Aug
21
64

Ma.tt Themes Released

Asides

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.


64 Comments

  • Darren Lehane August 21, 2010 @ 11:02 am

    Wonder if they’re GPL?

    This will never get old.

    • Matt August 21, 2010 @ 12:13 pm

      But of course! They couldn’t be listed in the directory otherwise.

      • John August 21, 2010 @ 11:42 pm

        Are plugins required to be GPL as well? I know the GPL says themes in the directory or not need to be GPL.

      • Matt August 22, 2010 @ 10:05 am

        Everything in the WordPress.org directory is GPL or compatible.

  • Manmohanjit Singh August 21, 2010 @ 11:33 am

    That’s awesome. Time to explore :P

  • Zim August 21, 2010 @ 11:46 am

    Cool! :D

  • Firas August 21, 2010 @ 3:46 pm

    Hey that’s awesome and generous. I have a nostalgic soft spot for the Mazeld theme, it was around in 2004 too right?

  • Lhurey August 21, 2010 @ 3:54 pm

    I will installed this on my personal blog..thanks for sharing the theme Matt.

    • Matt August 22, 2010 @ 10:02 am

      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.

      • Lhurey August 22, 2010 @ 4:24 pm

        How am I going to add a menu in Matala theme?

      • Matt August 22, 2010 @ 6:00 pm

        It’s under appearance. You can also Google for documentation for 3.0′s menu feature.

      • Gary August 23, 2010 @ 2:56 pm

        Same situation for me, too. Looking forward to the update, especially since I’m not yet up on WP’s menu feature.

  • donnacha | WordSkill August 21, 2010 @ 4:31 pm

    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.

    • Matt August 22, 2010 @ 10:02 am

      I agree!

  • Matt Stigall August 21, 2010 @ 4:51 pm

    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

  • Dan MIlward August 21, 2010 @ 5:13 pm

    Nice. Thanks man. I’m looking forward to having a play. I love this theme the most though – I love Lichtenstein :)

  • Paul Stamatiou August 21, 2010 @ 6:02 pm

    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

  • rain August 21, 2010 @ 6:41 pm

    Wow! So cool!

  • Arpit Jacob August 21, 2010 @ 7:25 pm

    Your previous theme was really good. Was hoping to see that.

    • Matt August 22, 2010 @ 10:04 am

      Thought about it, but it’s just so specific. It would be hard to make into a more generic theme.

  • Jenny August 21, 2010 @ 9:31 pm

    awesome :)

  • Kate Mag August 21, 2010 @ 10:36 pm

    Cool. Thank you, Matt.

  • Grumpy August 21, 2010 @ 10:53 pm

    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.

  • Sathish @ TechieMania August 21, 2010 @ 11:20 pm

    Thanks for allowing us to access the themes finally, Matt. :)

  • Piotr August 22, 2010 @ 12:50 am

    Will you ever release any of your previous themes for WP.com users?

    • Matt August 22, 2010 @ 10:06 am

      Perhaps, will run it by the theme team to see what they think.

  • Kreative August 22, 2010 @ 3:28 am

    Matt, Its off topic question.
    But Can I ask what services you people use for huge volume of emails/whitelisting?

    • Matt August 22, 2010 @ 10:14 am

      I use some custom PHP code I wrote, with a DB managed by a WordPress plugin.

      • Kreative August 22, 2010 @ 4:09 pm

        plugin name? Please Detail

      • Matt August 22, 2010 @ 5:59 pm

        It’s not released.

      • Kreative August 23, 2010 @ 3:38 am

        Email sent, Please reply!
        Thanks,

  • Marcus August 22, 2010 @ 3:56 am

    Great idea, you’re putting legacy themes to good use there.

  • Nicolas August 22, 2010 @ 4:44 am

    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.

  • Melvin August 22, 2010 @ 6:35 am

    woooow! it took quite some time before you released it but its worth the wait i guess.. =p

    • Matt August 22, 2010 @ 10:15 am

      I always get there eventually. Sometimes projects take much longer than I planned though.

      • Melvin August 23, 2010 @ 5:44 am

        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.

      • Matt August 23, 2010 @ 5:56 am

        I don’t mind — after next iteration will probably set up a tag on wordpress.org support forums to follow.

  • Network Geek August 22, 2010 @ 7:45 am

    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!

  • V August 22, 2010 @ 8:07 am

    Awesome!
    BTW, is there a video of your “Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle Your Themes” presentation at WordCamp Savannah?

    Thanks!

    • Matt August 22, 2010 @ 10:16 am

      I believe there will be, though I don’t think the videos will be great quality because they’re coming from Flips.

  • iwanttobelieve August 22, 2010 @ 8:41 am

    Lol your all your theme are so colorful :D

  • Jaynee August 22, 2010 @ 9:33 am

    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!

    • Matt August 22, 2010 @ 11:23 am

      Probably not, but it’s Open Source so you’re welcome to modify it and release your changes.

      • Jaynee August 23, 2010 @ 2:36 pm

        I’m not competent enough to do that. *lol* But maybe someone else can!

  • Sarmad Hassan August 22, 2010 @ 2:04 pm

    Matt the current theme of your blog loads more quickly than the font itself :) . A huge fan of your themes by the way ;)

  • Peter van den Hamer August 23, 2010 @ 12:04 am

    I get an image of Kubrick instead of Mazeld when I click on the thumbnail in http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/mazeld

    • Matt August 23, 2010 @ 5:57 am

      There’s a bug in the Theme Directory :/.

  • Tom August 23, 2010 @ 5:42 am

    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.

  • Melvin August 23, 2010 @ 8:38 am

    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?

    • Matt August 23, 2010 @ 1:45 pm

      Wow that looks terrible — look for an updated version soon.

    • Otto August 24, 2010 @ 12:30 am

      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. :)

  • Mark Wilkinson August 23, 2010 @ 9:36 am

    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.

    • Matt August 23, 2010 @ 2:27 pm

      Did they tell you why?

  • Amanda August 23, 2010 @ 2:20 pm

    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. :]

  • maverick August 23, 2010 @ 7:42 pm

    very colorful and cool theme u got there Matt!! love matala theme!! will use that for my upcoming blog.. thanks for sharing Matt :)

  • Karri August 23, 2010 @ 10:50 pm

    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?

    • Matt August 24, 2010 @ 11:35 am

      We could definitely do that.

  • Melvin August 24, 2010 @ 1:02 am

    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?

  • Matt Brooks August 25, 2010 @ 11:27 am

    I have always respected the functional simplicity / visual appeal of your themes. Can’t wait to start messing around with them!

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