As an avid Thesis user and web designer, I like to always check out what the latest trends in design are, and what’s “hot” and “not” if you will. I decided that it would be interesting to share with you some trends I see in some Thesis themes around the web.
I’m not going to lie, a lot of users that use Thesis keep most of the default look. It’s not a bad thing in my eyes, but it’s always amazing to see some really great customizations of Thesis.
I came up with five different categories of Thesis trends. Each category has at least three sites in them. Enjoy!
Keeping it Simple
Themes that do not edit much, but do not keep the exact Thesis look to them. These designs usually consist of color changes, maybe some formatting differences as well.
Simple customization, easy to look at banner.
Very light customization, cool color choices
Adds a few images here and there, adds a custom logo.
Taking Notice to Great Typography
The following designs put the most effort into displaying beautiful type to the readers in an easy to read way. Thesis is already known as a theme with great typography, but these blogs below really kick it up a notch.
Very gorgeous type for post titles
This layout always has had awesome type interfaces throughout the design.
I think the header says it all
Just look at that giant ampersand!
Image Reliant
The designs below really all have images to support their theme. Such as I do here, a large image is somewhere on these blogs tha reinforce what the blogger is trying to say.
A slideshow is on the right with a variety of different images.
A large screenshot of a video game is posted at the top of each post.
Still trying to figure it out, but the dude has a shovel. Good use of the Multimedia box however!
Rockin’ One Column Layouts
I feel the one column look is the most under utilized look in all of Thesis’s many faces. But I did manage to find some pretty damn nice examples of the one column look.
A great one column look with a unique color choice.
A nice modern looking design.
Last but not least, probably the nicest one column theme on Thesis.
Huge Headers
Thesis themes that have adapted to using a huge header to get the point of their blog across in an easy, noticeable and effective way.
Great type at the top, clearly spreads the point of his blog in his header.
Awesome city background.
Shatterboxx seems to make an appearance in a lot of my Thesis Thursday posts. :p I think the size of this header speaks for itself.
But the Trends Don’t Stop Here
There are so many trends that you can start with Thesis. The design community in Thesis is a little bland at the moment, and all it takes is just one great Thesis designer to come out and create even more trends! What’s stopping you?
I hope this post has inspired you in some way, and I look forward to hitting the 10th Thesis Thursday soon!
Show off your theme
While I’m at it, post links to your Thesis theme! I would love to see some new styles here. 
{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
I use a one-column variation.
Wow, it seems like there are more one column themes out there than I thought. Nice customization Jenn.
I’m pretty happy with my one-column, content-focused mod. It’s changed a bit from when last you saw it.
Ah, I had no idea you changed the design on your blog! Looks awesome Phil, thanks for sharing.
Thesis is a bit plain in my opinion. That is, when the blog author doesn’t do something to add to the look and feel of the default theme. One of the best Thesis based designs I have seen has to be the Blogussion theme designed by Alex Fraiser.
.-= Jeremiah´s last blog ..FriendFeed Gives Your Subscriber Numbers a Boost =-.
You’re right, the Thesis community may be a bit boring. But more and more every day I come across some great looking customizations that don’t even look like Thesis!
Thanks for the comments on the Blogussion design Jeremiah! Glad you like it.
Yeah, I think there are far too many people who have seen sites such as Blogussion that have amazing designs built on Thesis, so they’ve installed it. Then, once they’ve done that, they realise you still have to put time into it to make it look good
.-= Simon | Teenius´s last blog ..4 Things Bloggers Shouldn’t Do =-.
Nice article. Good job.
Thanks for the mention. You actually caught me in the middle of a redesign. I invite you to have another look.
The thesis theme is a lot of fun to tinker with. Great article. It’s cool to see what others are doing with thesis.
Cool stuff there Bobby! Thanks for stopping by.
.-= Alex´s last blog ..Google Eliminates the use of NoFollow by Changing Search Algorithms =-.
Hey Alex, new logo is great.. I like the hover effect.. hehe really creative one !
P.S: Please try to post some stuff b/w Thursdays or it looks like a thesis only blog !
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Thank you Enk.
Some really nice designs you listed. Thesis can be customized a lot and some webmasters push the limits and create a site that is so different from the normal layout of Thesis.
Although not all of my content is written in English, Chris was kind enough to add my site to his thesis showcase. For max effect, best viewed in a Webkit-based browser (Safari, Chrome), although styles to degrade gracefully.
