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Well, don't take this post as an attack to the work of studiopress, which I really super appreciate.
But...
I feel there is a weak point in the Genesis Framework world, and it's consitututed by the child theme design. I know it's not a primary scope of studiopress to provide cool designs, but in fact this is a bottleneck in the adoption of genesis framework, since most of the child themes are too "old style" and not so cool in design. For example most of them has still a "blog" homepage even today a lot of developers uses WP for corporate websites. They have some poor functionality for mobile devices compatibility. Responsiveness is not only a metter of horizontal resizing. It's also a matter of transformations of the menus to make them more usable in touch devices. Most of the genesis child themes are unusablethere, because of the dropdowns menu. We wrote a plugin for that http://wordpress.org/plugins/black-studio-touch-dropdown-menu/Most of the developers now still sit on marketplaces like themeforest not for the quality of the code (in fact a lot of security issues are related to such themes, and usually they are almost impossible to customize) but for the good graphic quality and variety of designs.
I think sells of genesis framework would increase significantly providing more cool child themes based on the same code quality and attention to customizability they have now.
Hope I'm not the only one feeling this.
Kind regards.Francesco-
I like the mobile menu on this theme http://demo.studiopress.com/minimum/
I am inclined to agree with thedarkmist.
Although I use Genesis for most websites these days, I find myself turning elsewhere for child themes.
I have been somewhat disappointed that, since I purchased a developer license about 9 months ago there have been only one or two new themes and one of them was developed for Brian Gardner's own site, I think.
I realize that SP have been busy with development of Genesis 2, upgrading to HTML5 etc but we could do with a little freshness...
Eamon Moriarty
EM DzineI think the point is not really the quantity of the theme released. But the approach to the design. Even if SP would release 5 new themes per month, I think they wouldn't be very useful if they were all blog-like or with no special attention to design.
@braddalton, try to test the dropdown menu with a touch device. It's not properly "usable".
Dark Mist,
Excellent and important points!Designers sometimes get into "grooves", and if a design staff is small, that can be quite noticeable. Elegant Themes is an example of the extreme version of that - AFAIK, it's just one guy, and even though they're arguably cute, you can see them coming a mile away, and I now find them tiresome. Months ago there was a very brief mention of another designer-y person coming on board with Studiopress, but I've heard nothing since, so maybe that will yield something.
I, too, sidestep this issue because I code custom themes. I'm not a designer per se, otherwise I'd step into the breach. But I do have the luxury of just taking any nice CSS template, Genesizing it, and can readily add features like what you're describing if I want to.
But it's true, if one is not a coder (or won't hire one), then you're limited to stock themes with mild customization. It's possible that more 3rd party theme providers will emerge, which could fill the void further.
Dave
Dave Chu · Custom WordPress Developer – likes collaborating with Designers
Studiopress could have good reasons to not want to manage designs. But I think they should act a role in the stimulation of the growing of a cool community designers. The actual section of community child themes is small, not so much easy to find, and auto-managed. What if studiopress would involve designers of the world giving them a good platform to sell their designs, for example? I think that genesis coders would pay for quality child themes. They don't have to be released for free even to plus members.
@thedarkmist - how is the Minimum theme touch menu not usable? It seems to work well for me on touch devices. How would you improve it?
On some devices (I've tested with android) if you touch the first link the dropdown appears for few seconds and the the first link's page is loaded, making the dropdown links unreachable.
I definitely agree. The current designs aren't bad, they've just become a bit boring. The current design trend is "flat -- Windows 8" type design. It feels a bit overplayed to me. Also, would love to have more custom page templates included in the design-- like a portfolio, etc.
I've said it before and i'll say it again, if the designs kicked up a notch and additional features and functionality were added, I would gladly pay a yearly membership fee.
~Kellie~
You can easily add a portfolio page template to any theme.
I have written half a dozen tutorials about how to do this which includes the code which is tested and works.
