This week we’re featuring two modifications of one of our older themes (again) – Over Easy – but judging by the amount of awesome modifications of the theme in our showcase, this is one of our most popular themes to date. Originally designed to function like a business / CMS theme, we’re surprised that today’s two contestants have managed to turn it into a design portfolio, which just makes their mods so much more awesome!
Last week we had a battle of the designers and it seems that this week is going to continue that trend… But hey, we’re sure that you guys aren’t complaining, because this means that you get to vote & comment on some really, hot eye candy… 
So up for battle today, we have the Affiliated Woo Worker – Kirstin Pauk – who will be going head-to-head with the brilliant They Creative team. The coin flip says that They Creative will be up for scrutiny first…
They Creative – Link
They Creative
Our first thoughts when looking at their homepage: Is this really Over Easy? On closer inspection (this has been certified by Magnus who designed + coded the theme), this is most definitely Over Easy, but with a complete new face and we absolutely love it!
The light-on-dark approach has been executed beautifully to create a stunning emphasis in pitching the team’s design skill to prospective clients. The slider on the homepage adds a nice touch of dynamism, whilst we love how the colourful icons seems to accentuate the black background & white typography. In terms of finding a balance between enough copy to sell oneself (to the viewer) and keeping things elegantly simple, we have to give the They Creative team an A+.
Clicking to the inner pages, presents us with nice little Flash intro’s at the top of the page which again showcases some great use of typography. Again, the team has opted to keep things simple and let the design do the talking on their behalf. We particularly love the beautiful way in which they have executed their portfolio, where all of their work is superbly highlighted by the contrast of colour on the black background.
As a final note… This modification is not only great because of the awesome design, but also due to advanced WordPress tweaks that would’ve needed to be implemented to execute this design. The way the portfolio has been coded is totally custom, as Over Easy was never intended to be a design / portfolio type theme. So They Creative have definitely shown that our themes are highly customizable and the only real limitation is that of your imagination.
Kirstin Pauk – Link
Kirsten Pauk
Well, we gave They Creative kudo’s for this same reason, but Kirstin too deserves massive praise for modifying the default Over Easy design beyond recognition. Luckily we’ve worked with Kirstin enough, to know that he wouldn’t lie about using Over Easy…
In stark contrast (in colour at least) to the They Creative design, Kirstin has implemented a soothing, light blue colour palette, which we attribute to him living in the Isle of Skye. Whilst soothing, the design is never dull, as Kirstin has implemented some nice lighting effects to emphasize different sections of the design. We also love the use of text-shadow, which in combination with the lighting effects, creates a lovely bevel effect.
The homepage features a completely custom design and Kirstin has gone as far as removing the very popular slider that is packaged with the default Over Easy theme. We tend to like this direction though, because we’re firm believers in a horses-for-courses approach; so the design portfolio (which is very custom indeed) on the homepage serves its purpose much better than a slider would have done.
These custom development vibes have been carried through to the inner pages and we’re particularly impressed with Kirstin’s portfolio pages, which just looks absolutely fantastic. As noted with They Creative; this is completely custom as Over Easy wasn’t developed to support this at all. Browsing the rest of the inner pages, also definitely showcases Kirstin’s attention to detail and within that one gets the sense that this is a truly amazing modification.
Another A+ from us for Kirstin as well!
So does this mean we propose that this week’s Showdown should be a tie? Hell no! But luckily for us, we don’t have to decide the winner, as we love both modifications so much; we’d probably have needed to flip a coin.
You however have the privilege of voting for your favourite modification and that’ll obviously decide the winner. So look at both designs closely and make sure you pick the right one…
The Winner
What an amazing Showdown this week! We love the fact that two designers got to battle each other for the honours of being a Showdown Season One winner…
And it’s with even more pride that we get to say congrats to Kirstin – who is an Affiliated Woo Worker – for taking this Showdown with a close 56%. Guess you’ll need to consider hiring Kirstin to do your WooThemes mods in future now…
[polldaddy poll=1909821]
51 Responses to “Showdown Series (Season One): Week 7”
Kirstin gets my vote. The website is much clearer than the other one.