.-= Stijn´s last blog ..Evian Roller Babies =-.
Love this list. I’m rolling out a new design of my blog soon, love resources like these themes for inspiration.
Great job Alex!
.-= Adam Pieniazek´s last blog ..In Support of the South Street Diner =-.
Alex,
Thanks for a great list. I’ve completely revamped our site just recently to run on thesis. I love it. Been pushing out a few tutorials on what I have learned over the past weeks. ArtofBlog is running a 2 column theme with the side bars on the left. It gives it a really clean content focused look.
.-= Nick´s last blog ..Thesis Tutorial: 7 Quick Customizations to the Home Page Loop =-.
Super Nice article. Good job.
Dude, I love this blog design and the footer is outstanding. Thank you for putting this post together to inspire my future customization of my current Thesis blogs.
.-= Brendan Wenzel´s last blog ..BrendanWenzel.net is Now NoFollow Free =-.
Easy Alex, great work, I totally agree, Thesis is an awsome tool if you have some imagination. I have several Thesis sites, and many others I have developed for clients. Pretty much any look is achievable with the know how. Just out of curiosity which plugin do you use for threaded comments? here and on bloggussion? Cheers fella, keep up the good work.
David from England
.-= David Alexander´s last blog ..gbc-snapshot =-.
Well, here goes… http://www.avcion.com – I’ve customized the theme completely, the only giveaway of a thesis theme, is probably the comment button! I missed the thesis 30 day review, so took the liberty of submitting it here… hope you like it!
I run a creativity and design inspiration site called MONOmoda which runs on the Thesis theme. It’s had quite a bit of an overhaul, let me know what you think.
Take a peak at these customizations:
http://www.sea-breeze.com/
http://www.buybarbados.com/
http://www.bimre.com/
I’ve always tried to tweak the typical freebie themes, but I think that you’ve won me over. I’ve definitely got to look more closely at using Thesis. I also understand that the community is active and helpful too.
Click my name above to see a one-column design with Thesis, which I created not too long ago after the two-column typical layout.
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Some of the sites on the post looked sensational.
.-= PSP Go´s last blog ..Buy Sony PSP Go – Quick Buying Q&A =-.
I took Chris Pearson’s challenge from his Thesis 1.6 video and built a one column website for a local business here in Connecticut. I think it came out real well. All I added was a graphic header logo.
It turns out it is exactly what the client wanted.
http://www.MilfordHeatingOil.com
And most importantly, this simple website is kicking serious SEO butt in the local search engines for his business.
There are two reasons that simple websites like this are working.
1. For local customers for this type of service business, the visitors aren’t always that tech savvy and are not impressed by overabundance of Flash and other web 2.0 bling.
2. On the other end of the spectrum, more and more folks are finding websites through their iphones, blackberries and droids and these one column websites are easy to view.
Everybody is happy…
I’ve been using Thesis for a couple of months now and have found it to be pretty awesome. So easy to customise a little, or a lot depending on how you’re looking to represent yourself.
Bit by bit I’ve tweaked my layout to where it is today. I’m fairly happy with the look and representation overall, now it’s down to refining the little things like comments, notes, sidebars backgrounds, etc..
I dig what you’re doing here on the site, great to see yet another Thesis guy giving back to the community.
Cheers
Mat
Hi Alex, take a look at my Thesis design on my blog;
http://blog.balootisme.com
What do you think?
.-= Baloot´s last blog ..Tutorial Design Gadget (Peralatan Elektronik) Menggunakan Adobe Photoshop dan Illustrator =-.
Here is how I have modified my Thesis Theme :
SmashinGeeks
.-= SmashinGeeks´s last blog ..How to Add Folder Background Image In Windows XP =-.
Took me time to read all the comments, but I truly enjoyed the article. It proved to be Really useful to me and I am certain to all of the commenters here! It’s usually good when you cannot only be informed, but additionally entertained! I’m certain you had fun writing this post.
Some really interesting examples here. Some I have seen some I haven’t. Big up the Thesis community.
.-= David Alexander´s last blog ..Quixotic Launches Affiliate Program =-.
This one no more uses Thesis I believe –
http://www.virtualsportsnetwork.com/
I like this one also. Found it at Thesis forum – http://www.everydayguide.com
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