Wordpress tips, tricks and tools

NT – The Childhood of Eternity

For some reason, I’ve always associated orange with my childhood. It’s probably because of its fruity color which then reminds me of the hot summer days when my mom made me a cold glass of orange juice.

It therefore didn’t come as a surprise that I somehow got nostalgic when I saw this theme called The Childhood of Eternity which had several shades of orange in it. Apart from the picture of a child with a balloon on the header (which is cute, I should say), the theme transports me back to the time when I was a kid myself.

Pros

It may be obvious already but the best thing that I liked about this theme is that it captures the essence of being a child. While darker shades of orange can be quite strong, the lighter shades used on this theme spells the words fun and carefree to those who see it. It’s one thing to make a great design, but it’s another thing to send out a message within the design itself.

Another great thing with this theme is that it’s simple. Bloggers who simply want to publish their thoughts on the internet can get the job done with this theme. All they have to do is upload the theme to their server, activate it and type away!

Cons

But then again, we all remember, as kids, how much we wanted to grow already so we can do what the adults do. The theme is also faced with the same problem as its simplicity also becomes its bane. While it is simple, it isn’t as flexible as its peers with three columns, for example. Well you could choose putting a lot of sidebar widgets and plugins, but then again, you’d risk creating a mess on the sidebar. With flexibility, this theme can be more mature in terms of design. But who would want a theme as cute as this to grow up? Not me.

A live demo of the theme is available.  You can download the theme here.

Science of Appearances

My mother often warned me about taking things at face value. So I always proceed with caution when encountering things for the first time. And that’s what I did with the theme called science of appearances.

At first glance, the artwork on the header looks great. The design is stylish and there’s the artsy image of a long-legged woman. She almost got me distracted the minute I looked at her, but I had a review to do. So here’s what I think about the theme.

Pros

What I like about the theme is that in each post on the front page, you get as much information on the particular post as you can. The time and date of the post is clearly indicated as well as other data like, the author, the category, the number of comments and the permalink. But I’ll stop there because this theme can improve on a lot of things and I want to discuss them already.

Cons

Remember the long-legged lady on the header? The problem with her is that her legs are too long. Yes, they are too long that the content is pushed down the page and you have to scroll down just to read the text.

And there are the obstructive ads. While I’m not against putting ads on a blog, the ones placed on this theme spell overkill. They are too big and they get in the way. Take for example the one on the right side of the header. It eats up a lot of space which could have instead been used for the content.

In sum, this theme has still a lot of room for improvement in terms of layout. It could use some liposuction and a face lift on several areas especially the header. Remember, people visit blogs for the content, not the ads.

Want to see a live demo? Check it out or download the theme here.