I'm a mid-level WordPress and Genesis user. When I first started, I quickly got tired of the themes here, but as I developed more skills - and found more helpful tutorials - I was able to make the Genesis themes more than just their shell.
While I think it would be great to have more themes with the customization built in, I do believe the "skeleton themes" (if you will) are important for individual creativity. It really does boil down to money and time. Many clients I've worked with don't have the cash - or won't put it out - for a superior custom design, so we work with what we have in the time allotted for the project.
I do wish there was a better way to find Genesis designers. I could never find a link here to an independent designer page (The one I did find was a bad URL.). I always found designers on their own sites. I bought a design from a wonderful designer outside of WordPress. I just happened to find her by accident. I'd like to be able to find independent designers more easily, just to have more theme options. If there is an updated URL, I'd love to bookmark it.
Angela – I write fiction, review books and get walked daily by a big dog.
There's a lot of community designers building themes on Genesis.
I suggest you follow the Twitter hashtag #genesiswp and this magazine http://paper.li/TheCre8tiveDiva/1363048104
Brad - Thanks for the link! I don't use Twitter nearly as much as I did a few years ago, but I should start making it a top resource once again.
Angela – I write fiction, review books and get walked daily by a big dog.
Brad – Thanks for the link! I don’t use Twitter nearly as much as I did a few years ago, but I should start making it a top resource once again.
Good point. Since they don't do much announcing at all on the blog here, Twitter is the only way I find out lots of the latest news and fixes.
Dave Chu · Custom WordPress Developer – likes collaborating with Designers
You can easily add a portfolio page template to any theme.
I have written half a dozen tutorials about how to do this which includes the code which is tested and works.
Okay? Well, of course there's always the DIY option. That's kind of a "no brainer" don't you think? There are dozens of tutorials out there on how to build a portfolio page in WordPress. However, if i'm going to add all of these extra things in, what do I need the Genesis theme for? I can work with the 2013 WordPress default.
I'm simply saying that it would be nice for Studiopress to offer something above the competition or shoot -- even something above what the standard default 2013 WordPress theme offers. I mean, even the default WordPress theme now has HTML5 and mobile-responsiveness built in.
My suggestions are not meant to be taken personally. I think every good company always strives to stay ahead of or at least with the curve in some way. Honest customer feedback is part of that process, right?
The team is obviously talented beyond belief. No question there.
~Kellie~
I'm not staff however they do offer a page for feedback.
I think you'll find it significantly easier to add a portfolio page to any child theme running Genesis than the default theme.
I just found this forum thread and found it quite relevant to a conundrum I'm in right now. I have been and am still eagerly awaiting the updated Genesis 2.0 Magazine Pro theme. I think with some customization I can make it pretty solid, and I can't wait to try it out. But just today I noticed the Hot Topix theme at ThemeForest and my jaw literally dropped. Out of the box, this theme is gorgeous. If I weren't already using the Genesis Framework, I would've bought that within seconds of seeing it. Too bad it won't run on Genesis 2.0, to be honest.
I think this is a good discussion to have, because it gets right at the crux of where the Web seems to be struggling. Why does there seem to be a need to sacrifice sleek and gorgeous with responsive and well-coded? I've heard some occasionally sketchy things about ThemeForest security, which puts me on edge about the new Hot Topix theme, but I'm honestly torn because I love how that theme looks. If StudioPress could get visuals designs like that, but that also had the clean code, SEO and security we all know and love about Genesis 2.0, there's no reason StudioPress wouldn't take over the world.
Yes, it's the point I wanted to put attention on.
Unfortunately it seems that Studiopress is not interested in making cool designs, since they (I think) prefer to focus on genesis core. I respect their vision, but I think it's going to be a break to the adoption of Genesis 2.0 and a favor to themeforest and other selling platform. Orp probably to other frameworks with more out of the box designs that can emerge in future.
I'm a Pro Plus Genesis customer. But I'll have no problems to pay every single theme more, if the quality would be that.
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