Child themes

What is a child theme?

Since Ashford is a great content management (CMS) theme for WordPress web sites. The easiest way for a non-technical owner to customize their site is by modifying the Theme Options.

However, to create an unforgettable web site, Ashford can be used as a theme framework. The idea is that online professionals and developers can use Ashford as their parent theme and then customize it using a child theme.

Using Ashford as your parent theme has the following benefits:

  1. Instant ability to “wireframe” your site before you customize the look and feel. This is great for projects where the content is fluid and the information architecture is not clear. It is also great for clients who do not really “get” a web site by looking at comps; live wire frames allow them to validate there decisions.
  2. Ability to upgrade when Ashford is improved or gets new features. Unlike many other free themes or frameworks, Ashford evolves and gets better over time.
  3. Increase your productivity. With Ashford, you do not have to start from scratch every time you start a new project. You will know that comments, archives, search, media, etc all work and have been tested out of the box.
  4. Deliver a better product to your clients. With Ashford, it is like adding 200 hours of development and quality testing to every project.

NEW! Ashford  Pro Starter Child Theme

Ashford Pro is a child theme.

So if you want to use a child theme, you can buy Ashford Pro and build your own child theme starting with that code. With release Ashford Pro v0.6, the  ”Ashford Pro Starter Child Theme” is included with the download. This starter child theme includes step by step instructions on how to use a Ashford child theme.

All child themes use the Ashford code to produce remarkably unique sites. This allows you you to continually upgrade Ashford for free — and benefit from amazing new features — while still keeping the unique look of your child theme.

Store (coming soon)

By the end of 2009, Ashford will offer a variety of child themes for purchase at our store.