How to Create a Magazine Theme for WordPress

1. Think out what you want to put on your site. If your concept of a magazine style focuses on photo display, look for themes that allow posting of large images against dramatic backgrounds. If you want a more newsy approach, select themes with two or three columns, even four, that showcase multiple categories. A simple background that doesn’t get in the way of the news works best.
2. Use themes with dark backgrounds to make images standout in photo-style magazine layouts. It doesn’t have to be black. Using a deep blue or a subdued red with a main column of white for content and images works well. Avoid bright colors for backgrounds. Some themes let photos bleed off the light or white main column into dark frames, effective for creating a stark, minimalist theme. Avoid graphic elements with frills. You want the design kept simple to let the photos provide the graphic impact. Keep text to a minimum, and leave plenty of space around the photos, or white space as it’s called in print. One main column and a side bar for links are all you need.

3. Select themes with white or light backgrounds where text will appear when creating a news-style magazine theme. Reverse text – light text on dark backgrounds – is harder to read for anything but short items such as a quote box. No matter what you’re writing or collecting news items on, you want highlights from several categories on the theme’s home page, requiring several columns. The highlights for categories should allow you to place small photos for stories mentioned. On pages that hold the complete story, the theme should allow placement of larger photos.
4. Customize the themes as needed to fit your plan. Select themes with a custom header image if you want your banner to contain a logo or graphic image that brands your online magazine. Photo-style magazines, however, can do well with just a name and no image that conflicts with the content photos. Choose a theme that’s very flexible, letting you adjust as you go along. You may start out with a two-column news-style theme, but later find that switching to three columns better fits what you need to do.