In Norway they do things differently… Or at least to what I’m used to as a South African… So when I go away for a weekend, I don’t expect to come back and see a new design concept from Magnus. But somehow Magnus loves this unexpected and unplanned way of designing & releasing his themes, as both Busy Bee and Coffee Break came to existence in this very way.
If you’ve had a look at our best-selling themes, you’d also be stupid to bet against Magnus pulling off another extremely popular design… In fact… I personally made the mistake of not backing Busy Bee entirely when I first saw it and it’s now our second most popular theme EVER… That’s called learning the hard way…
So onto Magnus’ new design (yes, that one which he designed and basically finished coding over the weekend)… The new design has been titled Object and is a photoblogging theme a little bit similar to Aperture. Magnus has however decided to focus more on photos (making this more of a niche theme), whereas Aperture is probably a little bit more multi-purposed. Here’s what Object looks like…
Object - Homepage
Object - Single Post Page
Surprised a little that we’ve designed another photoblogging theme, when Exposure (which we previewed here) is still in the works? I was, but then again I didn’t expect Magnus to design a new theme… 
Our reasoning however is that there’s always room for another awesome theme by Magnus, people love photoblogging themes and we’ve postponed Exposure a little to promote The Daily Edition up the release schedule (only because people are raving about it). Ultimately let’s be honest here… Nothing *everything* we do makes complete sense, is planned or expected… But that’s what makes WooThemes so awesome!
Back to Object then… What do you guys think? Has Magnus gotten it spot-on (again)? Check out the demo of Object, and watch this screencast Magnus made to show how easy it is to upload and show images in this theme:
92 Responses to “The Object Teaser”
This looks really promoising. Good job Mangus.
Thanks Richard! Any thing you want added/changed?
I think it is beautiful could really see some good sites putting this to work.
Looks good. Will it have a separate blog section?
Yes just test the demo to see how the blog category looks different (archive page and single page)
Demo looks great. How hard would it be to incorporate the Ratings plugin?
Im going to integrate wp-postratings plugin so it can be used if activated without having to modify the template
I think I just found a new theme for my parents’ missionary blog – Dad’s a photographer, too.
Great work, Magnus.
Looks simple enough. Though wonder if there’d be a dark version. Also, I personally would like a way to insert photo technical details. Like; 1/60s f4 and etc.
But that’s my take.
Yeah I’ll add multiple color version, dark and light
I also thought about technical details, and I’ll be sure to add some fields for that in our custom settings field so it will show in the photo details. What fields do you need?
I’m sure we can pull the EXIF data using some PHP classes… My research tells me it’s a bit of a minefield though…
A section to give a blurb or explanation of the photo would be good.
Standard details: Camera Make, Model, Aperture, Shutter
I’d then use the WYIWYG editor to enter in the shoot description or story.
Having too many custom fields would be too cumbersome. So, use only when necessary.
I believe that what you really need in your theme gallery are some very clean, blog-oriented themes with nice typography.
Don’t you think we already have that niche covered?
Adii, I somehow agree with Dias.
Woo has been covering different theme types like Irresistible, Over Easy, Aperture, Objact, Big-Easy, etc..
Dias here means some cool looking Woo-Themes for simple Blogging. Like Fresh News we had.
Adding to the comment:
Why isn’t Woo coming up with its own framework like Thesis has? Create an awesome framework, shoot a contest to customize at its best and voila !
That’ll be great another step in WooThemes I guess.
-Also, you may not know but I use Fresh News as Woo framework like Thesis and customize at its best for my different needs.
Are you saying that Fresh News is simple
There are lots of varied themes coming up, and we are trying to please everybody in the process, but hopefully we’ll please the simple theme style when Daily Edition (losely based on Gazette) comes soon.
As an answer to your Thesis: Why doesn’t Thesis make more than one theme to cater for all types of websites?
We are trying to focus on creating a vast array of themes that can be used out of the box, instead of having one framework which has to be customized by the user.
You can use any of our themes as a framework to design new themes, and I’ll try to write a tutorial on it so other people know how to do this as well
A Framework like Thesis was just an idea.. no wonder Woo’s all themes can be used like framework and can be customize to look out of the box.
Looking forward for the daily edition theme.
