Every now and again Smashing Magazine release a free WordPress theme. Normally with free WordPress themes, I approach them with limited expectations. After all the theme is free – there’s got to be limitations right? Surely it can’t be on a par with the level of quality we expect from commercial theme shops? Well, not so with Smashing Mag themes. Time and time again they hire some of the best theme developers to produce fantastic quality WordPress themes that meet and often surpass the quality of that which are sold commercially.
Today’s new release is no exception. In fact it’s got me quite excited. Yoko is a free WordPress theme produced by Elma and Manuel from Elmastudio. Why has this theme got me excited?
A few highlights
- Responsive design
- Responsive design
- um…. Responsive design
We don’t see enough responsive WordPress themes. 2011 looks like it’s turning out to be the year that the Responsive web design movement really takes off. Ethan Marcotte’s milestone A List Apart article over a year ago resurrected many of the principles of what we used to refer to as “liquid” web design over a decade ago and gave us a whole new shiny box of tips and techniques on how to ensure our websites render appropriately and respond differently for different web browsing devices. Well Ethan has not let go of this topic and just launched a brilliant book on the subject of responsive web design yesterday. I bought the book within 5 minutes of it launching and gave it a really quick flick yesterday. It’s a brilliant book and I encourage everyone who has an interest in building modern WordPress themes in 2011 to get it immediately.
In the meantime, you should go get your hands on the Yoko theme and look at how Ellen and Manuel have approached implementing responsive techniques in WordPress theme design.
Well done to Ellen, Manuel and Smashing Magazine for continuing to raise the bar for free WordPress themes!
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