Textplates '07

It’s that time of the year again folks, the 2nd annual Textplates is right around the corner. What is Textplates, you say? My friends, I’m glad you asked. Textplates is a Textplattern template (Text-plate) competition, conjured up by Tom Fadial. It arose from a desire to pay homage to the greatness of TXP.

While systems like WordPress have a myriad of themes available for download, Textpattern is more of a CMS than a blog tool. TXP has a greater learning curve since it presupposes XHTML + CSS skill, so one-click theme installations aren’t a priority. Unlike WP, TXP doesn’t cater to hobbyists.

Realizing that not everyone is a web developer at heart, but that many could benefit from the elegant way in which TXP allows one to manage a site’s content, Textplates seeks to bring talented design savvy developers out of the woodwork, to test their mettle in the grand arena. If you are a web standards aware designer, I’d encourage you to jump headlong into the fray.

There are a variety of prizes to be had, including a Mac Mini, lifetime of free hosting from Foing, and books of your choice from Friends of ED publishing. The judges panel consists of a solid mix of designers with CMS experience…

• Andrew Faulkner
• Bryan Veloso
• Jared Christensen
• Jeff Croft
• Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain
• Mary Fredborg
• Nathan Smith

I hope to see a great turnout of talent from this year’s contestants. If you’re going to submit a template, go ahead – get started on the design process!