Title: Developing a theme
Last modified: August 19, 2016

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# Developing a theme

 *  [MindstateNL](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mindstatenl/)
 * (@mindstatenl)
 * [15 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/developing-a-theme/)
 * Hi everyone,
 * I’m asked to develop a site for a company of a relative of mine, and I decided
   to take up the challenge. I have experience working in WordPress, and also doing
   some adjustments to themes and such, but I have never created a theme from scratch.
   
   I have done some research, and I think I got several options, but I don’t know
   what to choose, what would suit me best?
 * – Make up a theme totally from scratch with the help of some internet tutorials
   –
   Make use of frameworks such as ‘Thematic’ and modify these to my likings – I 
   have a subscription at Lynda.com, where they did a tutorial on ‘WordPress 3 and
   Dreamweaver CS5’, I looked at it and they modify the basic theme to their likings
   with help of Dreamweaver.
 * Could anyone give me pointers to this?
 * Regards,
 * Niels

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  [Chip Bennett](https://wordpress.org/support/users/chipbennett/)
 * (@chipbennett)
 * [15 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/developing-a-theme/#post-1977574)
 * I would suggest starting with a known-good Theme, and then either creating a 
   Child Theme to modify it, or (if you are daring, and want to maintain the Theme
   going forward) create a Derivative Theme.
 * > – Make up a theme totally from scratch with the help of some internet tutorials
 * This is a good option if you know what you’re doing, and know your way around
   the WordPress template system, functions, template tags, etc.
 * > – Make use of frameworks such as ‘Thematic’ and modify these to my likings
 * This is probably overkill, if you’re merely making a one-off Theme.
 * > – I have a subscription at Lynda.com, where they did a tutorial on ‘WordPress
   > 3 and Dreamweaver CS5’, I looked at it and they modify the basic theme to their
   > likings with help of Dreamweaver.
 * I wouldn’t trust anyone who claims to be knowledgeable about WordPress development,
   yet refers to the non-existent “WordPress 3” (there is no such version of WordPress,
   which uses _WordPress **X.Y**_ versioning).
 *  Thread Starter [MindstateNL](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mindstatenl/)
 * (@mindstatenl)
 * [15 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/developing-a-theme/#post-1977576)
 * Thanks for your response!
 * So your say would be that my best bet is to modify for example the Twentyten 
   theme?
 * How about issues with putting this project into my portfolio etc.?
 *  [Chip Bennett](https://wordpress.org/support/users/chipbennett/)
 * (@chipbennett)
 * [15 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/developing-a-theme/#post-1977579)
 * Your best bet is probably to create a TwentyTen _Child Theme_.
 * As for putting this project in your portfolio: what issues do you think you might
   encounter with doing so?

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

The topic ‘Developing a theme’ is closed to new replies.

 * 3 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Chip Bennett](https://wordpress.org/support/users/chipbennett/)
 * Last activity: [15 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/developing-a-theme/#post-1977579)
 * Status: not resolved

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