+Thumbsup for Woo again !
P.S: I(We) still expect some clean yet awesome, Simple Blogging themes.
Very nice! I am seriously considering the developer membership to be able to help people set up much nicer photoblogs
I assume you’ll be signing up as soon as we release Object & Exposure then!? Especially since you’ve been waiting for Exposure for ages now?
Probably! you are assuming pretty good
Good work!
Just an observation: I think that the other pictures in the gallery should not load in a separate window. It would be nice to have overlayed arrows on the big picture in order to navigate the gallery without scrolling down the window.
Yeah, we discussed this and I think if we build a jquery feature like we have on the portfolio page on Big Easy (http://woothemes.com/demo/bigeasy/2009/07/tut-candy/), it will be a lot easier to navigate through the images in that post
I also plan to ad an optional front page slider, so you can select to either have only the slider, the slider and thumbnails, or just thumbnails
The theme has an option to have 1-5 columns on the front page too
http://alxdesign.deviantart.com/art/Inspira-135399954
Heh.
LOL… We’re actually working with Alexander on a new theme design. But it seems like he posted Inspira a day or two after Magnus first tweeted the design…
Strange how same ideas can strike at the same time, isn’t it? (; lol. Anyway, good work on it!
Dude… I’m a n00b here… Didn’t realize you were *the* Alexander we’re working with!
Inspira looks great and we look forward to the new design you’ll be working on for us!
Great minds think alike Alex
Nice work on Inspira!
Wow, Inspira looks awesome. Great color combination too !
Nice work Alexander !
Just a disclaimer here. Inspira is not being released by WooThemes. That is Alex’s design, and he just wanted to show that he had designed something similar to object
ahan !
rofl, just kidding.
Wondering… did the great M.Jepson copied Alex’s design. ahha ?!
Nah I think Alex copied me
Since I posted to flickr before he posted to devianart 
To be honest I haven’t used these photoblog themes much so I can’t recommend any features to you but I do like the ease of use. I watched your screencast and can’t believe how simple this actually is.
Can you give me a date on BACKSTAGE ? That’s the one I’m desperate for!
Thanks
Nice design & surprise Magnus. I like that theme has a simplistic feel to it, but it also has some serious attention to detail.
My only suggestion is in regards to the thumbnails (150×150) that lie below the blog post. When I clicked the image I was expecting some sort of slimbox or some sort of effect where I could enlarge & navigate those thumbnails. Rather than being directed to the image file I think that would approach would be a great add to the end-user’s experience.
Overall, very well done man.
I noticed this too but thought Magnus did this temporarily since he is still working on it. I guess we’ll see.
Thanks!
Yeah I think we can work on the gallery thumbnails below the big photo and get it to work with some jquery loading
Looks good. Can’t wait to see the theme release!
Hey Magnus-
What’s that style of photography called?
Tilt-shift and you can do it with your own photos on http://www.tiltshiftmaker.com
It’s awesome fun!
Wow, this theme is just awesome. Great work Magnus.
One of the commentator above said to add some JQUERY slider to the post page instead of navigation to another image. I’ll add x2
That’s a really big fish:)
I really like both of the themes, especially when you get it so clicking on the single.php big image scrolls through the gallery. Loads a bit slow for me too, but maybe that’s a server issue or something.
Nice work!
When does it come out?
We’ll see if we can squeeze it in between the next two theme releases
magnus, Adii… great work again!
I think that in single.php file the column may be use to any widget… (under credits, tags, date, etc.).
Remember… the adds are important… and this space may be a goog site to place them.
Thanks…
PD: When will you be relased this theme?
And this opinion is valid to “Object” and to “Aperture”…
Yeah I’ll add another widgetized area in the single photo page
Will be released when I’m done
I like the theme BUT (isn’t there always a but?) … I think the first thing I would do to make it my own (ha) is to add in some discussion on the picture, and I’d want the additional pics to not be loading into a new window, but into the main window (or maybe that’s just something unfinished). I could see it where, for example, on the fish picture … switching the text box and the additional pics so that there is one box with a single column of all the additional pics on the right, and a text entry in the bigger box (the size of where the pics are now) which would have all the discussion of whatever it is that I’m looking at. And then Nikole would get to hacking this to pull these pics directly from my flickr album … ha ha. Wow, though, I’m really excited. This might just be the kick I needed to redo oregontreehugger.com the way I really wanted it.
