Help me find a WordPress theme?

[russelldirect]

So, I run a blog focused on economics and technology. I've jumped around various platforms, but I'm using my own WordPress blog for now. Since I switched to WordPress, I've been using a theme based on Jon Gruber's Daring Fireball (I'm sure you all know it).

I seriously love the theme, but I feel bad about using something based on his design. Does anybody have any recommendations for themes like Gruber's, i.e. minimalist, dark, yet easy on the eyes?

 

[7031]

If you don't mind spending money, in my opinion, the themes at www.ElegantThemes.com are great.

 

[design-is]

Also worth checking out WooThemes — I'm an avid follower of their stuff and think a lot of the themes they offer are superb. Most of their themes cost a little, but are usually very customisable and they do have a few free themes too... Their newest theme, Empire (not a free one) might be something you're interested in?

(That's an affiliate link, but I really do recommend them)

 

[russelldirect]

I have a hard time finding something that seems to "fit" just right. Does anyone have specific recommendations?

 

[turbobass]

http://themeforest.net/ has a lot of good ones as well as developers who can be contacted through their service to help customize.

If you're having a real hard time of it there is the somewhat expensive http://www.pagelines.com/themes/platformpro/ which lets you customize a lot behind the scenes using a somewhat intuitive WYSIWYG editor. Their personell can also help do customizations (for a price) and the code is all well commented if you want to make your own go at it.

Right now your site is really hard to read because the font is so small (IMHO), but I like your style. If you want maybe check out Tumblr for that kind of format of a post roll down the page. It's simple and comes with a fairly strong built-in social network that can be beneficial to your pageviews. As far as I know they also support custom JavaScript (like AdSense) on their sites.

You could also check out posterous.com which lets you post pictures and links and such that automatically embed as videos from your email in a really easy way. That has a certain social network aspect to it as well, though i don't think it's as strong as Tumblr.

At the end of the day it's really really hard for 3rd parties to recommend you something unless they both have an in depth discussion with you about what your goals are and/or have an in depth knowledge of what's out there. If you truly need this level of help, maybe not a bad idea to contact a developer and give them a rough estimate of what you want and ask for a quote to mock out and/or demo themes for you that do what you want based on your specifications. This is minimal work and you don't have to pay very much for it at all.