As I announced today at WordCamp Savannah, I’m releasing two of my old designs as themes for any WordPress blog. (See slides here.) If you’re one of the thousands of people who’ve asked me how I do my galleries here on this site, now you can look at the actual code in the Matala theme. (The talavera-looking design by Nicolò Volpato.) The second theme, Mazeld, is actually the last from-scratch original design I did here on Ma.tt (then photomatt.net) and is built as a 2010 child theme. Both themes are listed in the WordPress.org theme directory and available for download. This is just the first iteration, so expect some updates within the next few months as we iterate on the code and functionality.
Wonder if they’re GPL?
This will never get old.
But of course! They couldn’t be listed in the directory otherwise.
Are plugins required to be GPL as well? I know the GPL says themes in the directory or not need to be GPL.
Everything in the WordPress.org directory is GPL or compatible.
That’s awesome. Time to explore 😛
Cool! 😀
Hey that’s awesome and generous. I have a nostalgic soft spot for the Mazeld theme, it was around in 2004 too right?
Yep!
I will installed this on my personal blog..thanks for sharing the theme Matt.
No problem, looks like you got bit by the no-menu bug. If you add a menu it should fix things. Watch for an update in a few days to fix up some bugs that slipped past.
How am I going to add a menu in Matala theme?
It’s under appearance. You can also Google for documentation for 3.0’s menu feature.
Same situation for me, too. Looking forward to the update, especially since I’m not yet up on WP’s menu feature.
I really love the use of fonts in your current theme, it would be lovely to see some themes using Typekit turn up in the directory.
I agree!
Holy crap! How did I miss this happening?
I am in Savannah about every other weekend and of course I am not down there.
UGGGGH
Nice. Thanks man. I’m looking forward to having a play. I love this theme the most though – I love Lichtenstein 🙂
Thanks a bunch Matt! I haven’t found the time to sit down and figure out how to setup a nice, native non-plugin image gallery like you have so Matala poking will prove handy!
Best,
Paul
Wow! So cool!
Your previous theme was really good. Was hoping to see that.
Thought about it, but it’s just so specific. It would be hard to make into a more generic theme.
awesome 🙂
Cool. Thank you, Matt.
Awesome, Matt, thank you. I’m very interested in your “Matt’s community tags”, hopefully this will shine some light on that aspect of your fantastic Gallery? Time to find out.
Thanks for allowing us to access the themes finally, Matt. 🙂
Will you ever release any of your previous themes for WP.com users?
Perhaps, will run it by the theme team to see what they think.
Matt, Its off topic question.
But Can I ask what services you people use for huge volume of emails/whitelisting?
I use some custom PHP code I wrote, with a DB managed by a WordPress plugin.
plugin name? Please Detail
It’s not released.
Email sent, Please reply!
Thanks,
Great idea, you’re putting legacy themes to good use there.
Thanks Matt! You’re really all about the WordPress Community … this is great! Loved all your themes … they always lead the way in blog designs.
woooow! it took quite some time before you released it but its worth the wait i guess.. =p
I always get there eventually. Sometimes projects take much longer than I planned though.
But are you aware that you now have to respond to tonloads of support questions with regards to your theme (specifically the matala?).
It can range from simple questions to “geeky” ones. Why not put a forum or some kind of a community place for that?
just my 2 cents.
I don’t mind — after next iteration will probably set up a tag on wordpress.org support forums to follow.
Wow! Thank you for doing this! I’ve admired the Matala theme for quite a while and am *really* looking forward to digging into the code to see how it works! Fantastic example for the rest of us, too.
Thanks again!
Awesome!
BTW, is there a video of your “Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle Your Themes” presentation at WordCamp Savannah?
Thanks!
I believe there will be, though I don’t think the videos will be great quality because they’re coming from Flips.
Lol your all your theme are so colorful 😀
I remember using this theme on one of my blogs for a while. I’d love to use it on my main blog – but I prefer 3 columns over 2. Any chance this can be made available as 3 column theme? I think it’s lovely and would love to use it!
Probably not, but it’s Open Source so you’re welcome to modify it and release your changes.
I’m not competent enough to do that. *lol* But maybe someone else can!
Matt the current theme of your blog loads more quickly than the font itself :). A huge fan of your themes by the way 😉
I get an image of Kubrick instead of Mazeld when I click on the thumbnail in http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/mazeld
There’s a bug in the Theme Directory :/.
Very nice. This is one of the reasons why WordPress is indeed the real leader in the blogging platform.
Thanks a lot for all the sharing since the very start and for many years to come.
Hmmm.. I think there’s a bug in the archive page. It looks scattered all throughout
http://mehlvs.com/2009/09/
Maybe I am missing something eh?
Wow that looks terrible — look for an updated version soon.
Yikes! Yes, I’ll be fixing that up tomorrow and releasing a 1.1 version. If you make any major fixes, send them to me, and I’ll put them in too. 🙂
I have tried offering my used themes for free in the WordPress theme directory however they were rejected. I went through the checklist in the codex about what to check before submitting a theme and it seemed to match them all.
Still I will try again with my next theme that I am no longer using.
Did they tell you why?
Love the Matala theme! I created a menu but it’s still not working correctly, so I’ll be happily waiting for and update to the release. :]
very colorful and cool theme u got there Matt!! love matala theme!! will use that for my upcoming blog.. thanks for sharing Matt 🙂
This is great news Matt, and I’m glad you are a vanguard also when it comes to recycling designs. People should do it more often.
Actually the current design of my site is recycled as well and was featured in CSS galleries all over in 2008.
Any possibility of releasing the .psd file for advanced customization?
We could definitely do that.
Its me again Melvin. 🙂 I know this question has been asked before but how do you actually post without putting a title? I mean when I go to your homepage the first 6 posts don’t have any titles until I click on them. Is it a custom code or plugin?
I have always respected the functional simplicity / visual appeal of your themes. Can’t wait to start messing around with them!