What’s the Word on Political Wordpress Themes?
Probama PSD file Now Available
The Probama theme reached 1000 downloads today, which is great news, but we’ve also had many users requesting the PSD file so they could develop non-Obama designs. So for anyone who found Probama via my blog, I thought I’d announce it here that the PSD is now available and free to use.
Political Themes
Since the launch, there have been some really nice write-ups about the design and functionality. I’ve been surprised and amused, though, at many other comments ranging from (paraphrased)…
“Hard to believe someone is so fanatical about political figures that they devoted an entire Wordpress theme.”
…to…
“Great design and functionality. Sad the theme is political.”
I’d be the first to admit, politics is the Great Divider and can bring out the worst in anyone. I’m not exactly bothered by the reactions - we’re all entitled. But it proves how easily intentions get misread on the web.
I think the commenters would be disappointed to know that we didn’t toss together the theme in a midnight frenzy after a particularly foamy-mouthed political discussion. As a design firm, we’d already decided to advertise ourselves as Wordpress developers by releasing experimental and intentionally-niche themes (which is how Mimbo began back in August — niche + experimentation). We’d already seen hundreds of pro-Obama blogs, but few had a compelling design or strong features. We tried to fill that demand as we would with any non-political subject matter.
Politics and Branding
In 79 Short Essays on Design, Michael Beirut talked about the backlash he received whenever he’d post political topics on the Design Observer blog. He pointed out that political messages (wrapped heavily in branding and organization, these days especially) inevitably overlap with issues of design and problem-solving. Therefore, he argued, his political postings were not out of place nor were they something to fear. Read more about Beirut’s thoughts on the Obama ‘brand’.
I’m curious if anyone thinks political themes are taboo and/or bad for the Wordpress world. What are other examples of themes that have inspired controversy, political or otherwise?
Popularity: 2% [?]
Oh, please. If a blog is meant to be a means of self-expression, why wouldn’t expressing a political view be expected? I wonder what makes people think that a whole person can go on for eternity only sharing a small portion of themselves on a venue for which they pay.
As someone who likes tinkering with themes to make them work for me, I “HOPE” this theme is easy to “CHANGE”.
My apologies… especially if this was made last month when it was released. ;)
@erika: well put. I think it varies from culture to culture how comfortable folks are to discuss political issues openly. Blogs are a publishing outlet, simply put, and the subject matter doesn’t make any promises to appeal to everyone — that’s what I love about it. Considering what a likeable and populist candidate Obama himself is (someone who’s actually gaining ground in rural conservative areas that wouldn’t have dreamed of voting for a non-white candidate just twenty years ago), I was pretty fascinated to see how users responded to an Obama-themed design. I guess I could understand why some might think politics takes the ‘fun’ out of theming.
@tony: I HOPE you have the AUDACITY to come up with something great!
I think that it’s fine to create political WordPress themes. There are themes for all sorts of interests and hobbies, so why not politics?
I do have a problem with bloggers who discuss their political opinions on blogs that focus on non-political topics. If I’ve subscribed to a blog about cooking, I’m not really interested in who their preferred candidate is. Although, if they created an Obama muffin recipe, I’d find that an amusing way of merging politics with their blog. Kinda like your theme.
As for my question as to why people would be so devoted to a political figure that they’d create a whole theme around them - that was just an aside, my attempt to understand American politics.
I find American politics so strangely energized, particularly the devotion to Obama. As for whether that has anything to do with whether people should create political themes - I don’t think it does. People should do what they want.
I just wish you guys would elect a president already, I don’t care if they’re black, white, female or whatever! These primaries seem to go on FOREVER!
Heh, I promise I wasn’t directing all this at your post Miriam ;) (Although I was partly inspired by the comment: “When personality cults reach these dimensions I get really scared”).
Your commentary was definitely more fleshed-out and thoughtful. The other 20 or so trackbacks I followed on other blogs, though, seemed dismissive altogether to the idea of a political theme. Their opinions are certainly valid, I was just taken aback by seeing something which felt benign at the time become something perceived as divisive. I hadn’t seen any other political themes on the market so I wondered if that was by design, aka, already considered taboo.
You are definitely right about the selection/primary process taking a lifetime!
One other sidenote: I sent out a couple emails to some of the larger WP blogs/galleries notifying them of the Probama launch. These are sites that have featured other themes of mine in the past, but did not choose to feature Probama. My guess was that it was considered controversial somehow, which is what prompted my curiousities about unofficial/unspoken ‘dos and donts’ in the WP themes community.
Although I’m Probama, I didn’t download the theme with intentions of using it in it’s sugested form, because frankly I don’t have anything to blog about politics. I did download it because of a great design and some awesome built in features.
Hi!
Looks clean, I wont comment about Politics as its often better not said :rolls:
However Im curious about the youtube feature that you have. Could I please know more?
It basically allows you to fill in a YouTube url in the control panel, and it will display on the homepage. Nothing fancy, but pretty useful if you’re into featuring video.