WordPress is fast becoming the most popular content management system on the internet amongst professional and personal users alike and with good reason. It’s clean, but far from clinical interface, absorbing feature set and limitless expandability make it a perfect fit for those who are adding to their sites on a regular basis. The most attractive aspect (in all definitions of the word) of WordPress isthough its ‘theme’ functionality.
WordPress themes allow a site mediator to completely change its style and performance, without in any way altering the underlying information. In this article we’re going to be exploring just a brief selection of some of the most striking, useable and dynamic ‘professional’ themes available for WordPress users to purchase and use as skins for their own sites. Please take into account that these themes are offered at a premium, but if you are looking to build a site to publicise your business or any kind of professional enterprise, looks will be important and if your site looks like it was knocked together in a matter of minutes, nobody will respect it or take it seriously.
These themes can be purchased natively through WordPress or through third-party sites such as i3dthemes.com.
The ‘Capital’ theme
This clean, sleek and incredibly flexible design comes courtesy of the designer, ‘Obox’, who has used a clean, white look that mimics the minimalistic approach favoured by Apple. Whilst it’s far from the most exciting theme on the market, the ‘capital’ would perfectly suit a financial business such as a law firm or small bank. Feature wise it’s a rich theme with three separate default layouts that can be changed on the fly. There is also a HMTL5 styled ‘drag-and-drop’ widget system implemented in the theme that will allow you to customise the home page with ease. It includes a total of twelve page templates, three sidebar options, a bespoke slider and complete integration with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the ‘WooCommerce’ toolkit.
The ‘Natural’ theme
From ‘Organic Themes’, the natural theme aptly draws from the natural world for inspiration with its soft green and brown color palette. The theme would be ideal for an ecological, organic or environmental website or perhaps a holiday company that specialises in forest retreats and ‘nature breaks’. The theme is written with some very advanced HTML5 and CSS3 code but looks deceptively simple and is incredibly easy to navigate. It’s primary features include a design that has been built from the ground up to look as good and at home on mobile devices and the latest retina displays as it does on your old, reliable home computer and full compatibility with most WordPress plug-ins. The layout, colours, background and logos can also be swapped out with a click of a button and the concise nature (no pun intended) of the design means that everything you need to know immediately about your business will be visible from the home page.
The ‘Baylie’ theme
Designed to appeal to creative types and forward thinking industry leaders, the Baylie theme by ‘Theme Trust’ is a high impact design that is more ‘visual’ than the majority of its contemporaries. The theme works by making an initial bold impact with high definition images leading the charge, images that can be scrolled down to reveal the information below. There is a page template for testimonials, portfolios (with full slideshow shortcut integration and animated filtering) and blog posts and it supports full motion video as well as a variety of custom widgets. This theme would really suit a business that thrived on creative passion. Perhaps video games design firm or a microbrewery?
The ‘Fortune’ theme
Another beautiful theme from ‘Obox’, the fortune is a multi-purpose corporate styled theme that would perfectly suit a law firm or bank. There are far more options available with this theme though and it’s been designed to work flawlessly on a variety of smart devices. The theme includes a section that can introduce the members of your ‘team’, a customisable global map decal that you can use to detail where your business operates and a smart, sophisticated white and maroon color palette that reflects an air of nobility and dependability.
The ‘Facade’ theme
The key word I’d use to describe the facade theme by ‘PressCoders’ is ‘modern’. Everything about it screams modernity, from the clean, black and gray slate color scheme to the video integration and bespoke widgets. The theme even has a touch enabled flex slider so will operate even more effectively on a tablet. This theme would really feel at home with a technology company.
The ‘Rich Business’ theme
Built for speed and flexibility above all else, the ‘Rich Business’ theme from ‘RichWP’ takes a completely different approach by leaving the skin as spare and commanding as possible. Perfect for fashion houses.
B-en Grant is a copywriter from the UK who has been using WordPress for 3 years now.