AppMan

I know a cool design when I see one, but I couldn’t design a cool theme by myself with my current skills. I’m not much of an artist either, so choosing colors for a theme is already a tedious task! Even with these limitations I’ve named this post ‘Cool Design In 10 Minutes!’. You don’t need to spend any money and it will only take 10 minutes of your time. Fare enough? OK, lets go!

The Magic Of Modelling

Let’s say you want to learn Tai Chi. You sign up for a beginner course which you attend every week. You are guided by an old Tai Chi master who has been practising Tai Chi since he was a kid. He also started on a beginner course years ago and was guided by another master. And that master was guided by another master and so on. But in the beginning there was an ordinary guy who didn’t have a master. He had to create the moves and stances by himself. I bet he spend hundreds of hours just to create basic hand moves. So, after years of development and hard work the guy had a ready package of moves and he named the sports Tai Chi. He taught it to other people, so they would not have to go through the same amount of work he had gone. Over the years people have learned Tai Chi by imitating the moves their masters are showing. Those moves are the same as the original master taught to his students. (I don’t actually know the history of Tai Chi, but I imagine it has been something like this ;) )

So the important lesson about modelling:

• Find a succesful way to do things. A proven method that somebody else is already using. (Tai Chi is a sport that is practised by millions of people).
• Learn how it’s done. (Tai Chi master shows the moves to his students).
• Copy it for your own use. (You imitate the moves with your body).

To learn Tai Chi by modeling can take months or years. To model a design is a matter of minutes!

How To Use Modelling With Design

In the previous chapter we learned the basic idea of modelling. To use that information with our design challenge we do the following action plan:

• Find a cool design that is proven to be succesful.
• Download the design.
• Copy the basic elements to your own design.

Now some words of advice. We want to respect copyright laws and we do not want to upset other people by stealing their intellectual property. So, don’t copy designs that are protected or bought with other people’s money. There are legimate ways to do modelling!

Source For Your Inspiration

There’s a gold mine called Open Source Web Design. There were 2080 free designs available while this post was written. From that huge collection you can find a design that pleases you and you can use it without stepping on other people’s toes. After your design is ready include a link to the original design/designer web site, so the designer gets his credit and you don’t break the CC (or other) license. You both win and increase good Karma!

Cool Design In 10 Minutes!

OK, it’s time to roll up sleeves and start the clock!

1. Find a cool design that is proven to be succesful.
   1. Go to Open Source Web Design.
   2. Click ‘Our Favorite Designs’.
   3. Filter the results by number of downloads (choose ‘by Downloads’ from the dropdown list).
   4. Go through the thumbnails. When you see an interesting design, open it to another window. Right-click on the ‘View’ button and choose ‘Open link in new window’ (or in new tab). Don’t judge the design by it’s header image, since the image is going to be changed.
   5. When you have opened 10 templates, stop.
   6. Think about the site your going to implement this design. Is it for your personal or business site? Is going to be a community site or just your articles? Would the readers/users of the site prefer simplicity or a variety of menus? There’s a huge difference between your simple personal site and your money-making, ad-rich community site.
   7. With the answers from the previous step, start comparing the designs. Choose your favorite design and compare others against that. Use Alt-Tab (Windows) to switch between windows or Ctrl-Tab to switch between tabs.
   8. Close the designs that are not suitable for your site’s needs. Do this until you have 3 options available.
2. Download the design.
   1. Create a Designs folder on your computer. This is the place your going to save the final 3 designs.
   2. There’s a Download button on the upper left corner on every design. Click it and save the designs to your Designs folder.
   3. Unzip the packages.
3. Copy the basic elements to your own design.
   1. Choose the best design out of the 3 you just downloaded. This is the base for your own, unique design!
   2. Leave the other two designs in the folder, since if you change your mind you can immediately start working with your second best option!

Stop the clock! Did it even take 10 minutes? You now have a cool design and you got it with reasonable effort. In the next post we will integrate the design to WP.

PS. How did you like this article? Please leave a comment.