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WPExplorer 2012 Site Redesign & New Freebies

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Welcome to the all new WPExplorer! I hope you like our new coat of paint. It’s been a while sine we’ve made any changes to the site, so we decided a complete overhaul was in order and we thought we’d walk you through a couple of the changes we made.

New Logo

WPExplorer LogoDid you see that awesome brand new logo at the top of the page? Our friend Stevan Rodic put together the design for us and we couldn’t be happier. We finally have a logo to go along with our name, and we think the telescope is a perfect fit. Keep your eye out for some awesome swag giveaways in the future – I’m pretty sure we’re going to be putting this logo on just about everything.

New Website

So many changes have been made to our site. We completely re-did the color scheme and went for something lighter and easier on the eyes. Plus, the new colors really make that awesome logo I already talked about really pop and if you checked out the homepage it’s full of all sorts of fun new features!

The changes don’t stop there – be sure to check out all our pages. We’ve updated the “Themes” and “Plugins” pages to make it easier for you to find what you’re looking for. A clean grid layout showcases the latest items we’ve added to the site, and the “find a theme” search box on the “Themes” page makes it easy to choose a category to browse.

An all new hosting sections provides you with lots of info and snapshots of some of the best WordPress hosting companies out there. We’ve put together summaries of the features, plans, and pricing for what we consider to be the top hosting providers. We’re also looking for you to leave reviews of your host if it’s one of the ones listed. So if you’re using any of the hosts we’ve included let us and other readers know how they really perform (whether it’s good or bad – we want to know!).

For our videos we switched over to Screenr. We upped the screen size so you don’t have to squint so much when watching the video directly on our site.

We also changed up the blog. You can clearly see the author’s avatar, since we ant you to get to know them as well as we do. Bolder headings make it easier for you to see the main blog post topics

New Freebies

3 new free themes! Crazy right? We were so excited about the new design, we were overflowing with extra design ideas and wanted to share them with all of you.

Tetris Free WordPress Theme

Tetris WordPress Theme

Tetris is a responsive tumblog WordPress theme. This free theme uses post formats for images, galleries, videos, audio, quotes, and links. This makes it easy for you to add loads of content, and easy for your readers to instantly recognize the difference in the content.

Photo Free WordPress Theme

Photo WordPress Theme

Photo is a responsive gallery and photography WordPress theme. The free theme’s super clean and sleek layout leaves the focus on your work. This would be a great theme to use for sharing photography, digital art, or anything else.

Thoughts Free WordPress Theme

Thoughts Free WordPress Theme

Thoughts is a simple responsive blog WordPress theme. Bold colors, over-sized design, and post formats are great features of this free theme. It would be great for a personal blog or other simple website.

Symple Shortcodes – Free Plugin by WPExplorer!

Symple ShortcodesA free, no frills shortcode plugin. The Symple Shortcodes was designed to be used with any WPExplorer theme, but can be used with most WordPress themes. There are tons of great shortcodes for alerts, buttons, pricing tables, and more. Even better – you can use a drop-down in the post editor to add them. Check them out here!

Symple Shortcodes

What Do You Think

Do you like the re-design? Let us know what you think below!

wpexplorer-redesign-giveaway
Article by Kyla WPExplorer.com staff
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68 Comments

  1. Remi

    This new design is so clean, great job! In one word: awesome!

    • AJ Clarke | WPExplorer

      Thanks friend!

  2. Matt Zimmermann

    Great looking site re-design. Very jealous…have to really ramp up a re-design of my site. Nice prize package for the contest. Good luck to all who enter.

    • AJ Clarke | WPExplorer

      Thank you buddy. I am glad you like it. I’m still finding some things that will need tweaking here and there…but you know, that’s how it always is ๐Ÿ˜‰

      Good luck with the giveaway!

  3. Jonathan Tittle

    Love the new design AJ – Simple & Clean just the way I like it – it’s extremely easy on the eyes as well.

    The only issue I’m seeing is in Chrome with the floating bar on the left-hand side. When you scroll all the way to the top it does tend to overlap the darker bar with the breadcrumb and search box.

    http://i.imgur.com/URxPu.png

    Other than that, great job and keep up the great work!

    • AJ Clarke | WPExplorer

      Thanks Jonathan for the kind words. Oh yes I noticed this on the laptop. My monitor is large ๐Ÿ˜‰ I’ll give it more space!

  4. Brian Mosko

    Hey guys! Love the new look! Huge fan, and looking to buy one of your older themes, but I can’t seem to find it… Can you email me and see if we can’t work together so I can buy it? Thanks guys!

    • AJ Clarke | WPExplorer

      What theme are you searching for? If I’m no longer selling it, then it’s probably really outdated so you can have it for free. You can always contact me via my ThemeForest profile page ๐Ÿ˜‰

  5. Aleksandar

    Excellent work, once again. Congratulations Stevan Rodic, that’s a really simple and elegant logo – i like it. Beautiful new themes..

