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Who does this South African Wordpess-a-holic think he is?
We get quite a few requests in our inbox each month for paid reviews. Almost all of which have nothing to do with business or have any relevancy to you guys and gals.
Thankfully, we were approached by a young entrepreneur for a review a week or so ago.
That young go getter’s name is Adriaan Pienaar (aka Adii), whose based in Cape Town, South Africa. Adii is a freelance designer who’s also completing his Honours Degree in Business Management.
Having begun the chronicling of his life and work in January of ‘07 at http://www.adii.co.za (quite the popular blog), Adii is approaching the one year anniversary of his foray into the world of blog design and development.
Labeling yourself as a “Wordpress rockstar� takes quite a bit of confidence, of which Adii doesn’t seem to lack. With a portfolio that includes Chris Garrett’s site and what seems to be a new Wordpress theme every other damn day, Adii is definitely setting out to label himself as a specialist when it comes to blogging. And the content of his blog and work in his portfolio reflect that.
While Unique Blog Designs got quite a bit of hype over the past month for the redesign of John Chow’s and Shoemoney’s sites, what you may not have noticed is the name behind almost all of the out-of-the-box templates UBD sells. Adii is the creative responsible for six of the seven themes currently up for sale. Two of the more popular ones, Block Magazine and Your Revolution, can be seen below.
These themes fall into a new category that Adii seems to be at the helm of: premium Wordpress themes. While most themes are released free to the public for the purpose of self-promotion, premium themes are sold at an affordable rate (usually $50 to $100) in hopes of moving a dozen or so and repeating the process.
Having lined himself up against Michael Pollock of Solostream and Brian Gardner, Adii is a prime example of success by association in this newfound market. As much as selling premium themes is a new trend, so are news and magazine layouts. Adii’s latest theme, Premium News, is a fantastic example of this direction. Look for plenty of blogs to go this route (maybe even YGG ;)
Our contest closed last week, but Adii still has his own up and running until October 29th. You can win one of the themes mentioned above along with several other prizes. Check it out.
While in most industries Adii would be labeled as a rookie or intern, having only been in the game for a year, it’s remarkable to see how far he’s come in such a short period and established himself as a serious contender. Or as he’d prefer to be labeled, a “Wordpress rockstar�. : )
October 25th, 2007 at 12:11 am
Yeah I mean he’s great.
But minus the “no grid” style the site has.
The eye breaking color scheme and the mix of content so unorganized that it gives me a headache to browse.
But other than that, yeah he’s pretty cool. :)
October 25th, 2007 at 12:20 am
But I will admit, I cannot wait to see his newest theme (the premium news theme)
I think it’ll be hacked up to look great for each user. I wish he would offer it for free.
October 25th, 2007 at 1:47 am
@ YGG Crew - Thanks for the review and kind words. I’m happy to be featured here on YGG and be exposed to a new and unique audience.
@ Patrick - my own blog’s design is not entirely grid-based (I admit), but it is not far from it either. As for the eye breaking colour scheme - the idea is to stand to out! :)
Good to hear that you are excited about the upcoming theme. I too wish that I could release it for free, but where is the fun in that!? :) I can’t begin to explain how much time and effort (and a bucketload of learning) is going into creating this theme and for that, I simply need to fund my time by selling it as a premium theme. I will however be running quite a few comps on my blog when the theme is released and I’m planning on a more light-weight version that I could sell for much less than $100… Keep checking my blog! :)
October 25th, 2007 at 5:47 am
I’ve started to hear more and more about Adii, and am loving his bold but slick designs, which is what I like. I’m gonna take the hint and guess that maybe Adii is gonna help you guys with a new template? lol.
Looking forward to reading more about you Adii - keep up the good writing and theming.
October 25th, 2007 at 9:47 am
@Adnan
Travis does all our designs, you know that :)
October 25th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
Hey Adii….I’ve been following your work form time to time too. Love your style. Keep it up!!!
October 25th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
Thanks for the kind words Adnan & Dinu! :)
October 25th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Adii
I like your designs mate
I have followed this whole Small Potatos thing and it was pretty rough.
I may have commented on your blog but the corporate look/you and your fiance pics … they make me want to leave your blog every time I visit. Coporate look - because it looks not very good and The fiance one - it makes me cringe. Although I’m sure she’s nice.
Anyway other than that I find your designs very attractive. I think some of the criticism you get is unfair, but the thing is I think your designs would appeal a lot to a non-tech, broader market. And this is what is important.
I would order a design but too pricey atm for me…
October 25th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
Jonk - you’ve got your opinion and that is fair… My blog is essentially my personal blog and I will never apologize for it being that - if I had wanted it to be less personal, I would’ve registered http://www.wordpressrockstar.com or something. Sure, the photos is not everybody’s cup of tea, but my blog is doing better than ever since I first launched my polaroid design back in June (and then V2 on 1 September). And my “corporate look” photo is supposed to be a silly joke - I was trying to look all serious and it’s all tongue-in-cheek! :)
Thanks for backing me up on the WPDesigner thing - I still feel that I was completely blindsided by a supposed friend… But luckily that’s something of the past now…
October 26th, 2007 at 6:31 am
[...] He is a freelance Wordpress designer but he’ll tell you more about that. Recently Adii has gained huge exposure on some of the biggest blogs around and this caught my eye. His portfolio is large and extends [...]
October 26th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
[...] to illustrate, a quick Technorati search reveals no less than 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 (I think I’ll just stop there) within the past 24 hours. [...]
November 7th, 2007 at 10:45 am
Yup! kudos to Adii… someone to keep an eye on in future. :)
November 7th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
[...] couple weeks back we reviewed a gentleman by the name of Adriaan Pienaar, a “Wordpress Rockstar” in the making. Adii was kind [...]
March 11th, 2008 at 9:30 am
As this is a review of Adii and his products and services I wish to state my own experience with Adii. In 2007, I contracted Adii to do a site for me in WP. I paid a lot of money and still had to take the project away from him in the end. What I can say for Adii is that he is a good marketer.