1. JUL IE KUEHL
CHILD THEMES, STARTER
THEMES, AND FRAMEWORKS…
OH MY!

2. “Don’t hack core.”
(or themes)
–WORDPRESS WISDOM

3. “Do you do custom theme development?”
–PROSPECT IVE CL IENT

4. F I R S T …
SOME DEFINITIONS - MY
DEFINITIONS

5. FRAMEWORK
• “...a drop-in code library
used to facilitate
development of a theme”
“A front-end web development
framework is simply a
collection of production
ready HTML/CSS/JavaScript
components that we can use
in our designs.”

6. CHI LD THEME
• Requires a parent theme
Hint - many WordPress
“frameworks” are parent
themes

7. STARTER
THEME
• Scares the crap out of
you

8. “So how do you choose?”
–EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM

9. “It depends.”
–EVERY DEVELOPER EVERYWHERE

10. FRAMEWORKS
PROS
• Base CSS
• Grid system
• Responsive
• Classes defined
• Typography
• Defines stuff you’d forget
about
• Broader than WordPress

11. FRAMEWORKS
CONS
• Not a stand-alone theme
• Usually included in a
theme’s functions.php file
• http://www.punkchip.com/w
hy-dont-you-use-bootstrap/

12. FRAMEWORKS
BOOTSTRAP

13. FRAMEWORKS
BOOTSTRAP

14. FRAMEWORKS
FOUNDATION

15. FRAMEWORKS
FRAMEWORK COMPARISON

16. CHILD THEME
PROS
• Quickest and easiest choice
• DO THIS rather than hack the
theme
• Parent theme can carry the
weight
• Bork the child and the parent
is OK
• Works immediately
• 80% of the work is done for
you

17. CHILD THEME
CONS
• At the mercy of the parent
theme’s code
• Quality
• Security
• Upgrades
• Compatibility
• Not the leanest strategy

18. PARENT THEMES
GENESIS

19. PARENT THEMES
GENESIS

20. PARENT THEMES
JUMP START

21. PARENT THEMES
JUMP START

22. PARENT THEMES
RESPONSIVE

23. PARENT THEMES
RESPONSIVE

24. STARTER THEME
PROS
• You control (and are
responsible for) updates
• One and done
• It’s your code
• Lean and mean code

25. STARTER THEME
CONS
• You control (and are
responsible for) updates
• You have to build the
theme
• 20% of the work is done for
you

26. STARTER THEMES
_S (UNDERSCORES)

27. STARTER THEMES
_S (UNDERSCORES)

28. STARTER THEMES
_TK

29. STARTER THEMES
_TK

30. STARTER THEMES
SOME LIKE IT NEAT

31. STARTER THEMES
SOME LIKE IT NEAT

32. SO HOW DO YOU
CHOOSE???

33. SO HOW DO YOU
CHOOSE???

34. QUESTIONS TO ASK
• How will it (the site /
framework / parent theme)
change?
• Upgrades?
• Redesigns?
• Improvements?
• Budget? Timeframe?
• What will you be asking
the site to do?
• Heavy traffic?
• Heavy database use?
• Who’s going to support
it?
• What are you comfortable
with?

35. “So what do you recommend?”
– A N Y O N E W H O ’ S S T I L L W I T H M E

36. MY ADVICE
• Research the differences
between frameworks
• Choose one parent theme
and build several child
themes on it
• When you’re ready, find a
starter theme that you like
and use it for everything

37. IN THE END, YOU HAVE TO
RIDE YOUR OWN RIDE

38. JUL IE@JUL IEKUEHL .COM
@JUL IEKUEHL
THANK
YOU!QUESTIONS?