    Now i just can’t wait for the new mail issue ๐Ÿ™‚

    Also, if i won the giveaway, i’d choose the Delicieux Restaurant theme. It would fit perfectly for my new project – company website. It would be the best way to show bakery recipes, as a part of the whole website. Also, design is just flawless.

    gj

    • AJ Clarke | WPExplorer

      Thanks for all the kind words! Oh please not the giveaway winner can choose a theme only from my premium portfolio – hope that doesn’t make you too sad ;(

      -AJ

      • Aleksandar

        Oh, how embarrassing ๐Ÿ™‚
        Good thing I found an excellent theme from your portfolio – Alpha Responsive Theme. I like the simplistic design, and a home page that fits everything i need. I really hope i could get my hands on it, it’s really a Premium product.

  6. Micha

    Great Design. Very Good Job! Congrats!

  7. pippin

    Looks great, AJ!

    • AJ Clarke | WPExplorer

      Thank you friend!

  8. Lateef Adewale

    a loving this new site, it makes surfing easy and stress free. Congrats on the launch. am entering the give away hoping to win Epsilon since i can’t buy it from my current location. and thanks for the free stuff too.

    • AJ Clarke | WPExplorer

      I promise I will respond to your email tonight – sorry for the delay! And thank you for the kind words.

      -AJ

  9. Fery Ardiant

    It’s realy d*mn nice & clean site re-design, keep rock AJ ๐Ÿ˜‰

  10. Muhammadibn

    Lovely new look!

  11. behzadg

    New and Modern Design, congrats

  12. Craig Paterson

    Really like the new design, clean and very legible. Thank you for the freebie themes, plugin and giveaway too ๐Ÿ˜‰

  13. sdk

    great redesign! — but no responsive layout?

    if i won a premium theme i’d want something to use to redesign a recipe blog, any suggestions?

  14. marcelomgerais

    very nice!! congrats!!!

  15. David Pond

    I will probably choose the Fashionista Responsive Masonry Blog WordPress Theme, it has a “pinterest” looking style which many clients want.

    Thanks,
    David.

  16. WPSpeak

    Great re-design.
    Got some inspiration for my new personal theme ๐Ÿ˜‰

    The logo is pretty cool, I like the minimalistic design. Keep rocking the WP world!

    ps: I’d like to win the Gamma theme for the giveaway. I’m using the Office theme on one of my projects and very satisfied with the functionality and design.

    • AJ Clarke | WPExplorer

      Ha, great, it’s cool to know I can inspire ๐Ÿ˜‰ Thanks for the Office purchase, I’m glad it worked out well for you!

  17. Robert

    I love your new design, clean, elegant, modern and very suitable for content browsing

  18. sanjay

    Loved the new look AJ, I’m really a fan of your themes ๐Ÿ™‚ Hope I win the raffle!

    • AJ Clarke | WPExplorer

      Thanks Sanjay!

  19. Ahmad

    congratulation love the design

  20. Dave Yates

    The redesigned logo and site look great. Clean and modern. Keep up the good work!

    • AJ Clarke | WPExplorer

      Thank you Dave. You are one of my most valued followers, I have something special for you and a few others…coming soon-ish!

  21. Alin

    I need a theme for my portofolio website and I thing that Lucid Minimal WordPress Theme would be great for me!

  22. bucur

    I love it.You are so good man,very good new free themes are the best free themes on the market in my opinion.

  23. asdevargas

    Congratulations for your redesigning and awesome themes! I’m just so happy about the Adapt I put on my website ๐Ÿ™‚ so elegant and easy to customize. That has been a great day I came across your website, a really good experience! THANK YOU!!

    • AJ Clarke | WPExplorer

      Wow, thank you for all the kind words! I am really glad you like Adapt. Hopefully I’ll be seeing you around ๐Ÿ˜‰

  24. Nimit Dholakia

    I really like the new design and the awesome logo. It perfectly reflects the name WPExplorer.

  25. Bobby C.

    This is a truly outstanding example of great work. I talked to you earlier today to get a glimpse of Gamma and it is certainly going to be my choice for a client site. I have been using Elegant Themes for some time now and after discovering you guys it will be hard to turn back. My site is under construction at this time and I can only hope to have such clean and organized results. You’ve definitely got a new follower. Keep up the great work and I’d love for you to take a look at my progress. I’m a one man operation so it takes time.

    Thanks again!

    • AJ Clarke | WPExplorer

      Thanks a lot Bobby for stopping by and leaving such nice words ๐Ÿ˜‰ I’m glad you like my Gamma theme and that it’s working out well for you, I wish you good luck with your project!

  26. Oli Dale

    New site looks great – nice job!

