Unstandard WP theme

While looking for a new theme for my personal blog, I happened to stumble on The Unstandard Wordpress Theme by Derek. Unlike several hundred themes which we might come across in a month, this particular theme caught my attention and hence deserves a review!

The Unstandard WordPress theme is distinguished from the typical WP themes. In Derek’s words:

Farewell to the blase reverse chronological text heavy front pages, and hello to visuals & imagery to lure visitors deeper into your website / blog.

The  theme consists of grids, each having images for forward facing pages, and a incorporates a neat textual presentation for the inner pages. The theme was originally developed for the author’s personal use but was modified and released later on.

Download and installation:

If you are running an older version (< WP 2.3) of WordPress, you need to upgrade your wordpress installation. This theme is known to be compatible with WordPress 2.3+ (including WP 2.5 RC2).

To install, download and unzip the unstandard directory and upload it to wp-content/themes.

The Unstandard - Version 0.1

Search bar graphic - Zipped Photoshop (PSD) file

Instructions to setup the theme:

The theme makes use of WordPress custom fields to display the lead and secondary images which are displayed on the home page, index, and search results. To get the most out of this theme, follow these steps:

• Create a 593px x 225px lead graphic image. While composing an article, create a new ‘key’ under Custom Fields titled lead_image. For the corresponding value, paste the direct URL to the hosted image.
• Create a 293px x 150px secondary graphic image. Create a second ‘key’ titled secondary_image and paste the direct URL to the hosted image in the ‘value’ field.
• Posts that do not have a lead_image or secondary_image included will serve a plain grey box. As time consuming as it may be, it might be worthwhile to go through your archives to include images for your popular posts.

Overall, this happens to be a great theme with some cool graphical eye-candy! Download and try it once.

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5 Comments »

Comment by Kay Kastum

2008-06-12 08:59:58

Wow. How Wordpress themes have evolved! I’m lovin’ it!

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Comment by Praval Singh

2008-06-12 12:24:39

@Kay Kastum: Pretty correct man! That’s what I infer after reviewing atleast 5 themes a day! WP rocks!

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Comment by Mcneris: For Bloggers

2008-06-12 17:34:22

Indeed WP rocks, The Unstandard takes WP rocking to another level. This theme stole my heart (and lungs too cos it took my breath away). I was so mesmerized by the theme that I grabbed it and installed on my server. It is not widgetized so I had to learn php as much as I could and then get it up and running. I managed to modify and I am still modifying it. It is unbelievably so cool. Thanks for telling others about it.

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Comment by Paul Baines

2008-09-04 18:36:42

Yes I’m using this theme but have no idea why I can’t widgetize the sidebar - I get it to work in a way but then I get a ‘cannot modify’ error whenever I edit any page? Help! Thanks - Paul - ps Mcneris - can I get a copy of your functions page? cheers !

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Comment by Derek

2008-10-15 16:06:43

Thanks for mentioning the Unstandard theme. An official WordPress widget supported version will be released early next week with some additional improvements. I’m planning on widgeting (or offering an alternative for) all of my previous themes as well.

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