I haven’t updated my portfolio but if you take a look at my free and paid Premium WordPress Themes Gallery, you will notice that I have been really active, releasing 3/4 themes per month.

If you are looking to make a website in wordpress, you should really take a look at the themes. Plus, we have “Diwali Special: Buy one, get another absolutely free!” offer going on this month.  Guess you shouldn’t miss this opportunity.

I wanted to know more about this awesome designer and thought others might want to know more as well. So I requested an interview and he generously agreed. Here’s some of the questions that I asked him.

Homepage of DarrenHoyt.com shows his UI design talent. I love colors, typography and layout balance.

Personal & Design Related

Q. Introduce yourself just in 2 sentences.

A: I’m Darren Hoyt, a freelancer who designs interfaces for Expression Engine- and WordPress-driven sites. I’ve recently expanded into designing iPhone apps.

Q. How long have you been working with WP? Are you working with WP for fun (is it your hobby?) or has it become your lifestyle and way of doing business?

A: I’ve built most sites on WP since 2005. I also make money on the side by selling premium themes like Mimbo Pro.

Q. Your designs and typography skills are marvelous. Who inspires you?

A: Thanks! Because I don’t have a background in print, I learn a lot from multi-disciplinary designers and their portfolios. Some of my favorites: Todd Miller, Vitor Lourenco, Nick Jones, James Lai, Marian Brchan, Andrew Wilkinson, Miguel Ripoll, Dustin Curtis, Matthew Smith….. lots of favorites.

Q. What is the best piece of design advice you have ever heard and how has it helped you?

A: When I started out, my brother-in-law took me under his wing and taught me to be patient with design, to start simply and to get the fundamental problems solved first, rather than starting with too much polish and not enough substance.

I also respect that he’d spend however much time was necessary to make sure a design was successful, even if it meant doing it off-budget in his free time. This is not always possible or practical, but I admired it.

Q. What is your favorite theme and/or plugin and why? (Could you give a link? Let others see it)

A: I honestly don’t use other people’s themes much. I build all websites on my own framework, codenamed Gravy. As for plugins, my recent favorite is Justin Tadlock’s Query Post Widget.

Dispatch theme for wordpress shows clean, crisp typography and layout balance

Upcoming Framework

Recently you mentioned at twitter about designing a wordpress framework in collaboration with @binarimoon. From design and typography perspective, it looks amazing. Here’s some question on that one.

Q. What got you interested in the WordPress themes framework?

A: First, I should point out, it’s my collaborator Ben Gillbanks who is actually coding the new framework.

Our interest was piqued after seeing what Justin Tadlock and Ian Stewart have done with their frameworks, Hybrid and Thematic, which have inspired a lot of ideas and discussion within the WP dev community. The learning curve is a bit higher for users who want to explore the frameworks and make use of stuff like action hooks, but the level of documentation, especially on Ian’s site, has been tremendous. If enough people read the docs and grasp the concepts, I think the community’s cumulative understanding of WordPress as a whole will go way up. But, that still doesn’t mean everyone will want to, or need to, use frameworks of that magnitude for all their projects.

Q. Are frameworks the future for WordPress themes?

A: Probably not – only amongst hardcore developers. Separate from that, I do think parent/child theme relationships is a concept that’s becoming more mainstream, though.

Q. There are few frameworks already available. Why create a new one? How is this different? Could you share more details on the Elemental framework?

A: It’s like anything else – once you’ve studied the best of breed (Thematic, Hybrid), you begin thinking of how you’d do things differently. Elemental is being created to work specifically in conjunction with a new set of themes we’ll be releasing through Pro Theme Design, so the philosophy will be a little different. Outside of Pro Theme products, I don’t know yet if Elemental will be something the general public will find use for.

Q. Any ETA on its release? Will that be paid or open source?

A: We’re hoping to release it in conjunction with a new child theme next month. We’re releasing them together to underscore how parent/child theme relationships work. The tutorials and other documentation we’ll release at that time should make the concepts less intimidating to novice users who might ask questions like, "Why do I have to purchase 2 themes?"

