Since I first started using Joomla
 years back, I've always felt that with a little knowledge of html and css making a template is quite simple - all you really have needed to know is where you want which blocks to be displayed on your site.

In fact, you've been able to do a lot with Joomla templates, and now with 1.5 can do even more - in making dynamic interfaces for websites which handle data in creative ways.  Without getting to deep into the topic, I know there are a bunch of folks who are attempting to build sites with Joomla that don't really know any html and shy away from 'code.'  For them, some neat tools are coming out like Joomlashack's Template Builder . 

Basically, Joomlashack's created a tool to allow their customers to easily reconfigure color options of their templates by hitting up this website, changing some options in a form and previewing the result, then pasting the output code into their Joomlashack-bought Template Builder-compatible template.

I don't think this tool revolutionizes Joomla theming but its a nice step forward for commercial vendors catering to Joomla sites; though Joomlashack may pitch it as saving time and encouraging creativity, I feel its a service tool that all template sellers should offer their customers. 

Some of you may have read my post about the new parameters you can add to Joomla 1.5 templates - to help you get started playing with them, why not grab some free templates and convert them to comply with Joomla 1.5?

http://www.freecsstemplates.org is a great place to get started - their templates are simple and easy to preview/download plus the CSS they've used is clean; so you'll be able to understand how the it all comes together before adding in Joomla module positions etc... 

Oh, and once you've got em working - make sure you let people in the Joomla community know where to download them; free templates really help newbies get started quickly and offer an alternative to the bloated pay-for-joomla-template market that really offers too much junk and confuses people. :) 

A little while ago I posted mention of the contest joomla.org is running to find a great new template to ship J1.5 with when it hits the next RC/stable release.

I hadn't checked in on the status of the competition since that post until Peter Russell pointed me to the forum for it this morning and I tell you the stuff people are coming up with is bloody exciting!

There are a couple of new developments in 1.5 underlying my excitement;  namely; you can now assign parameters to templates and then override the formatting extensions are coded with per extension!  Yay! 

Right, so what does this mean? Well, parameters are settings for templates - such as column width and other things usually set in the CSS for the template.  The new system allows a template designer to give the site administrator options pre-coded in CSS that can be chosen from *without* editing the CSS!!!!  Finally, Joomla users with basic knowledge of their site's backend can have control over aesthetic/layout tweaks without jumping in the deep end and risking mucking up their site. Nice.

Okay, so I just explained the parameters (an example is shown in the image above), now for the 'overrides' :

I would say 'NO' to that question.

There are a *ton* of templates available for free and purchase to the Joomla community at large and most of them are uncreative variations of each other.  Ultimately, using a pre-defined template is a great way to get started with learning how Joomla works and begin setting up a site but you should be careful in expecting too much from one.

I belief of ours @ designguru is that a site's aesthetics should reflect who it represents and feel as natural as possible as an interface to those people/organizations. 

When you make your own template you have much more conceptual freedom to name module areas of your site according to the specifics of your content and so on - you'll get a more personal understanding of how the site fits together if you don't have to sort through someone else's work.

Getting started making your own template can be as simple as tweaking a  basic, free, template - once you know a little CSS and are familiar with some basic HTML this should be a cinch.

A great way to get started is to check out the Joomla forums dedicated to templates ,  Simply Joomla's skeletonal template (which is nice because its un-styled; so you can get cracking with color and basic font styling etc straight-away!), and the brief chapter on templating from Barrie North's book - which is available for free to the community.

In case you haven't heard already, I thought I'd drop word on the official hunt going on for a new default Joomla template.

This is really exciting stuff - and an excellent chance for any designers working with Joomla.  The default template which comes with a CMS is so important in both being flexible and easy-to-use; the best default template would be a cinch to alter and transform whilst letting first-time users of Joomla get familiar with its functions and purpose.

So, get all the details on the competition from http://joomla.org/ - basically, the deadline's September 22 and if you win, your template will be included with the millions of downloads of Joomla 1.5 Stable... pretty groovy (asides from bragging rights and geeky fame there's a goody bag of prizes up for grabs as well).

Good luck! 

I was cruising through a post on mashable today about LiveVideo , a service to rival the biggies like youtube.  Something caught my eye:

The most noticeable feature is the customization: not only do profile pages come with custom designs to match your personality, but videos also appear against unique backgrounds, making for a more immersive experience.

 I've taken the liberty to underline the pertinent words/phrases.  As a web producer who's constantly questioning the 'social networking' craze at the moment in order to make sites fostering sustainable communities, I really find this relationship between 'custom design' and 'personality'.... is that really why myspace, for eg, became soooo popular???

Do people older than, say, 30, even care about personalising web interfaces by customising the color schemes to suit their needs?  I think this perspective is endemic of some movements right now associated with the tag '2.0' - reminds me of the portal craze of some years ago... LiveVideo does have some innovative features but I hope that people can maintain an old school view that the web is beautiful because it is a space with many places ; as these new content-heavy sites compete with each other to get snapped up by google or whatever I think this will become a big issue...  then again, I prefer custom holidays to all-inclusives.

For a long time I've turned a blind-eye to the various websites targetting all sorts of designers with offers of great templates at unbelievable prices.

You see, it just seemed wrong to use someone else's design on a site I was putting my name on.  of course, without spending time looking at what was available from whom, I was totally biased against these groups selling mass-merchandise templates and, well, wrongly so...