It seems as though the WordPress 2.5 back end redesign was so nice, it inspired at least one person to develop a front end theme that looked the same. Welcome to FreshPress, a WordPress theme that mimics the look and feel of the 2.5 administration panel.

FreshPress is a three column theme with the left most column dedicated to post content and the other two columns dedicated to widget sidebars. Above the content is a large rectangle which reminds me of the RIGHT NOW section of the 2.5 administration area. This box showcases featured articles with a small area on the right with links to more featured articles. Also worthy of noting is that the number of comments for an article displays the same as you would see it in the 2.5 back end.

The color scheme looks exactly like the one you would find in the back end of WordPress 2.5. Although 2.5 comes with two color schemes labeled classic and fresh, it’s obvious as to which one is represented in this theme.

The footer is somewhat customizable as you can add as many boxes as you want by simply editing the footer.php file, copying and then pasting the div container that makes up the box. Even the footer uses the color scheme found within the footer of the 2.5 backend.

Overall, this design seems simple but also Fresh, as the name implies. Perhaps it’s because I’ve gotten use to the way the new administration design in WordPress 2.5 looks but I have to admit, the redesign makes for a nice front end design as well. For all the negative things that were said of the look and feel of the redesign, I find it amazingly ironic that someone would create a theme using the new look as inspiration.

What do you think? Do you like this design or do you get enough of these colors in the back end?

It looks like the crew over at Premium News has been busy, releasing their eighth theme in the last five months. This premium WordPress theme is called Fresh News, and it was based upon the extremely popular Flash edition news theme.

Here are some of the features included with the Fresh News theme:

• Automatic Image Resizer (requires PHP GD Library to work)
• Custom Page Templates for Archives, Sitemap & Image Gallery
• Built-in Gravatar Support for Authors & Comments
• Author Profiles & Archives
• Featured news section
• Video Panel (for use with Flash videos)
• Traditional Blog Layout (for homepage)
• Integrated aside / sideblog section within the sidebar of the theme (optional)
• Navigation Dropdown Menu’s
• Sidebar Tabbed Box
• 2 different homepage layouts (featured section)
• Widgetized sidebars
• Integrated Banner Ad Management
• Integrated Flickr & Feedburner

Upon first glance, there are two things that jump out at me about this theme. I don’t believe previous versions of premium News themes have had multiple colors (I could be wrong), but Fresh News comes with 6 different colors to choose from.

The other really neat thing you get is something that I’ve been suggesting premium theme designers do for months now, and that is to provide a blogging template with the theme. It looks like if you purchase the Fresh News theme, you will get a blogging template that you can use. This opens up a lot more options for a potential buyer and creates more appeal to bloggers that don’t want a content management homepage.

Here are some screenshots of Fresh News:

Homepage

Post Page

This theme comes with everything you’ve come to expect from the News theme crew, and it is available at the same price. You can purchase a single-use license for $99.95 or a multiple-use license for $249.95.

Check out the Fresh News WordPress theme!

There are quite a premium WordPress themes out there these days, but there are still quite a few niches out there where there really isn’t a premium theme to fill that need.

Brian has taken a step towards filling one of these niches with the release of his new Real Estate Revolution theme, which appears to be his most requested theme design.  Here are the features Brian lists for this new theme:

• Featured listing section, about me section and recent blog posts on the homepage
• Dropdown navigation menu
• Short contact form in the sidebar
• Page template for real estate listings

And here are the screenshots:

Real Estate Homepage

Real Estate Page Template

This theme follows the same pricing as his previous Revolution themes.   You can get the single-use package for $79.95 or the multiple-use package for $199.95.  Check out Revolution Real Estate.

With the surge in the popularity of poker around the globe, combined with the amount of advertising revenue that can be generated with poker sites, it was only a matter of time before the world of Poker turned to blogging. 

Now that there is some demand for poker blogs, there is also a demand for poker themes.  I’ve noticed a few popping up lately, ranging from the ultra popular premium theme Deep Stack, to the new free theme named iPoker. 

Here is a screenshot of iPoker:

The theme includes widget support and AJAX enhanced live search.  You can view the demo here.  

As the premium WordPress themes market continues to grow and competition becomes more intense, it is only natural to begin looking towards the future of premium WordPress themes. We all have different opinions of what that future holds, but one thing that is for sure. Widgets are going to play a huge role in the future of these themes.

The first theme that appears to be focused completely around widgets is the Shifter WordPress theme, which features a fully customizable dashboard with widgets for pretty much everything.

Here are two screen shots:

My buddy Jeffro of Jeffro2pt0 is one of those guys that is always ahead of the times. If you’d like to see an example of what Shifter can do, I recommend you check out his website. He switched to Shifter awhile ago and hasn’t looked back. You can also read his explanation for “shifting” to Shifter.

Sound interesting? You can purchase Shifter for $79.95 for a single-use copy, $99.95 for a single-use copy with support from the author, advanced copy is $199.95, and the developer’s package is $999.95.

If you’d like to learn more, I recommend you check out Shifter’s website.