This is tough.
Kristen has done some great modification to one of my favourite themes but something about ‘they’ appeals to me a little more. I think I’m a sucker for dark websites or something… so they get the nod.
Both great sites though.
They gets my vote. I just feel the thumbnails on the Kristin are too big and stands out more than the website logo.
Both very similar in design except for the color scheme.
I choose “They Creative” because they have more content
Definitely Kristen!
“They” gets my vote. It’s visually more appealing. Kristen’s site is more clear in term of information, I agree with Alex white. “They” might benefit from an additional line to describe what “they” is. I personally think mom and pop will not get it. But overall… very good job to both!Very nice what you did with the scheme.
well, for this showdown series, i vote for Kirstin Pauk!!
“They” win hands down. Kristin’s is too similar to any other portfolio site out there – They took made some cool stylistic choices I haven’t yet seen on a Wootheme.
Boy, this is a tough one. I think I’m going to think awhile before I actually vote. First, Kudos to both the contestants for a great job.
If I may mention my nit-picky observations about each. They probably looks more professional and snazzy, but almost too much. I have a thing against all black backgrounds and while the text animation headers is cool technically, they are also a little annoying. Kirstin’s site (Note, it’s not Kristen) is more soothing, but maybe a little too much so. I feel like I’d like to see a bit of snap somewhere.
That’s just my 2 cent criticism, but really, nice job you two and I’ll have a tough time voting!
Whoops, just noticed I was one of the ones who spelt it wrong. Sorry Kirstin!
I finally voted for Kirsten. It was really tough. They has a very nice, snappy design, but I just have a strong dislike for light colored text on black. Too much black. I like black when it’s balanced with lights, like the black version of Busy Bee in the demo.
Dang it, now I’ve misspelled it! Sorry Kirstin, it’s hard to get that out of our heads as in America that’s how it’s usually spelled.
“They Creative” gets my vote, Some awesome designs.
Don’t get me wrong “Kirstin Pauk” is still really good.
You can’t lose with either, that’s probably why they are in showdown. I prefer the black design of They, but found many of their pages look the same. I think Kirstin’s design is clean and highly functional. I went with Kirstin.
I’m going to have to go with Kirstin Pauk. While I really like the functionality on They Creative, anyone who uses a black background and light/white text gives me a serious headache. I love the sidebar stuff in Kirstin Pauk’s blog too … very nice. The top menu transitions are a really nice touch too, definitely going that extra mile. I think this week’s showdown definitely says how versatile Woo Themes are though … both entries definitely took the modifications to another level while keeping the original framework.
Yeah, I definitely love Kirstin’s usage of CSS3, which just adds a level of gloss to his design, which isn’t always evident with They Creative. I’m still backing a tie, but I agree with your points here about Kirstin’s design.
I too must cast a vote for Kirstin’s modified version of Over Easy as it’s so much easier on the eyes than the white on black theme, a combination that tends to make those of us with eyes over 40, go a little cross-eyed.
Cheers,
Ros
Hehe, who mentioned age? We promise we didn’t…
My vote is for They Creative. I like their use of flash and light box.
While I like the looks of They best, it doesn’t work as well viewing from an iPhone. The pages don’t resize. Fixed width? And the gray type is barely readable. And of course flash doesn’t work on the iPhone. I keep wanting the six items on the bottom of the home to be links. They sre beautiful and the use of the slider is great.
Kirstin’s site functions much better on the iPhone and widths adjust.
So for me, it’s a tie.
Come on! We’re the only one’s that is allowed to vote for a tie!
All of you need to decide the winner!
This was a tough decision but I ended up choosing They Creative only because the site seemed more complete. Pretty close match though.
Why is that? I definitely don’t get the sense that Kirstin’s design is incomplete, but maybe his lack of blog posts makes it feel a little empty?
