I broke down not long ago and bought the StudioPress Pro Plus All-Theme Package — a collection of themes that are all based on StudioPress’s Genesis framework. I have not previously been a WordPress power-user, and I hadn’t previously used WordPress all that much. So I’ve been reluctant to spend money on commercial themes when there are so many free themes readily available. But something about the StudioPress design approach, and their attention to detail and customizability has been catching my eye for a long time.
When I realized how powerful and capable WordPress has become, I knew I needed a collection of themes that I could customize and re-use over and over, so that I didn’t have to keep spending hours hunting for a suitable theme, and then more hours learning how to customize it.
The StudioPress designs are attractive: clean and elegant, not cluttered. The themes are fully widgetized, with plenty of built-in customization options, plus a special plug-in to take advantage of the “hooks” that the Genesis framework uses. They’re mobile responsible and built with HTML5, so they’re able to take advantage of all of the most recent technological advances in website architecture.
There’s a built-in subscription form. Default layout options – Content-Sidebar, Sidebar-Content-Sidebar, extra custom menus in the header. Drop-down menus. Many of the StudioPress themes offer color choices and other extras. Oh, and they’re very search-engine optimized.
One of my favorite aspects is that StudioPress explicitly allows me to use these themes on clients’ sites. I can send a client to the main StudioPress Themes page and tell them, pick out any one that you like, they’re all already paid for.
I created a site for the Charlotte Harbor Community Sailing Center on the Lifestyle Theme. I have to say, I love the Lifestyle theme. I’ve used the Lifestyle theme for several client sites, and I’ll probably switch a couple of others over to Lifestyle. It’s a very clean, elegant design, easy on the eyes, easy to customize, and easy to navigate. Magazine Pro is another favorite. This site uses Agency Pro.
Got to say i felt kinda the same towards wordpress as yourself for a while, but im beginning to love it, such a great and talented commnunity, great features, super easy to install and set up, great for SEO, hell its even getting semi decent for e-commerce.
Nice article.
Thing is that all of the Studiopress child themes are so damn ugly They just look so dated. Unless you are a pretty hardcore developer, you can’t get away from that Brian Gardner “look.” I think I’ll leave the bug list well alone or I’ll be here all day. Their “support” forum is filled with thoroughly unhelpful, terse, puerile geeks.
Even worse, by purchasing Studiopress themes you’re putting money into the fat pockets of self absorbed scammer, Brian Clark and the rest of his self styled, wannabe internet marketing “gurus” over at Copyblogger.
There are far better themes around that are built on a framework, have great SEO properties, have all manner of customisation options, have all the latest gizmos, widgets and gadgets and look fantastic. Examples include themes by mysitemyway and Solostream. Hell, I’d even take Thesis, despite it being made by that 24 carat asshole Chris Pearson, over Studiopress themes anyday.
Wow, Tom, why don’t you quit beating around the bush and tell us what you really think? 😉
Frankly, I disagree that the Studiopress themes are ugly; I like them! I have to agree with you that they do have a visual “sameness” out of the box, but with some simple customizations such as a custom header, custom colors, layout selection, and your own widgets, they don’t necessarily have to end up looking that much alike.
I will check out the mysitemyway and Solostream themes. I’m always on the lookout for robust, well-coded attractive themes.
I have used studiopress’ older themes for years now. Have just now tried the new Genesis framework and have found it to save me about 10 minutes per blog post now with handling of just my images and thumbnail images. Pretty good how they have evolved to make clean themes for wordpress. However, their support could be a bit better. It is seriously lagging behind the competition. One of my sites using older framework from them: http://www.onlinesafety411.com