You can use the theme for all your projects for free and without any restrictions. However, it’s forbidden to sell or redistribute the theme without both designer’s and Smashing Magazine’s permission — please link to this article if you would like to spread the word. You may modify the theme as you wish, but if you are planning to release your modification, please ask our permission first.

The main illustration (Teen Blogger (Punk Boy)) was created by ChinHang Chung and purchased by Smashing Magazine from iStockPhoto with the extended license “Electronic Items for Resale (unlimited run)”. Therefore the illustration is redistrubited legally.

What do you generally do when you want to create a WordPress theme without having an actual client? The initial reaction would be; you despair. All the things we have learned as good web designers such as evaluating a client’s specific needs, doing proper field research, wireframing, finding the proper grid concept for content placement, selecting a colour scheme and visual elements to support content, choosing good type, tailored to … oh wait … this is just a theme.

The prerequisites

Like all creative processes, it started with an idea. While I am a great fan of minimalistic designs, I also admire complex and graphically intense web compositions. The only prerequisite was that it doesn’t take ages to load and that the total size of the graphics doesn’t add up to an enormous sum that would only enable those with mighty speedy internet connections to work. That was the only aspect I had to keep in mind to get started.

A theme, by definition, is a subject of discourse. In the case of a WordPress theme, it can be anything. And in the delicate case of my humble theme, the subject is fun. Plain and simple. The idea was to create a theme that is fun and usable, heavy and light, eye-catching and robust, specific and yet generic enough to be used in a variety of ways. The theme is not designed to replace true and proper web design, ergo it is not tailored to suit a specifc niche, nor complement distinctive content. However, depending on your explicit or non-explicit purposes, the design might find a good home.

Special requirements

The theme is built with WordPress 2.5.1 and is only partially backwards compatible. The theme also works with Wordpress 2.6. As this theme uses a few .png files, it is recommended that you make sure that the image paths to these are correct (for IE6). You find the two CSS rules in the ie.css file inside your theme folder. The theme can be used with or without widgets (below the fold).

Demo | Download Theme Here | PSD Download Here

Backstage is a powerful niche theme design for musicians and artists showcasing their media, upcoming shows and music using hugely flexible custom widgets and audio players. This beautifully crafted layout was designed by Elliot Jay Stocks and boasts 7 alternate styles.

Tidalforce

This theme comes with a large array of options which can be used to edit the look and feel of your design straight from the wp-admin control panel.

Coldstone offers a unique blend of grungy and professional elements. The theme comes with three unique homepage formats, including Business Style, Blog Style, and Magazine Style, and a robust options menu that makes managing ColdStone fast and easy.

eBusiness was created for those looking to use WordPress as a CMS. eBusiness uses a Page-Based layout, however, a normal Blog-Style mode is also available.

eBusiness is great for business or personal bloggers looking to use WordPress to take their website to the next level.

It comes equipped with an in-depth options page that gives you increased control over your blog, as well as 3 unique skins and a total of 9 color variations to help insure that anyone can customize the theme to suit their needs.

VibrantCMS

Unique Features

These are some of the more unique features that you will find within the theme:

• Easy-to-use featured scroller to broadcast your business’ most important information;
• A separate company blog that is tucked away from the homepage; and
• 20 amazing colour schemes that will definitely fit with your corporate branding.

Standard Features

These features are probably just as special as the one’s above, but you’ll find these standard features within most of our wide range of themes:

• Integrated Theme Options (for WordPress) to tweak the layout, colour scheme etc. for the theme;
• Automatic Image Resizer, which is used to dynamically create the thumbnails and featured images;
• Custom Page Templates for Archives, Sitemap & Image Gallery;
• Built-in Gravatar Support for Authors & Comments;
• Integrated Banner Management script to display randomized banner ads of your choice site-wide; and
• Widgetized Sidebars.

Available Colour Schemes

Please note that the theme package includes all of these colour schemes and with the Theme Options backend, it is possible to change the theme’s colour scheme (between these) whenever you see fit.

Androida is a business template based on wordpress. It is based on Android phone niche.The theme also comes with an optional blog layout. Users are given the option to choose between business template layout and regular blog template layout.

Theme is powered with featured content glider, featured posts, featured video, banner ads, widgetized sidebars, feedburner subscription form etc.

Demo | Download Androida Theme here

Cushy is a flexible and stylish business theme, perfectly suited to showcase your products and services, whilst showcasing your business to the world. Incorporating some nifty jQuery and an integrated blog, Cushy is a must for serious business owners.

Unique Features

These are some of the more unique features that you will find within the theme:

* Custom, widgetized homepage to market your products and services in any way that you want;
* jQuery tabber on the homepage to display your products / services effectively;
* Integration of breadcrumb navigation to increase the usability of your website;
* A completely widgetized sidebar, along with a few (Cushy-specific) widgets that you can use;
* Trendy drop-down menu’s for your main navigation; and
* 5 incredible colour schemes to suit your brand identity.

Standard Features

These features are probably just as special as the one’s above, but you’ll find these standard features within most of our wide range of themes:

* Integrated Theme Options (for WordPress) to tweak the layout, colour scheme etc. for the theme;
* Automatic Image Resizer, which is used to dynamically create the thumbnails for the blog posts on the home page;
* Threaded Comments for WP 2.7;
* Custom Page Templates for Archives & Sitemap;
* Built-in Gravatar Support for Comments; and
* Integrated Banner Management script to display randomized banner ads of your choice site-wide.