Below I’ve included a breakdown of the components which contribute toward a good card design. I hope you find this of value when next considering your corporate re-imaging:

1. 1. Project Definition
2. 2. Site Structure
3. 3. Visual Design
4. 4. Site Development
5. 5. Testing
6. 6. Launch Plus

WordPress can offer a free and convenient alternative to conventional web design solutions for out of the box content management systems, with very many free and often quality theme designs available to help you customise your site. If you don’t know or trust the source of the themes you’re downloading, here are a few tools to help you ensure that the themes is clean and free of anything suspect;

Useful Plugins to check for malware

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/exploit-scanner/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tac/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/theme-check/

Useful Decoders for checking WP themes for malicious code

http://ottodestruct.com/decoder.php

http://www.tareeinternet.com/scripts/byterun.php

http://www.tareeinternet.com/scripts/decrypt.php

http://rot13-encoder-decoder.waraxe.us/

http://wordpress.shadowlantern.com/2009/08/decrypting-footers-base64/

A great site which details some of the examples of how to use the above decoders and plugins can be found here, and give you an idea of just how bad this problem is within the free wordpress theme communities;

http://wpmu.org/why-you-should-never-search-for-free-wordpress-themes-in-google-or-anywhere-else/

Now for our personal recommendations for excellent sources of quality wordpress themes;

WooThemes has been producing great quality WordPress themes for a number of years. However, you don’t have to join their WooTHemes WordPress Theme Club to reap the benefits of their work. They’ve released a number of free themes that can be downloaded directly from their website.

Number of free WordPress Themes: 10

ThemeLab is run by Leland Fiegel who runs it one-handed and still has time to produce a large collection of free WordPress Themes. I reviewed his Green Tea theme recently and it’s been one of those themes that really stuck in my head.

Number of free WordPress Themes: 118

Dynamic WP are a group of developers based in Indonesia who have produced some really striking WordPress themes. Their latest offering is a super-charged version of TwentyTen, called TwentyEleven. These guys have got some great free themes in their portfolio and it’s definitely worth taking a look.

Number of free WordPress Themes: 34

If you want somewhere to get some of the most stylish photoblogging and vlogging themes then the first place you should look is Graph Paper Press. I’m sure I’ve said before that I’m a fangirl, but I probably can’t say that quite enough. Among their portfolio they have a number of free themes which are as good as any commercial ones.

Number of free WordPress Themes: 9

WP Shower make some really beautiful minimalist WordPress themes – all for free! They are a way for you to clean your blog (geddit?) The portfolio at WP Shower is small but this is the type of place where you get quality over quantity. It’s a must-see for any free WordPress theme hunters.

Number of free WordPress Themes: 7

If you’re not familiar with Smashing Magazine, where have you been? It’s one of my favorite places for design news, tips and releases. They regularly commission guest designers to produce beautiful, top quality WordPress themes.

Number of free WordPress Themes: 24

Theme Hybrid is the home of the Hybrid and Prototype WordPress themes, and all of their lovely children. Parent Themes (or theme frameworks) are great to use, especially if you are learning about theme development. You can build your own CSS files to to flex your creative muscles.

Number of free WordPress Themes: 17

ThemeShaper is another site that has a comprehensive theme framework as well as a playground full of child themes. I often builder sites on top of Thematic – it’s easy to use and to customize and there are loads of great child themes out there.

Number of free WordPress Themes: 20 child + 1 thematic

Templatic announced on 1st January 2011 that they were going GPL. This is great news for the WordPress community. Only launched in 2008, they have a portfolio packed full of themes with some great free ones that anyone can download.

Number of free WordPress Themes: 9

We hope you enjoy this post and get some value out of it!

From all the team at Black Label Studios, the heart of Website Design Brisbane!

We’ve just published 5 new wordpress themes, free to download however we kindly ask that you please keep the footer accreditation intact! Enjoy!

Black Label Studios Red

Black Label Studios RED

Black Label Studios White

Black Label Studios WHITE

Black Label Studios Green

Black Label Studios GREEN

Black Label Studios Navy

Black Label Studios NAVY

Black Label Studios Blue

Black Label Studios BLUE

The Demo link (using WordPress.org test data and our Red theme);

Black Label Studios Themes

From the team at Brisbane Website Designers

With over 95% of all consumer research performed online, it is important to keep in mind that your customers will be assessing your service or product offering through the presentation, perceived size and quality of your website. Much like the glossy packaging on a physical product, your website is representative of who your business is and how it is placed within the market place of your competitors. Think back to your own online shopping experiences – how critical was it that the website you purchased from looked credible, reputable and reliable? Now consider, how does your own website reflect these qualities?

As a web design company specialising in corporate website design services for Brisbane based businesses, you can be assured that any Black Label Studios design will portray your business online with the credibility and quality required to give your customers peace of mind and assurance in doing business with you.

Through our professional consultation services, we will incorporate aspects of your existing corporate image (business cards, logos, brochures etc) into your new website design. Then based upon your specified business requirements and any example websites provided, generate a series of mock-up designs to ensure you are 100% satisfied with the end result before we convert your design into HTML – a process which guarantees that you will be happy with the end result!

Black Label Studios is a team of Brisbane Web Designers dedicated to providing high quality corporate web design services to Brisbane based businesses since 2003. For more information on any of our corporate web design services, contact us today!

It seems that plants aren’t the only thing to thrive in Queensland’s sunny predisposition, with many designers moving up-state to Brisbane’s warmer climate in order to cultivate and develop their love of graphics and web design! But whatever the reason, we’ve discovered that web design in Brisbane has emerged to become one of Australia’s largest and most popular web and graphics design cultures, producing some of the highest quality, professional website designs in the world!

As a web design company, Black Label Studios understands the importance of not confining creativity into cubicled office spaces, dull walls and regimented lunch breaks. Instead, we utilise the latest in online collaboration technologies to establish our virtual office here in Brisbane, with our team of graphics artists, web designers and developers working completely remotely from the comfort of their own home or anywhere in the world!

What this means for our customers, is that Black Label Studios has fewer overheads (rent, utilities etc) that need to be captured by web design costings. And fewer overheads means more cost effective corporate web design solutions for your business!

We’re pleased to announce that our revised Website Design Brisbane site is up and running!

For specialised, search engine optimised websites and corporate website design solutions, come and talk to one of our friendly consultants at Black Label Studios!