iThemes Essence Review
The is the second of my reviews of the iThemes premium themes, and I need to start with a confession: I never really ‘got’ premium themes before now. My experience setting up a new site using the iThemes Essence Theme has changed my view.
My opinion, tempered as it was by the knowledge of hundreds or even thousands of free themes, none of which I had used, was that premium themes would somehow be the ultimate pinnacle of themery. I imagined themes in which the source code would never be touched by human hands because any possible setup options would be available in a handy to use admin page. This is not the case.
This isn’t to say that premium themes are nothing more than ordinary themes; for that I suppose it depends on the theme, and the author, just that you do actually get what you pay for on the whole, and even the most expensive premium themes are pretty cheap compared to the cost of the design work were it bespoke.
So what do I think is the point of premium themes now? What is it that you pay for if buy a premium theme?
I think the main difference is really just the cost. By paying for it you support the author meaning they have more time, and perhaps greater incentive, to put into producing a theme that is likely to meet the needs of the person that buy it.
I also expect a modicum of professionalism should things go pear shaped. Note that professionalism is not an alternative way of suggesting unlimited support; it just means that should you get into bother someone would be available within a reasonable period to either point you in the right direction or listen to your concerns. I haven’t really had the need to test this idea but the little communication I have had with Cory from iThemes leads me to believe that they wouldn’t disappoint.
What I find particularly useful about the iThemes themes is their Video tutorials on how aspects of the themes work. These can save a great deal of time and I would encourage anyone that isn’t doing it yet to start.
Once I actually installed the Essence theme and was ready to start playing with it I noticed that the home page was hard coded with text. I don’t mind coding so I set about rewriting it to display a post on the front page. I am a natural hacker at heart so didn’t stop to think that perhaps, being a premium theme, this desire would have been catered for already. It was.
Once I stopped changing things and took a look around I noticed a number of page templates one of which was intended to do exactly what I wanted, so I set up my about page using the home page template, and set that about page to act as my home page using the WordPress settings. This did exactly what I wanted without the need for me to change a thing. There are actually 13 different page templates with this theme so there is a lot of scope for getting things the way you want them.
The next major thing I needed to change was the header. Changing the header image was very easy as the theme provides options, not only to upload a new image, but also to crop it to size once you have.
I chose to remove all the header text and rely on the image; however, before doing that I did notice that the admin panel promised the ability to alter the colours used for the header but I couldn’t find this functionality.
This theme also features contact information as part of the header that can be changed within the admin theme. You won’t notice them on the site I have set up as I removed them, but check out the demo site.
I also needed to change the image that is displayed on the home page. This image feels as though it should work from a custom field (if the home page shows posts) or be alterable from within the admin area, but it isn’t. The default image, however, makes it clear what the dimensions are so it was a simple matter to upload a replacement image.
I almost forgot to mention the page footer.
Aside from the usual copyright notices the page footer is made up of three WordPress Widget Sidebars, so changing the text in any of these, or adding additional components is as simple as you would expect.
Overall I think Essence is a really good looking theme that was very easy to setup. I found myself undoing changes I had made as I learned more about the theme and what was possible and so the site I have set up is still pretty much how the theme comes out of the box. The variety of page templates available gives plenty of different options and the colours options mean there should be a version that suits you.
Unfortunately I liked the standard colours so much that I have used those. My site is therefore the same version as the demo site that shows the available functionality. Nonetheless, if you want to check out the site that I have built, and will continue to build up and modify, then you can find it at http://www.definition-britain.co.uk.
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(http://wp-premiums.com/2008/04/25/premium-wordpress-theme-news-links/) 25th 07 2008 at 12:15 am
[...] Reviews: Andrew of Fun with WP has a long look at these iThemes offerings Essence, Photo Gallery plus Biz Card Theme, Corporate Theme, Deep Order Theme and the Grunge [...]
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Premium WP Theme News Links | WP-Premiums (http://wp-premiums.com/2008/04/25/premium-wp-theme-news-links/) 25th 04 2008 at 9:54 pm
[...] Reviews: Andrew of Fun with WP has a long look at these iThemes offerings Essence, Photo Gallery plus Biz Card Theme, Corporate Theme, Deep Order Theme and the Grunge [...]