I’ll admit it, I’m a WordPress theme junkie. It’s what I do, after all. I love seeing what the big theme shops put out almost as much as I love building them myself. I’m also perennially distracted by “the new shiny” — pretty much every new theme that comes out will catch my eye and earn my appreciation.
But then there are the ones… the ones that knock your socks off when you see them. It was like that for me on Wednesday when I first saw the new theme from The Theme Foundry, Collections.
What makes this theme so special? A number of things. First off, it’s just plain gorgeous. It’s got beautifully-toned colors set atop a gray background that’s dark without being overpowering. And it has a flat aesthetic, without being bland (as so many other “flat” designs fall into).
But it’s real triumph is in the way it uses WordPress post formats in a meaningful way. Color and icon coded and logically arranged, this theme shows developers how post formats can be utilized on your WordPress site as something more than merely a gimmick (or just another way of rearranging the input fields in the admin). Each post format gets its due, without feeling forced or contrived.
Lastly, there’s the use of backbone.js to give the theme a more “application”-type feel. As the lines blur between “website” and “web application”, and as consumers of the web demand a consistent experience between the desktop, the tablet, and the smart phone, integrating performance-based backend technologies such as backbone.js is going to be crucial for the well-design, high-performing WordPress theme.
And of course it’s responsive. I wouldn’t gush over any theme that wasn’t.
Bravo to the Theme Foundry team for a stunning product.
Want to learn more about how Collections came to be? Check out WPTavern’s behind the scenes look at the making of the Collections theme with the guys from the Theme Foundry.
A web application is a website that doesn’t work without JavaScript.