I was looking at incredible food pictures on Tastespotting as I do every once in a while. An interesting picture lead me to a beautifully designed site from New Zealand by web designer and web copywriter Melanie McMinn. The Frugal Kiwi – “Live Well Spend Less”.
I exchanged a few emails with Melanie as she described her Thesis Theme WordPress website. Melanie called Thesis as “an incredibly flexible framework”. She mentioned other WP themes she’s used and she said the features and customization you can do with Thesis left the others “in the dirt”. She went on to say the price tag for developers was very reasonably priced. I was especially interested in Melanie’s report that the built in SEO options were handy.
For me the most impressive feature was that the site was so eye catching and artistically designed. It looked like it was built from an artistic composition… if you’re in the business you would just say “a comp” or a “PhotoShop Comp”. I really like the header integration with the theme and the fact that the Nav Bar is above the header and the image flows down into the context area seamlessly. The fat footer is nicely done with plenty of links to her recent posts and categories to make navigation easy and search easy. Her widgets on the right sidebar are artistic and interesting… also fitting the overall look and feel perfectly.
The Frugal Kiwi has a Google PR3 now on the homepage and a PR2 on the About Page.
I’m going to have to look more into Thesis. I’ve heard a lot about Thesis from Rae Hoffman at Sugarrae but this is the best design I’ve seen to date on Thesis. Nicely Done Melanie – cheers !!
(I have not been paid in any way by any companies or persons listed in this review – Mal Milligan)
