Sandbox Design Competition - and the Winner is…

Posted by Snap! on August 5th, 2007

It’s too early to call, but one thing is for sure, the 40 or so designers and enthusiasts who put in their time and effort deserve a big round of applause. With that said, without being too critical and hopefully the judges are not reading this, we picked a few we feel will have a significant impact on the results tomorrow and listed them here. At this point we feel the need to make sure you all know, we have no affiliation with this competition, so we are basing this list purely on the designers work and not who they are.

To demo all the themes, visit Sandbox Live Preview and use the dropdown box on the right top to jump between designs. We also have individual demo links below. You can even download the designs all at once or individually.

Listed alphabetically:

Blackbox: Hit and miss, if the site heading stayed in place in FF, this theme has a good chance of making a dent, the fact that we are mentioning it irrespective of the issue means we really dig this theme!

Blueberry: Dark, very well designed, Dean’s experience shows in every bit of detail presented.

Blueberry Dreams: If there is one theme that will end up getting a lot of usage for the simple reason that it is very straightforward and easy to use, it’s Blueberry Dreams, reminds me of the WP default template.

Chocolate Vanilla: A very simple and usable design, reminds me of the WP classic template.

CITYscape: A very generic styling, will appeal to many users and will get good usage.

Crystal Liberty: A very usable design, will definitely get a lot of attention and usage, must see.

Diurnal: Usable- you can change the “color changing as per time of day” header if you need to and you’ll get a great 3 column Sandbox theme.

Essay: Very usable, simple and ample room for all your content and sidebar elements.

Hourglass: Good usage of graphics, color and attention to details. Must see.

Promised Land and Walk in the Shadows: Adam should get the Most talented- Graphics usage award- unfortunately there is no such offered. It appears like a lot of work went into his work, two thumbs up for his two themes.

Milkia: Simple, minimal, will get good usage.

MIX: Left and right sidebar is a popular choice, will get usage for that very reason.

Moo-Point: This theme takes minimalism to the next level by making a Sandbox theme like the Sandbox theme itself! Very bold move, or should I say Moo.

Oranges: Orange, white and black work well with users, if there is a generic header alternative this theme will get good usage.

Oriole: Neat and simple.

Picnic: Experimental and creative, this theme sets itself apart from the rest, must see.

Sakeena: Arty- soothing colors, good site hierarchy.

SandPress: Web 2ish, generic so many users can and will use.

Shades of Gray: Good for users looking for a fluid, content centric, minimal theme.

Takimata: Out-of-the-box design, bold, it is search bot friendly, but is it user friendly too?

Tiffany Blue: Very usable theme, but watch out for long page names as it will run into the image in the sidebar as in the live preview.

Veracity: Dark minimal, very usable, no images, content centric, top notch.

Wrock It: Dark but soothing, very content centric and with a little tweak will fit most sites.

Tagged: DJFX, Design Competition, Design Inspiration, Dot Dot Dot, Free Downloads, Inspiration, Keyboard Shortcuts, New WP Themes, PimpDaBlog, Plugins, Prosumer, RSS Feeds, Red, Resources, Sandbox Theme, Social Bookmarking, Web Design, WordPress, WordPress Skins, WordPress Templates, WordPress Themes, WordPress designers, wpsnap

August 5th, 2007 // Share