The Rise of the WordPress Super Theme

In this video, I test out an idea that I had in thinking about the direction of WordPress premium theme development in an increasingly tight theme market. The basic context is this: WordPress theme developers and designers are growing in numbers and of course so are the number of premium themes being launched.

One of the obvious direct consequences of this is that designers are having to do more to make their themes competitive. On the positive side, this advances WordPress theme development and leads to some interesting innovations in design and functionality. That’s fantastic. On the negative side, it means that we’re seeing an increase in gimmick sales tactics and design fads for the sake of grabbing customer attention.

I’m not one to dwell on negativity. So I want to stick with the idea of innovation. My feeling is that over the course of the year, or at least by next year, we’ll begin to see the rise of what I’m calling WordPress super themes. That is to say, themes that not only offer myriad customization options to their users, but also offering the widest array of theme types within a single theme. The super theme will integrate the dominant WordPress theme categories (portfolio, business, tumblog, blog, magazine, eCommerce etc.) into its design. It will combine the aesthetic identity of a niche-specific WordPress theme, but will work across niches by providing interchangeable templates.

Super Themes will take much longer to design and code and their price tags will reflect that. But in my view this will be the level to which designers will have to rise to compete and dominate a in tight market. What do you think? Watch the video and let me know your thoughts below.

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