At Matter Solutions, we recognised that there was a need for cheaper custom themes out in the marketplace. Currently, the only way to build a theme really quickly is to download or purchase an existing theme and begin modifying it… remember this is done by creating a child theme (shame on those who don’t). We decided to innovate by creating a fully implemented design and development framework into a base WordPress theme, complete with Sass for styling that allows for rapid customisation of branding elements and is highly extendable. The result is something that matters, something we think is worth releasing open source. We built a custom WordPress theme in 10 minutes. And we have a screen-capture video to prove it.
The system works for low and high budget clients because a developer can focus effort on the changes the clients wants to pay for and give them an “out of the box” (still great) design on the rest. This means using this framework can have a direct significant impact for clients and developers businesses. We’re using this at Matter Solutions to empower lower-budget clients with a basic website that they can upgrade later, if they want, knowing that futures works won’t bring “technical debt” because we all know “tacking something on” can bite you later on.
The websites using this system are fully responsive, load faster than the popular purchased themes and are SEO friendly. And the best part? We’re open sourcing it (ETA late April). Link to the repo on github coming soon.