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applegazette

AppleGazette WordPress Theme

AppleGazette Theme screenshot

In the following weeks we’re releasing WordPress themes based on old designs of our Splashpress Media network sites. Today, it’s AppleGazette, which recently got a facelift.

The AppleGazette Theme is a black, white, and blue two-column theme and has an options page that lets you enter ad codes, RSS subscription links, and social media URLs in the banner and sidebar areas. There’s a custom menu area at the at the top and bottom of the page, and of course a widget area at the right. It’s compatible up to WordPress 3.1. View Demo »

[download id=”1″]

AppleGazette Refreshed

AppleGazette

Redesigning AppleGazette was no small feat, even though the design remains familiar to its regular customers. Visually, we had to strike a balance between paying homage to Apple’s design influence and maintaining the site’s own identity. The result is a cleaner, lighter, more streamlined, more modern approach to blog design. If there ever was a site to take advantage of CSS shadows, gradients, and rounded corners, AG was certainly the place to do it!

Like what we did with ForeverGeek, browsing through image attachments was another mandatory feature for our network blog—more sites should do this.

The next challenge was in integrating advertisements and special content—not just your typical banner ads, but specially formatted user-submitted news and app reviews featured in between posts. GravityForms and custom fields helped accomplish this. Another favorite tool in our utility belt was the Cycle plugin. And needless to say, we used the Genesis framework for this one.

Visit AppleGazette and see the new design live!