Smashing Magazine is known for releasing top quality WordPress themes for free to its readers like the Agregado theme which I reviewed several months ago. The latest WordPress theme that they’ve released is called the Blak Magik theme designed Gopal Raju of Productive Dreams.
A short description from Smashing Magazine:
Today we are glad to release Blak Magik — a free professional Wordpress-theme. The theme has 2 columns and is based on grungy wooden textures and has a cool top menu which includes RSS. The psd source file of the logo has also been included in the package. This can be used for any projects and will be useful especially for portfolios.
Basic Features:
- 2 columns
- Right sidebar
- Widget-ready
- Built-in gravatar support
- Works on Firefox, Google Chrome, IE and Opera
Screenshot:
My Take:
The Blak Magik WordPress theme has some nice custom graphics for the header, top menu, post date and comments. The header image can be edited/customized as the header’s PSD file is included in the file download. Blak Magik is widget-ready which means you can have your favorite widgets and also has built-in gravatar support so you don’t have to worry about installing a plugin or implementing gravatars with this theme.
The Blak Magik theme may not appeal to everyone especially those who don’t like dark colors. Some WordPress users might get turned off because they might not like the color scheme (too dark) or may not like the grungy wooden texture used. Nevertheless, Blak Magik is still a well designed and professional-looking theme that will surely fit some users preferences.
I hope the guys over at Smashing Magazine won’t get tired of sharing professional-looking WordPress themes for free. We appreciate what you’re doing and contributions to the WordPress community. Last but not least, thank you Gopal for designing this theme.
Preview or Download the Blak Magik theme for WordPress.
NOTE: You might be confused as to what the theme’s real name is. Smashing Magazine has it as “Black Magic” while the author has named it “Blak Magik”. Since Blak Magik is what shows on the WP Dashboard, I’m sticking with it.
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February 23rd, 2009 at 2:15 am
@Matt – You’ll need to edit the header.php file to fix both issues. First, to remove the “designed by..” line look for the div id=header section and remove the line that says “designed by productivedreams.com for smashing magazine”.
Next to customize the RSS feed link, also in the header.php file (just a few lines below the “designed by..” line) look for the RSS URL and replace it with your own.
Hope that helps. Have a nice day! :)
February 23rd, 2009 at 2:12 am
Hi,
I have just installed this theme (wordpress 2.7) and have customised the header however I can’t figure out how to remove the “Designed by . . . ” banner from the header.
Also, how can I customize the RSS link to go to my own feed?
I have been looking for great themes (free & paid) for a couple of months and this is the best I have seen so far!
Thanks,
Matt.
November 20th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
@Snow – Yup, those custom graphics are nice. Hehe you’re not the only one. So far, most of the people who commented here don’t like dark themes.
Btw, I tried visiting your blog earlier but I couldn’t access it. It just showed a blank page. Thought you might wanna know. Thanks for dropping by! :)
November 20th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
I like how the date is shown but yeah it’s quite dark. Very Gotham like. ;)
November 19th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
@K – Crispy? You make it sound like a tasty dish. Hehe Yeah, I knew this theme would be too dark for some users like aj and you.
Sige, next time I’ll feature a more lighter colored theme for you guys. :D
November 19th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
It looks crispy nice – typical theme, too dark for me.
November 18th, 2008 at 1:05 am
@trench – Yup, that’s where I saw it too and after seeing it, I decided to do a review about it. :)
November 18th, 2008 at 1:04 am
Recall seeing this in the dash several days ago. Looks good.
November 17th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
@aj – Yeah I know, you like those light colored themes right? Btw, any plans of changing your theme soon? :D
November 17th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Too dark for me… but nice and cool nonetheless :)
November 17th, 2008 at 8:25 am
@jhay – Yes, it has a very nice design. So are you planning on another theme reboot? Me, I’m loving my new theme/layout and I’m sure it’s gonna be a long time before I do my next theme reboot. :D
November 17th, 2008 at 8:21 am
Nice design, it would be fun playing around with this theme.