All the latest news and announcements, straight from the WooThemes HQ!
Designing Woo-Awesomeness
22. Oct, 2009 by Adii Rockstar in Interactive
By now you’d know that WooThemes has worked with the best-of-the-best designers within our industry in creating some amazing themes. But our collaborations haven’t been exclusive to only the well-known designers; instead we’ve often collaborated with designers that were relatively unheard of before.
Designers like Firman Daus & Armono Wibowo have made a big impact with their submissions, whilst we’re also excited to preview a new, unseen design by the talented youngster, Ajmal Eylia. There is however one name that shoots to prominence when thinking about young, unknown designers that have made their debut on WooThemes: Izuddin Helmi.
We recently had a chat with Izuddin – who has designed 7 themes for us (including my.stream, which is yet to be released) about his involvement with us to try determine how that might have influenced his design work / career.
One of the first things that Izuddin will tell you is that he has had no formal design training, but he believes he’s got a natural eye for design. He also noted that through his collaborations with WooThemes he has developed immensely as a designer and that Magnus is one of his all-time, favourite designers.
Quizzed on how his WooThemes work has influenced his career thus far, Izuddin simply said:
“I’m very grateful and happy that enquiries about my freelance work have increased 10 times ever since I started designing for WooThemes. Thanks guys!”
We’d also like to believe that we had a major influence on Izuddin’s new business venture, where the experience he gained from working with us, is proving to be very helpful.
So where are we going with all of this?
Designing For WooThemes
We think the above proves that we have a knack for knowing good design from bad and subsequently we’ve got a keen eye in spotting amazing design talent. In the past however our collaborations were rather exclusive in that you needed to be invited by us. That’s however changing slightly.
We’ve decided to open up a brand new section of WooThemes: Submit Your Design. So this is your chance to get in on the fun, get paid to work with WooThemes and be featured next to the most popular designers on the web in our portfolio of themes.
We’re hoping that this will spark the next wave of design innovation at WooThemes and we’re looking to make new friends through the upcoming collaborations. So read through the details of this new campaign and if you’ve got some good ideas, definitely send them our way.
18 Responses to “Designing Woo-Awesomeness”
22 October 2009 at 8:52 am #
Keen to see what people submit. Crowdsource can be very exciting.
23 October 2009 at 12:56 am #
Im agree with u man
It’s could be very interesting !
26 October 2009 at 8:02 pm #
i second agree. can’t wait to see new theme concept
22 October 2009 at 9:07 am #
I think that could be a good idea because not everyone has the skills to sell themes by themselves… On the other hand, you will have to invest a lot of time in selecting those designs… But I think it is a good move…
22 October 2009 at 10:08 am #
Investing the time in selecting awesome new themes isn’t a problem. It’s always finding the time + inspiration to design fresh new themes, which poses more of a problem…
22 October 2009 at 9:08 am #
This movement in the crowdsourcing direction makes for exciting times, I look forward to not only enjoying some of the talent, but being a part of it in the new year.
Now even rusty old me can take a crack at designing something and get some good solid feedback (or flamage).
22 October 2009 at 9:09 am #
This good step for seeing more different ideas and designs
Good step Woo Keep it going
22 October 2009 at 3:14 pm #
How timely! I was just thinking the other day of contacting you guys to see if you were open to designs from us “everyday” folk! Would love to get involved with the Woo team in promoting some stylish WordPress themes. Now I know and I’ll be in touch!
Thanks for the great service you guys provide to the WordPress community!
22 October 2009 at 3:54 pm #
This is very exciting! Is the flat rate the same for any design you accept or does it vary based on how well you think the design will sell/ how awesome it is? Is this a rude question?
22 October 2009 at 7:23 pm #
It’s based on a lot of factors like what type of design, will it sell, reputation of designer, what the designer wants etc
The offer will vary depending on a lot of factors, but the most important is to agree to a fair price that is a good deal for both of us.
22 October 2009 at 3:58 pm #
Also, are you accepting only WP single user designs or would you consider some WPMU , BuddyPress, Magento, Drupal, etc designs?
22 October 2009 at 7:23 pm #
At this stage we are only accepting WP design submissions.
23 October 2009 at 9:59 am #
Sounds interesting, but only so long as your framework, compatibility, support and know-how all remain at their current high standards. I started by buying various themes at ThemeForest – some were very good, others a bit buggy, and some it seemed like the author was technically very weak.
The absolutely superb support and consistency of the backend is what sets Woo apart imo.
23 October 2009 at 10:04 am #
We aren’t planning a drop in our current standards, in fact we are hoping to raise them all the time
24 October 2009 at 10:28 am #
Exciting! Would you also make a kind of gallery for the submitted designs (or approved designs only)? Would be very handy
24 October 2009 at 11:54 am #
I don’t think we’ll have a gallery for rejected designs. Our approved designs will be showcased on our blog and put up on our Themes in Progress page: http://www.woothemes.com/themes-in-progress/
29 October 2009 at 12:36 pm #
I would go with Magnus jepson says, it is not necessary to show rejected themes, but yes Magnus you can show a counter that says”so many” designs submitted and “so many” selected
29 October 2009 at 1:45 pm #
Not sure I see the value in that to be honest