blankSlate3! The Stripped Down Starter Theme for WordPress 3.0

Update 3-15-2011:
The blankSlate Theme has been updated to better support WordPress 3.1. Clicking the download link below will get you the newest version of the blankSlate theme. A couple of things to note with this version. First, I left many of the div tags in the loop files. I did this because quite honestly I was tired of adding them back in. Second, my daughter is teething and I have 4 themes to build that required the use of this theme. That being said, I was more rushed than I would normally like, so if you find anything wrong with the theme, please let me know and I will correct it immediately for everyone else!

WordPress 3.0 has been out for a couple of weeks now. With that in mind, I decided it would be a good idea to redo the blankSlate theme and make it compatible with the new functionality that WordPress 3.0 has to offer

For those of you who aren’t already familiar with the previous version of the blankSlate theme, it is a theme that has been stripped of all style and structural elements. For me, a blank canvas is the perfect way to start any new design! I created this and share it with everyone because it saves time. I always took the time to strip out what I didn’t need from the default theme to use as a starting place for creating themes. Having the blankSlate theme in my toolbox eliminates this first step and saves me valuable time.

Previous versions of the blankSlate theme have been based on the Kubrick theme that was WordPress’s default theme. WP 3.0′s release however added new functionality, and the new default theme, twentyten, to go with it. While the previous version of blankSlate is actually still compatible with WP 3.0, it lacks some of the new functionality such as custom post types and navigation menu management. So if you use the previous version and want to continue, feel free to do so. If you want to take advantage of some of the new features however, you will need to add the supporting code to that theme, or just download blankSlate 3.0

Changes to the default theme:

  • All styling removed
  • Most structural markup has been removed
  • Eric Meyer’s Reset stylesheet added
  • Class and id names that are not dynamically created have been removed

Things remained the same

  • Divs surrounding posts were not removed
  • Divs surrounding the widget areas in the side bar and footer were not removed
  • Most of the functions in the functions.php file were left alone
  • Style sheets for the WYSIWYG editor in the back end were left in tact

This theme is completely free to do with as you please. It is released under the GNU General Public License with no strings attached except for one: If you find this useful, and know someone else that might find it useful as well, tell them about it!

I must admit that I was a little rushed when I created the new version. I think that I got everything, but if you happen to notice anything that I missed, please let me know so I can make the proper updates.

Disclaimer: This theme is offered for free, and “as is”. I will try to help out where I can though, so if you run into any issues, please comment on this post and I will do what I can to help. That being said, there is no warranty, or guarantee that I will be able to offer support.

Download the blankSlate Theme here

How to Build a Better Light Tent

Do you shoot product photography on a budget? Have you ever looked at the light tents that some companies sell and thought “well that is great, but it cost’s so much”? Do you sell things on ebay, but feel your photography is lacking?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, this video is for you. In this video, I go over what you will need and how to build a bargain basement light tent that will produce great results, and be around for the long haul. You should be able to build this light tent for around fifteen dollars and it shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes of your time.

Without a Job

To be quite honest, that title stings a little bit. My ten year career with my previous employer has ended through no fault of my own. The company that I previously worked for decided to close the building we worked in, leaving myself and many others without a job to go to.

Unfortunate for sure, but I intend to raise a glass to new beginnings! So while this situation might be bad for my personal finances, it should be good for you, or the few of you who are regular readers of this site. With all of my new found spare time I intend to add a bunch of new articles to this site. The majority will probably be tutorials in web design and photography, but I will probably throw in some free WordPress templates and miscellaneous articles as well.

The first item to come up will be a video on how to build a better light tent. I should have this complete in the next few days. Don’t want to give away any spoilers, but I have one more part to shoot that involves a cat high on the catnip. Should be quite entertaining.

After the light tent video, I will be concentrating on the soon to be re-branded beer review site. With the re-branding it will be getting a real design for the site and many many more reviews on the hand crafted beers that you love. If there are any beers you would like to see reviewed in the near future, send me a message. Assuming that I can score these at any of my local beer distributors I will get the team of tasters together to throw back a few and put our thoughts into words.

Aside from that, I have a ton of new content planned for here, as well as a few sites I am also involved with. So with that, stay tuned, new content is coming.

Pardon My Dust

Well the new site design is up. The problem with this is that it isn’t actually complete yet. I wouldn’t have normally released something that isn’t complete yet, however, I am expecting some important traffic, and leaving the coming soon page up just wasn’t going to do.

So, while the site is currently live, please be aware that it isn’t really done yet. If you run into any issues, errors or oddities, please forgive me. If you like, you could even let me know in the comments of this post, I would really appreciate it! Also, if the site does indeed go dark again, please rest assured that it will return as soon as possible.

WordPress Blank Slate Theme

UPDATE 6-29-10: The blankSlate theme has been updated to be compatible with WordPress 3.0.
View the post about blankSlate2

Now that WordPress 2.7 has been released, I am ready to get started on the next major redesign of my site. Before I begin any new WordPress based design I take a copy of the default (Kubrick) theme and dump all of the styles, extraneous functions and extra mark-up, as well as add a general browser reset style sheet. I then go about my business of creating a theme that will display the information I want it to, the way I want it to look.

Over the past 6 months, I have been skipping this first step and just downloading Elliot Jay Stocks’ “Starkers” theme which was also a stripped down version of the default WordPress theme. Unfortunately the release of WP 2.7 has some new functions that I can’t be take advantage of with the Starkers theme. This being the case, and the fact that I don’t know if the good chap from across the pond will update the Starkers theme, I decided to go back to my old routine of converting the default theme to a “blank slate” on my own.

Since I went to the trouble of doing this, I decided I would also offer it up to anyone who might like to save some time themselves. Hopefully you find this useful. If you do, please feel free to download it and do with it as you please. It is completely free, with no strings attached except for one. If you find this useful and know someone else who might, tell them about it.

Changes to the default theme:

  • All styling removed
  • Reset stylesheet added
  • Any functions relating to the default theme have been removed
  • All presentational markup has been removed
  • Any class name that wasn’t useful to a new design has been removed

Disclaimer: This theme is offered for free, and “as is”. I will try to help out where I can though, so if you run into any issues, please comment on this post and I will do what I can to help. That being said, there is no warranty, or guarantee that I will be able to offer support.

Download the Blank Slate Theme here

Update: Kyle Skrinak recently contacted me about the Blank Slate Theme. Coming from a Drupal development background, he was accustomed to the Drupal Zen Theme and decided to make some modifications to the Blank Slate Theme to suit what he was accustomed to. He asked me if I would like to post it to the site for anyone else coming from Drupal to consider using. I think it is a great idea, and if you are interested you can Download it here.

The changes made to the original Blank Slate Theme in Kyle’s words: “I’ve incorporate some of the goodness I’ve come accustomed to in the Drupal Zen theme (which adds a few more nested divs — but gives some more control) I’ve also stripped out much of the blogging/RSS/who-posted-what noise, since that’s not the kind of site we do… Also, being visual, I’ve added some default page geometry, so it’s not really a true blank slate — and I’ve stripped out the sidebar. Talk about customization. Finally, I’ve moved the content’s position in the HTML so that content comes before navigation for SEO optimization. the HTML/CSS validates.”

Thanks to Kyle for submitting this modified theme. If anyone else would like to, drop me a line!

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