MakeNiceThings

New Site/Theme Finalists for Release

system — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 18:47:10 +0000

We’ve gone through our design + site candidates and can confirm three that we want to schedule for first release: “Bureau”, “Surface”, and “Smpl.”

The names may seem ambiguous, but they fit the design and content setup appropriately. We’ll announce more details once we refine a few elements and options.

New Font Options

system — Wed, 19 May 2010 18:38:53 +0000

We have already integrated Cufon text replacement within our core theme framework. Our gripes with Cufon: relies on javascript, must use jQuery additional selectors, site must be xhtml strict for line-height control, and some browsers will not allow text selection. This is fine for most sites wishing to utilize custom type or fonts for their site and this option will remain within our initial releases.

The new options to allow you to use custom fonts/type across your site will be released with the final version of our framework and WordPress themes. We’re adding @font-face options for multiple levels of typography within our themes. This means that you’ll be able to use whatever font that you have the rights to… on your site.

The font-face css option has been around for some time now; We feel that it is finally ready for prime time and we don’t want to look too far back.

Edit: @font-face resources (find some fonts!)
http://www.fontspring.com/
http://typekit.com/
http://www.fontsquirrel.com/

Check back soon. We’re ramping up for launch!

MNT Framework, WP3, and Excitement…

system — Fri, 07 May 2010 22:38:17 +0000

It has been a while since we posted, but I wanted to at least give a heads-up as to what is going on.

While working on client work, we’re also updating our Framework for WordPress 3.0 release (hopefully sometime this month). We have several themes in the works and want to make sure new features of our framework and new features of WordPress 3 are taken advantage of.

More soon, I promise.

-jason

New Shortcodes

system — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:54:34 +0000

Shortcodes let the user enter simple text when editing a post/article. The system interprets this shortcode and performs certain actions when the page displays. Take a look at the WordPress Gallery shortcode for a better understanding.

We’re introducing a few new shortcodes for our Media Bridge Component. This will allow users to utilize custom galleries without the need for template creation or editing. We have additional Media Bridge Components for file-type, so we’ll be introducing some for Video and Audio in the future.

Expectations

system — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:54:14 +0000

Since there is a lot of interest in what we’re working on, we thought we’d share a bit regarding the when and the what.

Design: We are in the final design stages for several themes and will share screenshots in the coming weeks.

Development: The framework is far more robust than we originally anticipated. We’re updating old design and themes to use the new framework and are designing and building new themes to take advantage of the new framework API.

If anything above sounds too technical or too industry specific: We’re designing our asses off and it shouldn’t be much longer until we can share some awesome with you.

What’s Up

system — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:31:54 +0000

We’re currently designing and developing WordPress Themes. We also have plans for applying design to Drupal, ExpressionEngine, and TextPattern. Our initial focus is still WordPress and we hope to make it a better experience.

To clear things up, we’re not just designing and building themes, we’re designing and building themes that people can actually use. We’ve built a framework that allows customization, of type, colors, sub-styles, post hero images, thumbnails, Media Bridge, SEO Options, and more, lots more!

“Who are they for?” you ask. Good question. They’re for anyone that needs a website with professional design, a content management system, and for those that don’t want to break the bank: Bloggers, Writers, Designers, Artists, Students, Moms, Dads, Small Businesses, Large Businesses, Photographers, Coders, Developers… Simple, right?

Want to see a little of what we’ve got going on before we launch? Take a look at our latest WordPress Theme Framework Options on Flickr.

Founders: Jason Taylor (whnwlnd), Kellis Landrum (Soda).