UPDATE #2: A variant of the Grid Focus is now available for download. Feel free to visit the project page for details.
UPDATE #1: I’ve since updated. Feel free to see a preview of Gridded Focus on
I spent some time today today making use of some new Moleskine Gridded Journals, a mechanical pencil, TextMate, MAMP, and Transmit to get Grid Focus from paper to front page finished product in about 12 hours. I’d like to take the time to thank the amazing Mr. Vinh for helping me realize a few important points – via email, and Mr. Watson for allowing me to use the helpful grid background. Make sure to check out Vinh Khoi’s Grid Computing and design.
I decided that it was time for a 5thirtyone.com refresh. For a number of months, I had successfully used and shared the October Special WordPress theme. Although the theme featured SEO optimization by Neil of Pronet Advertising, and a number of contextual advertisement placement opportunities, I was not content.
I wanted to be able to write – both shorts and longer entries. Due to the presentation of the theme, and my own anal-retentiveness, the layout demanded lengthy posts which matched or exceeded the height of the sidebar in order to look "balanced". Anyone who has or is using the theme will surely agree. The demand to write longer entries dissuaded me from updating the site on a regular basis – which explained the dry content periods.
So what was there to do? A full refresh. The creation of a layout that would be both forgiving and open to accepting shorter posts when laziness overcomes all that is blog-productive.
Inspired by content-rich grid focused sites such as the New York Times & Subtraction, the result is Grid Focus – a layout which imitates the background image used to aid in lining-up various elements.
Next on the blog house-cleaning list? The age-old question concerning time limited discussions (comments) on older posts. I’ve received a rather noticeable number of repeat comments on older posts due to some readers neglecting to take the time to read. I’ve contemplated this topic before, and find myself mulling over the idea again. I’ll follow-up the time-locked comments discussion with a realignment & refresh of older public themes and their distribution method(s).
[...] Refreshed: Grid Focus [...]
Is this available for download? Thanks,
http://5thirtyone.com/grid-focus
Hello Derek,
Thanks for your prompt response,
I am would love to use this theme for the music ministry we are developing.
1- Is there a way to change the navigation bar on the top to use like pages etc.
2- Also, is there a reason why comments done on pages are not showing. It shows in other themes but not on this one.
http://www.claysound.com
Thanks
cr
You would need to manually change the top / bottom navigation links to reflect the title, description, and URL of the pages you wish to expose to visitors.
The comments template is not being called on pages. You can enable comments, follow the instructions here.
One more thing Derek,
I am very new at this! How do I change the nav menu. I found the code. but I don’t want to make a mistake when adding the url
how or where are the url so I can add it on?
Sincerely,
cr
Please do some homework concerning the anchor links.
Also,
The only thing I have noticed now is that the page where the pages are that the comment have been enable, is not showing my pages widget! only when I go to home.
Did I do something wrong?
thanks,
cr
good.
this is very tight in general.
Great theme. Thinking about using it for an upcoming site.
How do I change the title to be an image link instead of a text link?
Read this comment here: http://5thirtyone.com/archives/1588/comment-page-5#comment-119888
This theme is awesome. I used it as my base theme for my fellowship website, but I’ve reworked the design around a bit.
http://kairosfellowship.org/
Thanks so much!
Hey, I have a problem with your theme:
On the browse by topic menu, it shows only a part of my categories.
How can I modify it so I can see all my categories there?