With another Thursday comes another Thesis Thursday. This would be the second of the many posts in this everlasting series, and in this Thursday’s post, I am going to showcase 10 blogs powered by Thesis that don’t look like they use Thesis.
The sites showcased here you may have not seen before, and I can tell you that I did not just pluck out these sites from the Thesis Showcase at DIYthemes. I just figured that it would be pointless to show you sites you have already seen, so I took the extra time to find some very unique themes from the Thesis community.
Why Do This?
The reason why I am showing you these blogs is because the one complaint I hear a lot about Thesis is that “all the blogs that run it look the same.” I want to prove to those people that you can use Thesis and not leave much to recognize it later by showing off these awesome blogs.
WPBandit.com
Not only do they release some cool Thesis themes at their site, but they are running on a very cool theme themselves!
The design is not only very appealing to the eye, but the additions to the header are what makes this theme so great to look at. Navigation is very easy, and the way the content is displayed on the blog is very elegant and totally readable.
MakeThingsFair.com
Not only is the cause for the site amazing, so are the customizations made to the theme!
At first glance, the only thing that gave this site away are the forms in the sidebar, but pretty much from there it is all solid customizations.
This theme is rockin’ the 3 column look, and really makes the content stand out from the rest of the site by adding an easy to look at yellow background to each title. Truly, a great use of the Thesis theme.
Kuronoir.net
I can’t tell you how to pronounce that, but I can tell you that this is one pimpin’ Thesis customization!
Here is a great example of how well you can make Thesis look by inverting it’s original colors and going dark. There are so many cool things about this design. To name a few, the borders around the whole wrapper, the use of images as headings in the sidebar, an awesome header and footer, and plenty more.
Ahjira.com
Someone I have talked with quite a bit on Twitter, and also a bearer of a nicely customized Thesis.
What I love most about this is the effect in the header (for all of those crazy colors), and how she connects the subscribe box between the header and sidebar. Besides that stuff, she has some cool gradients all throughout the blog to add a 3D effect to her containers, as well as a great navigation menu and sidebar, along with a great, big footer.
PhillipBarron.net
Definitely the most interesting theme in this mini-showcase, however Phil Barron has really done a number on his theme.
All throughout the design, he has some really interesting textures going on. A cool grungy on as the background, a rough texture for the content box, and a field as his footer. The other thing is great about this is the trick he did to keep the navigation bar at the top of the page at all times. Great work Phil.
Blogussion.com
Shameless self promotion or is this actually a well done theme that you may not have seen?
I designed this site, and I did my best to take out the standard Thesis look in just about every aspect of the design. A simple header with plenty of links and simple navigation, a tricked out sidebar, and an overhaul of the standard comments look.
CreepyLA.com
A blog full of creepy content, but there is nothing creepy about their awesome customizations.
The logo is really cool, as are the textures used throughout the site. I personally think that the font they use on the site is really fun, matches the site’s theme well, and more importantly — uncommonly used.
Visit Site
BlueAnalytics.com
Besides having a unique Thesis theme, this site really displays their content in a pretty unique manner.
I love the simplicity here, and the way the content is organized is totally unique. It is light on images (as a matter of fact, I only see 8 images, 7 of those being tiny icons) and uses the sexy Trebuchet MS to support that “clean” vibe the site gives off.
No Longer on Thesis
CuteOverload.com
Cute animals and a really cool design. What’s a better combination?
Even though this site has that standard Thesis navigation, I still find this to be a very unique design. The colors, the images, and the amazing header are all what contributes to this awesome Thesis theme.
Okay, maybe those little furry animals made me add this design to the showcase. I mean seriously, look at those dogs. One of them is literally eating the other one.
Shatterboxx
Yeah, really, it’s Thesis. Seriously.
The simplest one in this showcase, this design has no sidebar, or anything else you would expect from a site using Thesis. The header is beautiful, and you have to admire the whole one column look.
Need Tips For Customizing Your Thesis theme?
With all of those awesome sites listed above, I don’t blame you for feeling like your Thesis theme just isn’t meeting it’s true potential in looks.
There are tons of sites out there for Thesis to help you customize it. Not a lot of people understand the hook system, so these are the kind of sites you may be interested in for customizing Thesis.
- Thesis Hacker
- Thesis Theme HQ
- Sugarrae
- Kristarella
- Blogussion
- MattFlies
- Berchman
- HowToMakeMyBlog
- GrayWolf
- Franklin Bishop
- DoubleMule
- FergusWeb
- Rick Beckman
- Empty Cabin Media
Enjoy! That took like 2 days to do, such madness.
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Hey — thanks for including me on this list. I was pleasantly surprised!
You got a great showcase here and I’m happy to be included with all of those other great Thesis mods!
No problem Jamie, I love what you did with Shatterboxx, and even some other Thesis sites you did. So you definitely earned a spot here. Thanks for commenting.
asnio,
thanks for including me on your list of tutorial resources. I’m fortunate to be in such good company. I have a new one out soon for multiple custom sidebars.
Really like the list of thesis based sites. Did not know of many of theses. Great work.
Cheers,
berchman
Thanks for stopping by! Your tutorial on multiple custom templates is going to save my life at my other blog soon enough, so I had to include your site man.
Thanks for the link under tutorial resources! I feel honored to be included with those others…
Thanks!