  27. Aridnaxela

    I just love your new Layout! The colors are so smooth, it’s just elegant and the logo: Just fits. And that’s what a good logo should do. No gradients, no special effects, just purely, simply fit the need and reflect what your “brand”‘s name and purpose is. Perfect.

    By the way, I’ve looked through your premium themes and as much as I’d love to win that theme “Origin” – I’m pretty sure if I don’t, I’m going to buy it anyway! I adore it.

    • AJ Clarke | WPExplorer

      I really appreciate the comments on the new design Aridnaxela. We had several ideas for the logo and ultimately, the very simple one seemed to work best as you mentioned. Thank you for stopping by and good luck!

  28. Signe

    Really nice color scheme you introduced. I am wondering why you didn’t go responsive though?

    • AJ Clarke | WPExplorer

      thanks ๐Ÿ˜‰ I didn’t go responsive because I have plans of releasing a mobile version (I think blog only), in my opinion it’s ideal. We’ll see…but that’s the plan!

  29. Koen Jansen

    What a beautiful clean design. Great Job!

  30. Shane

    Hi there, I also really like the new design. I’ve always been a fan of the minimalist style.

    A suggestion for the Themes section, though. Since there are so many themes, it would be helpful to be able to have an option to change the amount viewable per page and possibly a theme count (like Magazine [35] ). I would suggest a list of the categories along with a drop down but then it would really start to have that ThemeForest feel. I’ve definitely spent way too much time on that site.

    Awesome work and love the site! Keep it up!

    • AJ Clarke | WPExplorer

      Thanks Shane for stopping by and for the suggestions ๐Ÿ˜‰ We have added a little drop-down to search by categories and authors…maybe it’s not very clean? I do like the idea of the little numbers – that would be cool ๐Ÿ˜‰

      Again thanks for the kind words!

  31. donnafontenot

    Love the shortcodes plugin. I created one for myself, but yours has a few goodies mine doesn’t have, so I think I’ll start using yours instead. Thanks!

    • AJ Clarke | WPExplorer

      Sweet! I’m glad you find it useful ๐Ÿ˜‰

  32. rumpibul

    Not yet christmas but you’re as Santa AJ!!!Thank you for these gifts and thank you for your brilliant work.

    • AJ Clarke | WPExplorer

      haha ๐Ÿ˜‰ I’ll have more stuff for x-mas don’t worry!

  33. Vivek Nath.R

    Enrolled. Thanks for this opportunity.

  34. Shameel Qureshi

    Great themes ever.

    Looking forward to golden opportunity as well for life time wow. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Regards.

  35. Adim Subedi

    Great UX and layout. Simply Loved it. Would have been awesome had this been responsive as well.

  36. Cosmin Tataru

    [edited]I am amazed by your work quality.

    • AJ Clarke | WPExplorer

      Thanks for the kind words ๐Ÿ˜‰ Please note that for this specific gallery the prize is 1 theme of choice from my personal WPExplorer portfolio ๐Ÿ˜‰

      • Cosmin Tataru

        Definitely Office would be the perfect choice for optimizing my Windows blog. Thank you for the opportunity.

  37. Mohamad Fahmi

    Cool re-design ,, i like your new logo

  38. Agnel Waghela (@agnel_waghela)

    aLpHa is CoMmEnDabLe!
    GaMmA iS iMpEcCabLe!

  39. Gerald@wpcustoms

    Well done! looks nice and clean. keep up the good work ๐Ÿ™‚

  40. Faisal Rachmadin

    Great work AJ, I’m still remember with your black and white site before your orange site. You always have good sense with clean design. Oya, thanks for the free themes and the chance to win your premium theme.

  41. Lava

    Good, very good job, guys.
    And what I really like: The themes had changed a little bit. I always missed some changes here as you always had a good start page and then the portfolios had been quite the same.

    I know you got to be reasonable with your energy, so the base structure of your themes got to be the same.
    However, it makes your variety thinner.

    Now, youยดve moved much forward.
    More variety, nicer choices.

    Congrats! Really.

    Cheers
    M

    • AJ Clarke | WPExplorer

      Thank you so much Lava for the nice words! Also, for following us for such a long time ๐Ÿ˜‰

  42. Hendrik Vlaanderen

    Currently I am using one of your free themes: Pytheas. It is really nice and adaptable. And thinking of using Epsilon in the future for another project. Plugin freebies are also very handy!

  43. Elliott

    Nice job! Really like the them, it’s nice and clean =D

  44. Cean Lim

    Very clean, minimal site, I love it ๐Ÿ™‚
    Would love to win “PhotoPro Photography WordPress Theme” and good luck to the rest!

  45. Paul

    Very nice guys. Good job.

  46. Bill Chambers

    The site looks great! I would love to win the PhotoPro theme.

  47. Kresna Bayu Putra

    Big love for the re-design. I hope you’ll make tutorial how to make template from psd to html :))
    Keep growing up!

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