Closing

Q. What advice would you give to someone looking to get into the WordPress industry?

A: Read everything in the Codex, and keep up with all the sources listed at (plug) WPTopics.com

Q. Thanks a lot for your time Darren.

A: My pleasure.

Last year, Brian Gardner took the first step and all the revolution themes went free, with GPL license. Wordpress community praised the decision. Then on, with the new version the license model slightly changed to paid only GPL model that allowed unlimited usage of the purchased product. The model was welcomed by the customers and then on, other leading theme developers have started climbing the GPL train one by one.

My thoughts

It bothered me because even when they were claimed as 100% GPL licensed products, the theme authors restricted resale, redistribution of the products. As some of them said, even if its legal, ethically it would be wrong. But then what I am thinking is, it is also ethically wrong to claim the product as GPL, claiming that we are enjoying the spirit of giving away and then, we restrict them when they want to take those liberties that the GPL licensing model offers.

Alex King, a well known wordpress contributor raised the question and heated arguments started all over – on twitter, blog posts and support forums.

Long story short, here’s some of the points that I think should be considered.

• Deviating buyers – with GPL terminology should be stopped. If a seller does not agree 100% with the license model, they should not claim their product to be in line with it.
• Most of them is hopping on this model because nothing actually changes except that the buyer no longer need to pay extra for multiple usage of the product. Buying single use license will do.
• Those who claim the product to be 100% GPL, is not actually GPL – because they restrict the rights of redistribution or, they are not feeling good when someone does so.

Whats the right way then?

Don’t claim it to be GPL because its actually not and stop taking indirect benefits of it. From business point of view, if it’s required, only announce change of pricing structure because that’s what you really did.

Will I adapt the GPL model for my products?

Earlier also some of the people from twitter suggested me to embrace the GPL model. I would love to change the pricing model but right now, I am not ok with my products being resold, redistributed. I might take that route if required from strategic point of view.

But we still love GPL. Is there a better way?

In my opinion, the best way to embrace GPL model would to release more, and better quality free products while also selling products. Or, have different pricing model wherein a basic copy is offered for free and advanced copies be available for purchase.

Finally, When the controversy started, Ian Stewart mentioned it right:

the most powerful and influential members of the WordPress community don’t care about any of this.

Disclaimer: I do respect all the well known theme developers out there. With paid themes, they have certainly taken the wordpress to better level which otherwise might not have been possible. My views expressed herein are on GPL licensing and ethical usage of it. I am not jelous but if you think I am, then yes, I am .

If you are about to buy a hosting account for your wordpress blog or site, you should read the blog post and consider the best option for you.  Here’s a quote from the site..

They provide huge space at low cost and lure you into buying. Then, you realize they only allow one domain and one database!

Here’s some bullet point that I discussed in the guide.

• Define your requirement and choose accordingly. What are you hosting, and what do you need?
• Don’t just fall for space – how many domains and databases can you have?
• Do they offer a Wordpress easy one-click install using Fanastico?
• Do they keep the Wordpress version up-to-date in the one-click install application list?
• Do they have good, quick customer support?
• Do they provide 99.9% uptime guarantee or do they face frequent down time?
• Do they do regular backups?
• Planning to use a premium theme after you purchase the hosting?
• Do they offer support for web development tools?
• Does it have GD Library support?
• It’s always wise to ask about your concerns before you buy the hosting packages.

Also the updated version of famous free wp premium theme is scheduled to be launched this week. stay tuned

with the new update, I am also providing Themes Club option at premiumthemes.net . Don’t forget to grab all the themes at the premium themes store.

Now all I need is your support. If you like my website, please vote for “R.Bhavesh” under the clean & minimalistic category.

Vote here

The demo of the much awaited wp-premium theme has been setup here - http://www.cssace.com/demo/ and I plan to release theme within a day or two. Sorry for making the late but the wait will be worth it.

Visit the site: http://HostWordpress.com/

Please help me spread the word by blogging about it, bookmarking or simply comment about it in here and let me know your views.