the theme in order to get it functional.
The Designer
Brian Gardner is the author of the Revolution series of themes and I had a chance to chat with him briefly the other day. He revealed that he is going to take the plunge and leave his day job to enter the design world full time. Quite a feat for a self taught designer who has been coding for only about 1 year. He told me that he has another theme brewing that will encompass all that he has learned through the process of designing Revolution, should be very interesting to see how he plans on topping this.
Summary
To close I would say that so far I am very happy with my selection. It is very different than the blog theme factories that you see on the net, sure I could have grabbed a free theme but you get what you pay for in this world. Free themes are great but when you have little to no coding experience you kind of have to find one that is pretty close right out of the box and for my future plans I have found that in Revolution.
I would give the theme an overall grade of a B+ or maybe even an A as I would like to see it be more widgetable to make the layout of the sidebar more user friendly. I think that is a major mistake on Brian’s part and will turn off those who are used to the more widget friendly themes. I would also like to have more page template options to make the theme more flexible in its use.
To be fair the code is layed out nicely and the support that Brian offers has been great so don’t let my comment scare you away if you love the style of the theme, it’s surprisingly easy to learn how to modify. I doubt I will ever be able to write my own theme but I have learned quickly how to make small changes. If I can do it so can you.
That’s my experience to date with Revolution and I would say so far so good, I just don’t know why I can’t get the Beatles theme out of my head??? So…you say you want a Revolution hey?