Thanks Nikole,
I am going to do something with jQuery to load smaller images in a big window, and I’ll also try out some of your other suggestions and see if they work out
The more I look at it, the better it gets. Most probs it’s gonna be a best seller. Gr8 work Magnus.
That might be because I’ve added some small tweaks to it
On a side note, what a great way to work … I wish I could release projects as they inspire me instead of as the client timeline order dictated. It really is so much easier to get excited about what you are doing when you work that way. Having fun, being inspired, doing what you love … what a great way to live!
That is exactly why I said no to client work and yes to making WP themes
But often it is good to have the pressure of client work too, and not have to deal with all the other stuff we have at Woo 
Very nice job on this one
I actually got a tip from my dad, that it would probably be a good idea to have video embedding as well, so that you can show a video on the single post page instead of a photo, as many people now both have videos and images, and want to mix them up in the same site.
Sound like a good idea? It won’t hurt to insert the embed feature anyways.
This is a GREAT GREAT GREAT IDEA!!! Pics & Videos in the same Website…
With a Flickr & Youtube & Vimeo embeber…
With the new widgetizable area in single post…
And: the blog must be opcionally: enabled o disabled by control panel backend…
Thanks
My goodness, people are going mad about this Norwegian masterpiece. If it were sold over counter, it probably be like the iPhone release.
As I tweeted to Magnus I would like to see captions to the images. And maybe (not sure) a counter that shows how many pictures is in the album on the homepage.
LOL… We wouldn’t mind any of our themes selling as well as the iPhone; so bring it on!
How about we stop taking his time up with all this chatter and let him crank out the theme ?
Well… Magnus is out golfing now, so between the chatter & golf he seems to be slacking a little…
Nah… Object will probably only be available a little later this month.
Would you be able to where the small thumbnails on the bottom click it, then it swaps out the large full image at the top? or lightbox pop up? I don’t really like it where it open up on the browser window. Just a thought.
Yep, that is the plan. We’ll probably implement some jQuery wizardry on those single pages!
Wow, this is more looking like a Gossip section than a Theme teaser eh? People are really getting mad about this cool new theme !
Simply beautiful. One of the coolest photo themes I’ve seen.
The only thing I’m not sure about is the hover effect. I’d rather have my images displayed in full beauty without having to hover them. A function to switch that on and off would be cool
Cheers!
I’ve implemented a Jquery slider now (loopedSlider) to show your gallery: http://woothemes.com/demo/object/2009/09/hoodoo-alaska/
I see it. It´s Magnusficent. But… I think that this Jquery must be implemented too at APERTURE Theme…
I am studing both themes as user… and a fusion of them in one new theme wuold be fantastic:
[comment shortened down by admin]
Thanks
Thanks for the input, but this sounds a bit like a beast to code. I’m sure there are a lot of people wanting to mold our themes functionality into one, but I think it is better to focus on making one theme the best it can be, instead of making 1 big monster that suits everybodies needs.
Well… ok. I think install a plug in to generated a slider gallery in single post in APERTURE theme… any recomendation?
Thanks…
Nope sorry, I don’t use many plugins myself except wp-pagenavi
I’ve added video functionality to the theme now
http://woothemes.com/demo/object/category/video/
Hey,
When do you expect to release object? And have you guys looked at creating a theme like prophoto geared to professional photographers/artists, or are you leaving that niche to some of your other themes?
http://www.prophotoblogs.com/
As I’ve said in the comments above, we’ll probably release it shortly after I’ve finished coding it, which could be anywhere from 1 day to 1 week
I haven’t seen prophotoblogs before, and couldn’t see at first glance what makes these themes aimed at professional photographers, compared to Object. Maybe you can enlighten us?
Wow! This theme is great, specially after putting in the video and gallery functions. Apperture v2.. please combine these two themes and you’ve got the ultimate portfolio theme!
Hehe, that’s not a bad idea, but not something we’re pursuing at this stage; simply due to our massive backlog of themes.
I like a fusion both of themes… Aperture&Object…
Or another way to Aperture: implement the Jquery en single post in Aperture and add the wirdgetizable area in sidebar in single post, like in Object…
hehe…
pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!
