WordPress Theme Tutorial : 2 - Get Inspired For Great WordPress Theme Designs!

It's a lot easier to make a WordPress theme if you have an idea of what the theme might be like, or might be about. You could just sit down to a blank page and start typing code just to see what comes out the other end, but things will probably proceed much more smoothly and quickly if you already have the basic effect you want to achieve with your WordPress Theme when you start.

Obviously, if you are writing a theme for hire, the basics are going to be dictated by the clients needs and tastes. But what if you want to write a theme just for the joy of it? Or you'd like to write some themes to give away free, or sell from your blog? Or maybe you have a niche idea and want to do a theme for a blog, but you just aren't really all that familiar with the niche yet. That's when you'll need to find a way to get inspired.

Sometimes it may be easy. You might have some cool ideas floating around that you've thought of and want to try out. Other times it can be a real struggle. Here are a few of the ways I find inspiration for a new WordPress theme design.

• Colors can help you come up with a great theme design. Simply finding the right combination of colors and playing with them and getting them to interact together on the canvas of your WordPress blog can be very rewarding. Some of my favorite themes have no real graphic elements within the theme itself, but achieve a lot of things simply through the use of the right colors and the right placement in the theme. try these resources for finding nice color sets.
  • Colour Lover is a social networking site based around the idea of colours and colour palettes. Users can name colors that have not previously been named and create palettes of colors and name those palettes. Other members can comment and vote on the colors and palettes. This is a great site for finding color palettes and color ideas.
  • The Online Color Schemer is a color palette generator. You can input the HEX code or the RGB value for a color and the color schemer will present you with a 4x4 grid of complimentary colors to chose from in creating a palette based on the color you originally put in.
  • The Random Color Wheel at
    Colors On The Web is a great place to get three random colors in a nice interactive display. If you don't like the ones that come up, just "spin the wheel" again. If you like one or two, you can put them on hold and then spin the wheel again.
• Images are another great source of inspiration. If you have a basic conceptual idea for the WordPress theme you want to design. If you have no idea what you want to design, you can just look at random images until something grabs your attention, or if you have a basic conceptual idea, such as a niche that you want to design your theme for, you can do some keyword searches for images. When searching for images you still want to be receptive to any images that just reach out to you, but you should also look for common colors, feels, compositions, shades and intensities. This will allow you to build certain universal visual cues that people interested in the topic expect. Try these resources for finding just the right picture to motivate you.
  • The Stock.XCHNG has over 320,000 stock photos as I write this. The vast majority of these have only the basic restrictions detailed in the image license agreement, though some also require that you notify the author and or obtain writen permission before using the photos in any public work. Be sure you know what the requirements are and abide by them if you want to actually use a photo in your theme.
  • YotoPhoto indexes over a quarter-million public domain and open license photos from several sources. The great thing here is that not only can you search by keyword, but in the advanced search you can even put in a color's HEX value and return photos that contain or are based on that color. So you could start by finding a color, and then use Yoto to find images of that color.
• Other sources of inspiration abound. All you have to do is look around you. There are probably a dozen things within arms reach of you right now that could inspire your next great WordPress theme. Here are a few ideas to get you started. One word of caution here, is that you must be sure to draw a line between inspiration and outright theft. It's okay to look at other actual designs and take inspiration from them. It's not okay to take the designs and claim credit for them.
  • Magazines contain a lot of great design elements that are created by people who make their living doing designs. A couple personal favorites of mine include scrap booking and country living magazines as well as the "Arizona Highways" and "Missouri Conservationist" style magazines with lots of images from nature and rural life. Great inspiration in those!
  • Product packaging is another rich source of styles, patterns and colors that work well. I actually completed a full WordPress design for a client based on the colors and patterns I found on a shopping bag my wife brought home after a shopping trip to the mall.
  • Your backyard and beyond are littered with cool designs and ideas. Take a walk through your town, or drive out to a nearby park with your digital camera and just snap pictures of things. Try to take pictures of things you would never take pictures of ordinarily. When you get home, you'll likely have the makings of a couple of good themes in those pictures.
  • Junk mail could become your best friend! Just keep it all in a box, and then sift through it when you are looking for an idea for a new WordPress theme. These companies spend thousands and thousands of dollars testing their designs to see what attracts people the most. And then they send those designs out to you for free. Keep them and learn from them.

These ideas should help you come up with a central idea for your WordPress theme. And that central idea will help keep your theme tight and focused as you design it. You will do better designs if you have an idea of where they are going when you start working on them.

What do you do for inspiration or motivation when you start a theme design? How do you find great subjects to base your WordPress theme design on?