The other day I had a client come back to me after the WordPress 2.8.5 upgrade came out. I had designed the WordPress theme for his website and after the upgrade had been installed the theme disappeared from his Appearance–>Themes section in his administration panel. At the very bottom of the theme selection page it read, “Template is missing.” next to the name of the theme. After searching around on the web I found a simple solution the error. Its just small problem within the style sheet.

Here is the solution to the “Template is missing.” theme problem:

Simply open the style sheet in an editor such as Dreamweaver or you can do the editing right within the admin panel by going to Appearance–>Editor and selecting the Style.css file.

Look for Template: at the very top of the code. It should look something like this at first:

/*
Theme Name: BrewBlog.ca
Theme URI: http://www.blakemccreary.com
Description: Theme with two columns, right-sidebar, fixed-width and widget-ready. Compatible with Wordpress 2.8, valid XHTML & CSS. What’s new? No sprites, header image, version check and much more.
Author: Blake McCreary
Author URI: http://www.blakemccreary.com
Template: BrewBlog.ca <——-DELETE THIS LINE OF CODE
Version: 2.0
*/

Once you delete the Template code just save and/or upload the new style sheet. And there you go. WordPress theme “Template is missing.” problem solved!

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The answer to your lightbox gallery problems is here.

Last night, I was pressed for time developing a WordPress site for my friend who happens to be an upcoming hip hop artist out of Atlanta, Georgia. Before we get started you can check out the new gallery to see how it functions. (Mr. Floyd County Photo Gallery) The launch is on October 23rd and everything was ready to drop on iTunes. The website had been neglected all summer with both of us being busy and we had to throw everything together quickly. After all, what artist doesn’t have a website up and running at all times if you are anywhere near the mainstream? (hrrm…http://www.kidcudi.com…seriously. I’m getting big timed hardcore on Twitter.) Anyway, I ran into some major issues when implementing a lightbox gallery in the WordPress. more…

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To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the CBS eye in 2001, Charles Osgood did this report on the creation of the famous logo.

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The MIT Media Lab’s John Maeda lives at the intersection of technology and art, a place that can get very complicated. Here he talks about paring down to basics.

John Maeda is the president of the Rhode Island School of Design, where he is dedicated to linking design and technology. Through the software tools, web pages and books he creates, he spreads his philosophy of elegant simplicity.

“When John Maeda became president of the legendary design college RISD in 2008, he told the Wall Street Journal, “Everyone asks me, ‘Are you bringing technology to RISD?’ I tell them, no, I’m bringing RISD to technology.” In his fascinating career as a programmer and an artist, he’s always been committed to blurring the lines between the two disciplines. As a student at MIT, studying computer programming, the legendary Muriel Cooper persuaded him to follow his parallel passion for fine art and design. And when computer-aided design began to explode in the mid-1990s, Maeda was in a perfect position to influence and shape the form, helping typographers and page designers explore the freedom of the web.”

I find John Maeda very inspiring. He has a way of dissecting society in such a way that he learns how to counteract anti-creativity as well as relating his material to an audience with humor.

You can read more of John Maeda’s profile here at Ted.com.

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Every week I take some of the most popular and interesting tweets that I come across and share them with my community. Enjoy!

Color Psychology In Creative Design

“It’s worth repeating that the single most important thing you can do to build appeal, mood, and ambiance for your site is to select an appropriate color scheme. There really are no awful colors—any color can look attractive when placed with appropriate color companions.”

Freelance Contracts: Do’s And Don’ts

“In the world of freelancing, the entrepreneur has to take on a number of tasks for themselves that would normally be handled by a separate department at a bigger company. Most of these tasks are not part of the creative processes that freelance workers are used to, but rather are more tedious, left-brain paperwork. Right-brain creatives often shudder at the thought of these forays into linear domains. Such detail-ridden tasks would strain any freelancer who wears multiple hats, but they must be completed.”

27 Classic & Elegant Serif Fonts

“There are now about as many different varieties of letters as there are different kinds of fools.” Eric Gill
Choosing a font for a project isn’t always an easy task but hopefully this list of professional classic and elegant serif fonts will make the task a little easier… or maybe”

Legalities for Designers

“LegalitiesSM is a regular column for the Northern California Chapter of the Graphic Artists Guild by OWE member Linda Joy Kattwinkel, who is herself a visual artist and former graphic artist. In the column, Linda Joy specifically answers questions raised by visual artists, but many of the issues are equally applicable to those who create or utilize works in all creative disciplines. Writers, musicians, filmmakers, fabric designers, and industrial designers, for example, and any of their clients will also find relevant information on copyright law, trademarks, rights of publicity and privacy, licensing, gallery and agency relationships, co-authorship agreements, and publishing contracts.”

Some great free icons from Artua and very nice work in their portfolio

A great collection of MAC OS style icons for download!

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“Every seven years, designer Stefan Sagmeister closes his New York studio for a yearlong sabbatical to rejuvenate and refresh their creative outlook. He explains the often overlooked value of time off and shows the innovative projects inspired by his time in Bali.”

One of my fellow classmates forwarded this Stefan Sagmeister video via email at Ball State University. Stefan Sagmeister is a leading designer who is world renowned for his album covers, posters, and recent book of life lessons.  Stefan definitely has a fresh way of thinking and has much to provide the graphic design world. You can read a full profile on Stefan Sagmeister here.

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