About the Concept9 Theme

Hi Lennie
Thanks for your compliments on my theme – its all my own work so is unique to me.

Whats behind this?

Couple of things I can say.

I looked at a couple of ready made themes to take inspiration looking for something that looked like it was ‘me’. There was always something that wasn’t right. It was time usefully spent and from these I collected the idea’s of what was right for me, and left the rest. I asked myself questions about what I liked and why something wasn’t right. Didn’t do this in one hour – it was over time of couple of months.

Following this I decided I wanted the following:
A black and white photograph because there aren’t many of these used on the ‘net.

The lighter square over my eye on the header image

Long you live and high you fly,

And smiles you’ll give and tears you’ll cry,

And all you touch and all you see,

Is all your life will ever be

This is part of the lyrics from Pink Floyd’s Dark side of the Moon album. I listened to this music a great deal around the time I was creating the theme. The lyrics I find very powerful. This light square  represents all you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be and it links to the floating colour picture by the small oblong of shadow. I wanted this to be a square of shadow but it didn’t quite work out so its an oblong of shadow and it goes to show that you only need to get close – don’t get hung up on perfection.

At the time I was sailing in the Caribbean. Both pictures I took while sailing in the Caribbean….all you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be.

What did the Caribbean mean to me in one word? Sunshine. Turn it into a colour and this is the theme colour.

A floating picture with a drop shadow to create some depth to the page. I noticed I liked the look and feel of pictures which were dropped onto the main page but when several of them are used it tends to make it feel cluttered. So chose to have just one. I chose to set this out of the margins on the page to help it ‘float’. But in the top right of the page there was space for a flat picture which I struggled over choosing. Eventually I found the scrolling photo gallery and this answers that problem, I can have all the pictures I was trying to choose from instead of just one. They all remind me of times and places.

I thought about what websites I remember, as in, having been using the web for 10 years, there is only one or two that I remember the looks of in my head. I’ve no idea of the URL’s these days but they stuck in my head for their simplicity and impact. The impact was because of their simplicity. I chose simplicity.

Some websites I’ve arrived to I’ve liked the look of enough to take a screen shot of them which I file away for later inspiration. This can help you identify styles, colours and layouts you like and you build a scrap book of idea’s. Take the bits you like and leave the rest.

And finally, to wrap it all together, to make it YOU, you’ll need the skills to bring it all together. Either you do this with someone who has the skills to roll the webpage together for you or you learn to do it yourself. Its not rocket science putting a theme together but it does require ‘doing it’ and patience. Much like building a brick wall, if you’ve never done it before don’t let that stop you but be prepared to pull it down and do it again. Each time you do it you will get better at it.

It seems many people worry much less about their theme and just get something up. In other words what you have to say is much more important than what its wrapped in as presentation. This is true. A nice looking page can set a tone, but what you have to say is what counts. Sites we visit on a day to day basis are because of what they say, not the way its presented. So don’t get hung up on themes.