WooThemes PixelPress Theme Review

A designer’s work is never done, especially when it comes to their own website or promotional materials. It’s almost impossible to not keep pressing forward in your creativity or to overcome the desire to improve your work. And so my sandbox, my website, has changed again.

This new WordPress theme design is PixelPress by WooThemes.

PixelPress has a lot to offer designers and Do It Yourselfers who want an awesome look that will showcase their work or services, yet don’t want to spend a ton of time in CSS or code. As with all new standard WooThemes, you have the great built-in features with PixelPress including the WooFramework, Custom Pages, Custom Shortcodes, Sidebar Manager (for unique sidebars on each page if you want), Theme Options Panel, and SEO Options.

Some of the unique features of why I chose this particular theme include:

• Responsive Design: This design will resize for all browsers and resolutions. No extra plugins needed and no extra work on my part.
• Custom Homepage: I love that WooThemes has been giving us the ability to add or subtract elements on the homepage.
• Portfolio Page: As a designer, your portfolio is the most important aspect of your business. PixelPress has an awesome portfolio feature that works from custom post types and looks stunning.
• Custom Fonts: You can change your fonts and their size and color easily in the Theme Options section – without having to touch the CSS!
• Featured Slider: While I am not a big fan of featured sliders anymore, this is a bonus if you want rotating images or recent post displays in the main image area.

I also added two new important features from Woo that I really dig and am experimenting with: WooDojo and WooCommerce. I want to start selling custom artwork and products and WooCommerce looks really simple to integrate. I’ll write a post on that when I am done.

Customization is Key

Since I am not a WordPress Developer and am a true designer, I don’t have the skills to build my own themes or even to make wholesale customizations to any WordPress theme. I know a little about HTML and CSS, but I have to rely on what a theme can do out of the box for the most part. WooThemes products just make sense for the code-challenged designer. I love their shortcodes and customization options, and the more you can do with CSS and FTP, the more unique you can make the theme look. Plus it’s so easy to get a site up and running … AND looking like the demo! Other WordPress themes I’ve worked with have taken me hours to get the final product to look like the demo.

WooThemes and PixelPress (affiliate links) won’t be the solution for everyone, particularly hard core coders. But if you are a designer, then Woo is an excellent investment for your business.