I just had a look at the demo for The Object. Excellent work Magnus this is an amazing theme. I think because you have focused on this area you will make a lot of people very happy. I personally will use the theme as both a logo blog and I will use it on another site based on photography. This theme is in my top 5 for woothemes but I have no exact order of my top 5 as the themes being produced recently are excellent. Well done again Magnus.
Thanks MJ
Hope to release it in a week or two
I have a job in the works for an artists that has hundreds of illustrations and a few dozens videos, so combining both would be good.
here follows some mixed thoughts and feedback which may be of some use ?
What I’d really like to see is a different way to arrange images. Rather than just the usual clumping of images into “galleries”, I’d prefer something a bit more dynamic. In fact I’d rather not have any manually-created galleries at all.
Ideally all groupings would be based on tags… perhaps when you look at an image there could be a dynamically generated thumbnail gallery of images related by one or more tags ? A bit like having a “related post” search.
Also there must be room to style a good looking caption.
To save time in these sorts of sites I sometimes use plugins like “title to tags” so it just pulls tags from the post name.
Also, there does need to be some space for words: news about upcoming show or display, perhaps a description about a major work just completed. Just pictures alone is not enough for me. If people just want to browse through endless reams of images then they can just use Google or Flickr.
And of course the typography needs to be good. It’s always a shame to have pages of fantastic imagery and then scrunched up ugly arial or something as the main text.
Anyway, a bit “stream of consciousness” but maybe some use…
Unfortunately this is not possible with the current way that WordPress handles media uploads, as those can’t be tagged / categorized, except if you upload only one photo per WP post (which would be entirely unlogical).
I dont think the sorting by tags would be mainstream enough for a general wp theme unfortunately. I already added photo captions to the images ( see the salmon gallery ). The arial font in the post is easily changed to georgia or verdana byediting the CSS, but I think arial is what fitsthe design best.
Not sure why you dont see a place for words? There is space for yourpost right under the image
I don’t think that one picture per post is nceessarily illogical. I’m pulling in pictures (automatically) one-per-post on this site which then allows images to be called by tag:
http://overwatchtasmania.com/tag/photo/
If the image preview size is controlled and all the surrounding spacing and text was minimised I think it’d work quite well.
Anyway, I’m really trying to encourage thought on some new ways of grouping content. I think that’s the key to a great photo site. To me the old “gallery” paradigm is really boring, predictable and restrictive.
And not all pictures can be grouped in galleries. With the site I’ll be working on it’s just not appropriate. What are my options then ? Surprise ! It’s ne image per post …..
Okay… Maybe it’s not as much illogical as it is definitely not optimal imho. WordPress has the basis of great media management functionality, but it definitely needs to be extended. I just however can’t imagine having thousands of posts, each containing simply one image, as that would kill most servers due to the incredible amount of SQL queries.
OK, wasn’t aware of that technical aspect
Further to the above regarding one pic per post. How about two or three columns layout, controlled thumbnail display size; no heading display, and when clicked the post opens as a lightbox image ?
Wouldn’t that allow complete flexability in how images were displayed on the site ? You ccould call up “pseudo gallery” pages based on any tag.
The galleries would then update automatically as more tagged pics were added.
Any labour spent in the one-pic-per-post situation would be made up by not having to deal with gallery management.
Again, just musing on alternatives….
When you use the sub-sub categories in the video page (blog>category 2), the menu goes behind the video. Will it do that if you have a sub menu further to the right, so you can’t see the options?
Magnus is aware of the bug and it’ll be fixed before release of the theme tomorrow!
Thanks for pointing that out. We’ve added a fix in the woo_get_embed function in our framework so this won’t happen to the videos you add
Magnus… i will try copy paste the code of Jquery to Aperture… hahahah…. I dont know if I will get to do it… II hope you have not put any obstacle to do it!! hahahah
There’s definitely no obstacle to that… So we’d love to see what you can come up with!
Is it possibile to add e-commerce functsions so i could use it as a online shop.? For my paintings and stuff
There should be various plugins to achieve this, but we haven’t ever tested any of these. Try to search the plugin repository: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/search.php?q=paypal
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