Designs, ProPhoto, Working with Wordpress | 9 comments
The lovely Emily over at Seaside Creative makes some of the most calming, serene and inviting ProPhoto themes we’ve laid our eyes on. With Scarlett, we are absolutely loving the simple, clean feel with a touch of modern sophistication. Fonts make us giddy, so when we see beautifully paired typography like this on a homepage, we are over the moon! Another great thing about this homepage is that while a big thing in ProPhoto is the row of “buttons” underneath a large image/slideshow at the top of the page OR many scattered buttons in unique shapes & places, Scarlett is a gorgeous balance of both worlds, giving it a chic magazine feel that’s not overwhelming, confusing or distracting.
Each additional page carries on with the simplistic beauty of the homepage. Lightbox galleries are perfection to show off your portfolio of work, and large images look amazing in the blog posts – scrolling through the images was, again, very serene and inviting. You’ll be seeing more designs from Seaside Creative in here, don’t you worry.
Okay, so, Foreverly has been around for a little bit, but this design by the team over at Swoone NEEDS to be talked about. We were shown this template by a client about a year and a half ago and it was the FIRST ProPhoto design that actually started to pull us onto the ProPhoto bandwagon. Quite honestly, we’re pretty sure this was the design that started to make designers step up their game and do better designs with all the tools the ProPhoto system had to offer. Each of these perfect blocks on the homepage can correspond to any section of your website that you like – you choose if the text is always visible or if it’s something you have to scroll over to see. While everyone is currently shouting from the rooftops “WHITE! Minimize your website and WHITE all the things!”, Foreverly shows that a nice, dark contrast can bring some serious polish and class to your design.
One of our favorite things about this site? It makes standard fonts look incredible. There aren’t any crazy frills or ornate fonts that you have to track down to make this site look gorgeous – the demo itself is full of run-of-the-mill fonts and it works! Blog posts are ready for your large photos and have social sharing brilliantly ready right at the end of each post.
Seaside Creative is at it AGAIN with this relaxed, trendy design that is just calling for beautiful images to grace its pages. While Holly could definitely be used for wedding photography, there’s something about it that feels slightly more suited for lifestyle & portrait sessions – perhaps it’s the hint of a free spirit vibe with the nature graphic accents and natural colors. The Homepage buttons aren’t overdone and break up the page nicely, and we love the clean look of the Recent Posts right there on the homepage – which, if you’re not familiar with ProPhoto, will update automatically with your latest blog posts!
Some theme designers really know how to sell the package as the deal. Seaside Creative gives a ton of beautiful options, templates and plugins for their themes, but Emily also makes sure to have even more available to you if you are looking for a fully-cohesive marketing set. Holly has a special “About Page” design (not pictured above) which can be added to your purchase (it looks pretty great, but we thought we’d just show you what’s included in your initial purchase). This is another example of going against the grain. The “in” thing right now is to have a blog page that scrolls for days with large images. That option is totally available with Holly, however we adore this minimized blog page where you can scroll through and easily click on the posts you want to see – it’s just so clean and perfect – and the sidebar is absolutely incredible.
There’s no way we were done showing off the beauty of Seaside Creative‘s designs! If you’re looking for a design that shows off all the reasons pastels, hand-written fonts and block elements are perfect for each other, look no further than Claire! We’re not huge pastel people, but this design just uses color so eloquently with just the right amount of graphic/line elements throughout. The larger image on the left is a slideshow that rotates through your choice of fabulous images – or leave it as just one. We also adore the social icon block at the bottom of the page, making it super obvious where to go without distracting from the overall elements or blending in so much it gets lost. Oh, and that navigation bar at the top? Swoon.
Looking through this site is just so soothing and make us feel like spring or summer inside – our favorite seasons! The galleries page is probably our favorite of the designs, but everything looks fantastic! There are additional add-on page templates available – like a super fab About page and a detailed Investment page – but the site is straight up marvelous without the add-ons.
No lies – Viola is our favorite ProPhoto design in existence right now. Red Met Yellow has done an incredible job of creating a gorgeous, vintage & elegant design unlike any other out there. The unique graphic elements, the header & footer layouts, the fonts… Oh, we could just sit here with our jaws on the floor looking through this theme for hours! The bottom 4 squares are all recent posts and you can do WHATEVER with the other images on the page – it’s such a blank canvas but not at the same time in the very best of ways. Viola is our happy place right now.
We had yet to see a website whose pages all looked like works of art – yep, until Viola. The About page actually does look that amazing and crafty when you do it on your own. The blog posts & sidebars do look that seamlessly integrated with your own content. And, can we talk about that contact form?! How cute and perfect is that?! Oh, but it gets even better…
If you’re looking to have a super cohesive brand – and we’re talking throughout your entire marketing (USB drives, business cards, thank-you cards, gift certificates, stickers, stamps, price sheets) – and some additional page templates (Investment, About, Press, Reviews), RMY has a whole slew of options for you, which you can purchase individually for the little pieces you love and need OR purchase the whole shebang (original ProPhoto template included) for $299 and get everything you want! Pardon us while we drool a little extra over here…
If you’re a photographer who’s looking to spruce up your web presence with ProPhoto, you can’t go wrong with any of these designs. Can’t you just see your images all over these beautiful themes?! We sure can.
Okay, we’re so late on this, but thank you SO SO SO much for featuring Viola! I think this is actually the first time we’ve ever been featured on a blog and it’s so exciting for us! 🙂 Thanks a million gazillion! – Megan and Meghan
I am forever swooning over Viola…I need to just take the plunge!
Oh my goodness, I’m coveting ALL of these!! You’re giving me web design envy (it’s one of those things I’m never satisfied with for my business)! 😉 I think Viola is my favorite! <3
those websites are gorgeous!! I’m so sending this to my prophoto friends!
I’m SO honored to have my designs featured on your beautiful blog. Thank you so much for providing your readers with your thoughts on my sites. You’re wonderful <3