Yes, his lack of blog posts did make it seem empty and the one site that I did visit out of the portfolio was no where near complete (TriciaHelferFan.com). I did find it odd that there weren’t any links to his work… only screenshots. Is this because he doesn’t want us to discover the “Test, test, test” posts?
For these reasons I felt the site was incomplete. But please don’t get me wrong… I am by no means picking on the guy because I do think he has some real talent.
When it comes down to it… I was told to pick A or B. So I picked B.
Thanks, Adii, for questioning my reasoning.
Hehe, no problem; just wanted to understand why you felt his site was incomplete…
I voted Kirstin Pauk. It was a hard choice because both themes look great.
I like both sites – I voted for Kirstin Pauk’s because it seemed cleaner and simpler. They has a few interesting tidbits, and I really like their work, but strictly on a web design preference I liked the clean, blue lines a bit better.
Both sites look nice. May the best wins! =D
They get my vote. Both look great but I think the dark background of the They site is bolder.
Voted. I like both sites, and i like simple and clean design, cool!
Both sites very cool but my vote gone to Kirstin Pauk
Has to be ‘They Creative’. I love the way they’ve made it FEEL simplistic rather than just look it… it’s a hard thing to pull off and they’ve done it brilliantly.
Also, I love on the ‘Branding’ page where all the letters change when you first enter the page. Small touches make big impressions.
Not really impressed by either of these! I guess Kristin gets my vote if I gotta throw one in.
I find the flash on They kinda annoying, and the value doesn’t really justify all the flickering..
I don’t mean to be a hater, but these sites seem way below the standards set by the previous battles. Both just seem kinda standard 2.0 boring.
I definitely agree with your comment about the flash. At first, I thought it was kind of cool but then it got real annoying.
Phew, we actually think that this is one of the best Showdown’s to date and judging by the votes until now, this is indeed going to be a very close one. Why would you say that these modifications lack a certain quality?
Kirsten gets my vote. Very nicely done.. and since blue is my fav…
Both sites are pretty awesome though
Both of the sites looks good. But as this is a voting so my votes goes to They Creative
Thanks for the kind words and the critiques as well. Design is always subjective and you have to take the good with the bad.
Adii, I’m guessing since you are from SA, is that a Rhodesian Ridgeback on the beach with you? It has the markings of one. I actually have a liver nose 150lb ridgeback named Dylan myself. http://www.theycreative.com/dylan.jpg
Awesome dogs… anyways thanks for all of the support regardless of who wins, it was a pleasure being nominated.
Thanks for stopping by!
And no – it’s actually a Boerboel and not a Rhodesian Ridgeback. You would however not be the first person to ask me that. Dylan looks awesome though!
Wow, hard choice this week – they’re very evenly matched this time round for sure! Kirsten Pauk takes if for me cause of the super clean graphics and awesome JQuery rollovers
Man, TheyCreativity looks great no doubt. But just look what Kirstin Pauk has done to OverEasy. I’ve played with Overeasy many times and I can understand how hard or easy is to do what he has done to his Website.
It just looks awesome, clean and out of the box ! Great work !
Hehe, most definitely. I would however be surprised if you couldn’t bend Over Easy as Kirstin has done, because your mod of Fresh News looks awesome!
Thanks for the kind words Adii.
Your all themes are just great but Fresh News is my Favorite !
Adding to my comment.
While talking about designing and creativity.
I think, Its not who has more skills. Its that who has more creativity or which idea came to whose mind first !
“Craft is the Discipline that Frees the Spirit;
Style is the Result.”
Ben Shahn, The Shape of Content
I thought that quote was slightly off, so went to look it up.
“Craft is that discipline which frees the spirit; and style is the result.”
Surely my vote goes to They Creative.
I voted for Kirstin Pauk , very nice , real smooth , i like the color the fonts and also the simplicity
very very close but because I have to choose one.
Im a sucker for black so I lean a little towards they, but they both are great.
ini mini miney moe
Great designs, have to go with They Creative because they kept the JQuery scroller, like the icons, sucker for black, and cool use of flash but kudos to Kirstin to a very clean design as well.
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