Genesis Starter Theme

As a WordPress developer, when I’m building a WordPress theme my strong preference is to build on the Genesis Framework. I’ve written about Why the Genesis Framework is Great.

Pre-Made Genesis Child Themes

The Genesis Framework is a parent theme that needs a child theme to go with it (Genesis does the heavy lifting and the child theme makes it look good). There are lots of pre-made Genesis Child Themes available for purchase from StudioPress and other Genesis Theme stores. Once purchased these themes can be modified.

Genesis Starter Themes

An alternative to a pre-made theme is a starter theme. A starter theme is meant to be a baseline to start building from. For example, I’m a big fan of the Bootstrap Front-End framework (I’ve written about Why I Build WordPress Themes with Bootstrap). For me, it makes sense to have a starter theme that already integrates Bootstrap into Genesis.

Bootstrap Genesis Starter Theme

You can download my Bootstrap Genesis Starter Theme for free and for those of you that like to use Git version control, you can find my Bootstrap Genesis Starter Theme on GitHub.

Genesis Starter Themes

Some Genesis starter themes that may be helpful.

• Bootstrap Genesis (GitHub): my starter theme that integrates Bootstrap 3.3.x
• Bolt Pro (GitHub): a starter theme by Chris Mcintosh that integrates Foundation 6
• Craig Simpson’s Starter Theme on GitHub: a starter theme by Craig Simpson that integrates Bourbon and Neat
• The Official Genesis Sample Theme (GitHub): the official Genesis sample theme that comes with purchase.

What is the Best Genesis Starter Theme

This is a silly question prone to start arguments in much the same way the question “What is the best song?” would ( the answer by the way is Eye of the Tiger 😀 ). The best Genesis Starter Theme is the one that works best for you. My recommendation is if you have a front-end framework (e.g. Bootstrap, Foundation, Bourbon) that you like or want to use, let that guide your decision. Otherwise, I’d recommend the Official Genesis Sample Theme with the idea that it will help you learn the fundamentals but you should look to outgrow it quickly.

Make It Your Own

Whichever starter theme you start with, I’d encourage you to edit it liberally and apply relevant changes to your future projects.

Image Credit

Wikimedia

Sal Ferrarello (@salcode)

Sal is a PHP developer with a focus on the WordPress platform. He is a conference speaker with a background including Piano Player, Radio DJ, Magician/Juggler, Beach Photographer, and High School Math Teacher. Sal can be found professionally at WebDevStudios, where he works as a senior backend engineer.