Yeah man, that one post of yours “10 ways to customize Thesis” got pretty popular. That was one of the first things I thought of.
Yeah, to be honest, I definitely wasn’t expecting that! I guess getting a couple links directly from the Thesis gods themselves kind of helps out in popularity!
Great post. love looking at awesome new theme sites. Appreciate the list of people to follow too. Have missed a few along the way.
I missed your site, you have some tutorials there too I see. Added
I highly recommend Larry. He has done such a great job with all of our customizations.
Woah! Thanks for featuring WP Bandit! We have not released a theme in a while, but we are coming back strong soon. Custom Thesis designs have been keeping us busy and we are in the process of reducing our workload to focus on theme development.
Your quite talented yourself and I love your use of custom functions throughout this site.
I can totally relate! I have 2 design clients currently, and getting at least 1 email every 1–2 days regarding some Thesis work.
Appreciate the comments, and thanks a lot for stopping by Jermaine!
And what about this one (is in german, but based on thesis)
http://www.spaghetti-mit-knoedel.com
and heavily customized.
It’s a pretty good one, but it could be customized some more.
Very flattering indeed to be included alongside such great stylings. Thesis FTW! Thanks much!
As Jermaine says, thanks for featuring WP Bandit!
Today the intro page got slightly updated [link], hopefully to the better, now moving on the the blog part. Let’s see what we can improve there…
Nice name by the way (;
I liked the old look better.
Hahaha, hm that problem only appears when there is no www. We need to solve that. Try here (;
Nice updates!
But on the blog, the “View Themes” button is misaligned:
http://www.grabup.com/uploads/7d37d3d47fd0dc3f693537e7cb212a8b.png
…if you weren’t aware.
Thank you for taking a screenshot! I was working on the blog, but have to wait a bit until Jermaine updates the site to the latest Thesis version so I can give the blog body an ID.
The blog is far from finished (; (I haven’t really started on it yet), so if it’s messed up, it’s because we’re working on it
Thanks a lot for the plug. I hope I can at least teach and inspire people to take their customizations to the next level. Thanks again!!
Thanks for stopping by, your blog has helped me learn a few cool stuff about Thesis so I had to include you.
Hey Alex! I love your ‘Thesis Thursdays’ posts. Do you plan on creating your own tutorials on your customization? I really love what you did with your footer, how the categories are in a slim column across.
Keep up the great work!
Renee
Thanks for stopping by Renee.
If I write any tutorials, I’ll post them at Blogussion. I already wrote a small one here, and hope to have more to come.
@Alex,
Did you do the design for Freelance Switch as well or was that just your inspiration for Bloggussion?
So basically you’re asking if I got inspired from their navigation menu? Because honestly, that’s the only thing that looks “inspired” in my opinion.
I don’t get why everyone asks that, do they own the rights to that style of a navigation menu or something? I’ve seen it on so many blogs, yet I get all of the crap about it.
But besides all of the rant up there, nah I didn’t design it.
I didn’t mean to spark a nerve and wasn’t giving you crap. Was just asking if you designed that that other site and was wondering if it were based on Thesis as well. I like them both…
Sorry, I didn’t mean you specifically. But I hear it on Twitter and it bugs me. Sorry about that.
Great sites, and nice list of resources. I’ll definitely be checking back here for more tips on how to work on my site as well.
~ Kristi
Sweet! Remember, every Thursday is a Thesis Thursday.
Super post dude. I’ve been working on customizing a few different “skins” for Thesis and this is a great help.
There’s some great inspiration here IMO, and it really proves how flexible Thesis can be.
Good luck in all of your designs Matt, look forward to see what you come up with.
Thank you so much for mentioning my blog
It’s an awesome design man, no problem at all.
What an awesome source of inspiration and knowledge. Really like your design here and at Blogussion.com too. Wow, my head is spinning a little right now from information overload (that’s a good thing!).
Adam Pieniazek´s last blog ..dm Design on Pokin’ Holes Episode 7
Awesome customisations — Shatter Box has an amazing design.
Buy PSP Go´s last blog ..Sony Considered Second Analog Stick for PSP Go
Nice share, especially shatterbox is amazing.
Hey thanks for some awesome blog design links. You can also have a look at shoutmeloud.com or serradinho.com. I like those websites a lot (content and design both). I really like the way you displayed your category list in footer. How did you achieve that. I am also working on my website customization. Have a look at my new design. http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/2690/tgnewlook.jpg and http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/2360/foottg.jpg (sidebar and footer. It is still under construction. The footer has 3 columns (only right most column is active for testing purpose)). I would like to add category list above the current footer. Any link to tutorial is highly appreciated.
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Nice list Alex! Blogussion looks incredible…well done!
thanks for the list.. blogussion is my personal fav..
Rajesh Kanuri @ TechCats´s last blog ..Free Panda Cloud Antivirus Review
Does anyone know how to customise the comment box or the submit button on thesis? Many thanks in advance.
nice information i have choosen right place. thanks for sharing
Finally I got a really nice or we can say useful post. Thanks for sharing a lovely post.
really great and awesome Customized Thesis Blogs + Thesis Customization Tips. Thanks for info
solanki´s last blog ..How to make Impressive Presentation With MS-PowerPoint
Great list of thesis eggs
. I will defiantly try to make my blog design like one of them.
I am trying to design my thesis theme but still not sitisfy. I thing these can help me.