Theme was rejected

Hello,

So I’ve put a lot of time into my theme and it was rejected. The “reviewer” wasn’t very specific about why and was actually quite rude. Here’s the comments they made:

Your template has a good start but, as we have high standards, you will need to make some additional improvements in overall aesthetics and aspects such as graphics, layout, colors, etc.

The current design is a bit dated and you need to better control/manage the typography and visual hierarchy.

There are quite a few inconsistency of padding/spacing and lack of attention to details.

The content area is not well organized too.

The overall design and aesthetic quality will need improvements and refinements.

Here is a link to a demo of my theme: http://ryanfinni.com/cloud9/. If anyone could speculate or give any advice on what they meant I’d appreciate it.

I’m trying not to be frustrated, but its hard not to be after spending a few weeks on this…

The reviewer had been very clear and helpful and he pointed out what you need to improve. I don’t see the “rude” attitude in his words. You should be more open to criticisms.

An important fact that you should know is that the reviewers are not paid to give you advices on how to improve your items. But when they do it one should appreciate it not starting to call them “rude”.

I definitely never said I’m not open to criticisms, but “control/manage the typography and visual hierarchy” and “The content area is not well organized too” are not very clear in my opinion. And “The overall design and aesthetic quality will need improvements and refinements.” is about as vague a comment as one could make.

Compared to most rejection emails, you were given quite specific tips for improvement.

The 1st thing that hit me when I visited your demo was the lack of color contrast. You also need more variation in your typography, that narrow font overpowers your design currently.

If you want to keep it, I suggest at least using it in bold for certain areas. Maybe in all caps / small caps for the headlines, you’ll have to try various combinations.

2nd, the layout has unfortunately been done to death. If you browse the WP themes category, you’ll find many similar themes, probably increasingly slow on sales. I’ve trashed 2 layouts so far because I didn’t feel I was able to come up with something sufficiently different and with broad appeal.

I’d suggest either adding improvement or starting on another layout and porting the php code over.

PS: Getting a knack for good typography is pretty hard if you’re not a natural talent or haven’t been designing for a very long time. I find it very useful to browse font foundry websites and take a look at their type specimens, some are very well crafted and can teach you a lot.

Try the pdf guides from here for starters, might give you some inspiration on what can be improved:

Moved to item discussion!

osigrandi,

Thanks for your insightful feedback. THIS is what I was wanting to hear from someone. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a designer per se, I’m more of a frontend dev. I see what you mean with the typography and, now that you mention it, the layout. I guess with a “clean” layout you walk a fine line between that and boring. I’m thinking that I may rehaul this design or just scrap it and keep trying.

ryan777 said
I definitely never said I’m not open to criticisms, but “control/manage the typography and visual hierarchy” and “The content area is not well organized too” are not very clear in my opinion. And “The overall design and aesthetic quality will need improvements and refinements.” is about as vague a comment as one could make.

Is not the reviewer mistake that you don’t know what those words mean. If you don’t know what “visual hierarchy”, “typography” and the rest of those arcane words just search the net for a definition and not assume that someone insults you when they use words that you don’t know.

I’m disappointed that someone tried to “translate” to you what the reviewer wanted to say. Arrogant attitude should never be encouraged.

Hello, ryan777 I visited your rejected theme, you made good one, if you don’t mind, let me guess, my opinion, 1. head section> hide scroll arrow ( Top Drawer section) > your content and your background, and font is not very much nice! It can’t make the user clear in his mind, change the background and playing font is better 2. What about navigation for your big slider? It isn’t also look good nice! 3. And why not you play each section like ( feature posts, tweets, ) make it highlight with lighter design or any design you like. ( I can’t clearly find what is what in each section.) and don’t forget to play with fonts. 4. In footer section, like header hide scrolled content. and don’t forget to give more lighter for your social icons, 5. In feature page, you must play fonts style, Don’t forget to make user readability about your content. Your theme is nice, just need to play a little bit with content coz it is a little bit complicated to read it

doru,

It was my understanding that this is what the forums were for: collaboration and explanation for things that a person may not understand and to learn from from others thoughts. Never did I say I’m perfect and know everything there is to know in this industry. Saying that “someone tried to translate” something that I did not understand makes you feel disappointed just makes yourself sound arrogant.

hlaporthein,
Thank you for your thorough reply!