With WordPress 3.5 just days away from being released and me actually having a few WP projects to work on in the near future, I thought it time to update the blankSlate starter theme. You can read the rest of this post, or quickly download the new version of theme now.

Now for the details… The intent of this theme remains the same, a good starting point for creating your own custom themes. The execution is slightly different this time around. First off, the framework of this theme is based off of the excellent twentytwelve theme that ships with WordPress 3.5. While writing your own themes from scratch is something everyone should do at least once, the fact of the matter is I am a UI guy and I don’t want to deal with basic functionality if I don’t have to, so I adapt a rock solid theme to use as the underpinning. As in previous versions of the theme all style and unnecessary mark-up are removed. This time around however, the reset and base styles are based in part by the current html5-boilerplate project, jquery is being automatically included from Google’s cdn network and the theme will now be hosted on github.

I have used a modified version of Eric Meyer’s reset css for what seems like forever. Over the last year and a half as I have been using more HTML5 and CSS3 in my projects I have transitioned away from the simple reset in favor of Boilerplate’s more robust solution. With that in mind, I made the switch in the new version of blankSlate so I wouldn’t have to make this change every time I start a new WordPress theme.

Jquery and a starter JavaScript file are being automatically enqued (the right way) simply because I use it in my projects considerably more often than not. This might only save me a couple of minutes each project, but really that adds up overtime. Since the new theme is using HTML5, I have also included modenizr.js right off the bat to help with older browser compatibilities.

The last major difference is that this project is now being hosted on GitHub. I do realize that where you download a project from doesn’t matter that much, but the reasoning behind it does. My hope with putting it up on GitHub is that more people from the WordPress community will begin to contribute to this project, and we will not only end up with a better project, but it will keep being updated when I am otherwise unable to do so. That and really, using some sort of version control is the smart thing to do.

So go fourth and download, clone or fork the theme to your hearts content. As always, you can do whatever you want to this theme and I don’t care about getting credit for it. All I care about is that it helps you in future projects. If it does, feel free to tell someone else it might help about it. Also, if you would like an improvement made, please fork the project and send me a pull request after you make the change, or just tell me about it and I can update the theme for all.

Download blankSlate theme here

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!

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.

Shawn Cope - photography | design | motion

Facebook’s new timeline feature will be mandatory for all users on March 30th. If you are anything like me, you will have to redesign the branding for more than a few pages and will need to get approval for these designs before they go live. I often like to do my designing in Illustrator, and I though it would be nice to have a template to drop the illustrations into when I was done.

With that in mind, I created a template in Illustrator to mock up my designs. Since I went to the trouble of creating it, I decided to share it with you. There isn’t much else to say about it, so feel free to download it below. Check out this article if you are looking for a Photoshop template or some inspiration.

download the free Facebook Timeline Vector Template

Shawn Cope - photography | design | motion

Update 11-26-2012:
WordPress 3.5 will be released soon and with that update I will be creating a new blankSlate theme to take advantage of the update. Stay tuned for more info. Also, I have added blankSlate on github and plan to with the new version as well. The idea is that the community can work on this together and make it the best it can be. You can download or fork the repo here. Feel free to add to it and send me a pull request to update the theme for all.

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

Shawn Cope - photography | design | motion

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.

Shawn Cope - photography | design | motion

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.

Shawn Cope - photography | design | motion

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.

Shawn Cope - photography | design | motion

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!

Shawn Cope - photography | design | motion

For those of you who have asked me, I put together a quick screencast that walks through the steps required to upgrade to WordPress 2.7. The video is about ten minutes long, and covers everything from backing-up your database to the actual upgrading of the files.

Let me know if you would like to see more screencasts of this nature, and if you find this useful, consider sharing it with someone else.

Shawn Cope - photography | design | motion

Today WordPress 2.7 RC1 was released, which you can get here. I decided after all of the hype, I have some free time, I should probably take a look at it. After installing and poking around the back end a bit, all I have to say is wow! Perhaps you have heard that this is a major revision that probable deserved the designation of 3.0, I am going to agree, this is a major over-hall! I thought I would take a moment to share my first impressions.

When you first log in to the admin section, you are presented with a completely new look! In 2.6, you had a rather sparse dashboard that had a bunch of information, with most of it being unnecessary. Two of the most important sections on the dashboard were the “Right Now” and “Recent Comments” panels. In 2.6 these were basically just populated with text and links. In 2.7, they still remain, however now they contain a beautiful list look that is so much easier to see what is going on at a glance. The comments section now allows you to manage individual comments right from the dashboard which should save quite a bit of unnecessary navigation!

Also new to the dashboard is a panel that gives you the power to write a new post right from within dashboard. This is a great new feature that a lot of people are going to take advantage of. There are a couple of issues that will keep me from using it on a regular basis however. The quick post panel lacks the ability to assign categories to a post and also only provides a visual editor. Since I regularly use the code view, as well as the need to assign categories, I will probably only use this as a quick way to put a draft together. Luckily, right below the quick post panel is a panel of recent drafts, so after creating a draft in the quick post panel, you can simply click it’s name below and have all of the normal features ready to go.

On top of presenting a more informative and useful dashboard, You now have the ability to drag and drop any of the panels, as well as hide them, giving you a much more personal dashboard. This modular way of doing things is used throughout the entire admin section letting you customize any sub section you feel could use a change. For instance when creating a new post, maybe you forget to assign tags to your post on a regular basis, no problem, move the “Tags” panel above the “Publish” forcing you to look at it before you click the publish button.

One of the other most obvious changes from 2.6 to 2.7 was to take the top navigational links and move them to the sidebar. I absolutely love this change. Not so much for the position, but for the fact that each of the main links now also shows the sub-navigation. I really like not having to wait for a new page to load before I can get what I need. You also have the ability of hiding the sub navigation for each individual section, as well as condensing the entire panel down to only the icons, which makes the interface very clean.

Aside from the interface, there are a number of new features added to this version, including: threaded comments, sticky posts, automatic upgrading, one click plugin installs, comment paging, batch and inline editing.

This new version of WordPress really is big step forward! The interface is now much more user friendly, and there are a ton of new features which greatly improve upon an already great product. I can not wait till it is released in the wild, and hope to have a fresh site design coming shortly after.

Shawn Cope - photography | design | motion

First I would like to say hello to all of the new visitors to this site! I recently submitted this site to some of the design galleries out on the interwebs, and because of that, I am getting a bunch of new traffic. So to all of you that are new, thank you for stopping by.

With this in mind, let me apologize for the lack of updates. I have been slacking off recently (not really, just busy with other work) but I have some new posts in mind to write in the near future. I don’t want to give too much away, but I have a couple web development posts coming, as well as a visual guide on how to make a sweet light box for under $10.00. I hope you enjoy the content that is already here, and I promise to get on a better schedule for posting new things!

Shawn Cope - photography | design | motion