I remember looking at the Drupal theme selection at the end of 2007 and thinking; Who is really wearing these? They all seemed to resemble a developer’s perspective on the design. As a result, Drupal themes used to be very boring. While doing my research for this article, I was truly blown away by the quality of the free and premium Drupal themes available. It’s a testament to how Drupal has grown that the quality of the themes shows that it’s not just developers who are interested in the technology anymore, but designers as well.
Here is my roundup of my top 10 free Drupal themes. I chose these themes not only because I think they are some of the best looking themes available, but because in my experience they have been flexible enough to do what I want with them and still stick with them. I have purchased premium Drupal themes in the past (being lazy) and some have not held up to actual use, which I think is quite important. Remember that all themes are available on drupal.org. Continuing with the main event…
Top 10 Drupal Themes
1. root candy
Root candy is the biggest item I’ve ever come across. It’s a admin themewhich makes it a iffy contender for the top spot, however it’s the only place you can really use a free theme when developing for a client.
It is usually quite difficult to find a theme that appeals to both visitors and admins. Safe Garland.etc. he does a good job, but I think everyone is tired of seeing Garland. The thing is, showing a client an admin backend in Garland is a very disappointing experience, it gets the job done, but if you’re interested in being a designer, it just doesn’t work.
Root Candy is different though; They don’t try to work for the visitors. It is only for the admin area. As a result, it feels better than any other theme that tries to function as an admin theme and is something you can be proud of when you show it off to a client. Sad to say, but the icons really help people navigate and I seem to get a lot fewer phone calls about how to get things done when I deliver a site with Root Candy. If you haven’t used it before, it’s an absolute must.
2. Magazine
The Magazeen theme is a fresh and modern theme with a stylish color scheme. It’s everything good about a Drupal theme. It looks amazing and is clearly focused on publishing articles on Drupal. It feels similar to many other Drupal themes, but it has elements that set it above the rest. It just works for everything related to Drupal.
3. Marinelli
Marinelli is a 3 column Drupal theme. It gets used quite a bit, but it’s well made and doesn’t break easily. I personally like the design, but there are a few elements I would tweak myself to give it a little more edge. In terms of working with a relatively simple theme that packs a punch, Marinelli is great. Enabling the Marinelli theme is a nice and quick way to make your Drupal site look ready to go.
4. Id-Done
I really like this theme. It may be because I’m going through a bit of a minimalist stage right now. It’s by no means perfect, it would fix certain elements, but I think it’s great that there’s a good minimalist Drupal theme. As a result, it also has very good performance.
5. Dessert
It’s not finished yet, but I’ve used it and I really like it. It’s a bit of an oddity for the Drupal community. Give it a try; I’m sure the creators would like to get as much feedback as possible.
6. Quicksilver
The theme was initially created by Artiseer and later modified by a Drupal theme company. It’s pretty basic and since it’s originally an Artiseer theme, I imagine it has some tags all over it. I haven’t used it myself, but I think it’s a good example of a basic Drupal theme that can help improve things a bit.
7. Summer time
Summertime is a beautiful theme with lots of fancy little things that will make your Drupal website look unique. In fact, it is one of the best themes available; it’s packed with web 2.0 features and doesn’t feel like a Drupal theme, which is actually a pretty good thing.
8. Artemia
I really like this theme a lot, with a little work it could easily be the best Drupal theme out there. The only reason it isn’t higher on the list is simply because of a lack of styling for certain basic Drupal elements. For example, please look at the demo site and tell me why the poll is not fully styled. Simple touches like that will turn this theme into something great. In fact, being a bit incomplete, it gives you the perfect opportunity to customize it as per your requirements. Every cloud huh?
9. Elements
I really like this, background textures are very trendy so it’s about time Drupal came on board and this theme by Nicolas Borda does just that. It’s a very nice theme indeed.
10. Beach
Another quirky theme, not really a corporate look but there are some nice design elements and it’s a pretty flexible theme. It reminds me a bit of the theme of the Drupal conference website (can’t remember the URL). Go give it a try.