Both the quantity and quality of premium WordPress themes has accelerated rapidly over the past six months, and here are five of the best money can buy. Dominating this list are primarily high quality, portfolio themes that are guaranteed to bring your website to life. Don’t be deceived by the simplicity – the quality is in the details. Click on the images to view theme demos.

Classica WordPress Portfolio Theme

The first offering is Classica, a design entirely simple yet sophisticated. Judicious use of whitespace enables a clean-cut look that prioritises information without clutter. Certainly worth checking out.

Create: WordPress Portfolio Theme

Create Portfolio Theme is not as subtle as Classica, however this in a way highlights its strength. Images are plentiful on the homepage, yet never do they seems cluttered or claustrophobic. Similarly, little details such as the drop-menu highlight add a degree of sophistication.

The Cotton: Powerful Minimalistic WordPress Theme

The Cotton is, in my opinion, one of the most well designed WordPress Themes to ever have existed. Possibly a big call. Huge call, actually, but it’s that good. Maybe it just appeals to me, but I really do feel that everything about this theme is just right. Again, the beauty lies in the details, which includes the back-end Admin panel that makes customisation easy and simplistic. I bought this theme even though I would have no conceivable use for it. You should too.

Kundera Creative WordPress Tumblog

Tackling the cross-platform genre, Kundera is an interesting take on the somewhat tired portfolio concept. It’s a shame, then, that the designer decided to bestow their curious creation with such a stupid name. Despite that, the coding is sound and the design is excellent -well worth checking this one out.

Halo: Stunning WordPress Portfolio Theme

This theme is perhaps a little less known, but by no means is any less because of it. Again, simplicity wins here, as all images are spaced perfectly yet prominently. The focus that the logo area brings will also be an attraction for many.

It would take an incredibly enthusiastic maths nerd with a sizable calculator to work out the number of premium WordPress themes available online – there really are too many too physically count. So to make your life just that little bit easier, we’ve rounded up the best of the best currently on offer.

Showtime Business Theme

The first offering from Themeforest, Showtime, really is a testament to show just how far the premium WordPress theme market has come. Designed by Freshface, this light and airy theme redefines the typical product website, relived through refreshing graphics and the most amazing theme options panel you will ever see. It’s probably not healthy to get worked up over a theme options panel, but it’s seriously cool, and will make theme customisation a helluva lot easier.

Purchase the Showtime Business Theme

Implicit WordPress Theme

Second on the list is Implicit, a sort of post-modernistic offering featuring, well, nothing. But that’s kinda the point, and it’s not really a bad thing. Many premium themes lack the startling effect of vast, empty space and design subtlety, so it’s good to see that this crucial design technique is used to the fullest extent through the theme. The preview really doesn’t do this theme justice – you have to view the live preview to get the full impact.

Purchase the Implicit WordPress Theme

Premium Magazine WordPress Theme

The Premium Magazine WordPress Theme, by Maximus, is awesome. Not gonna lie, it’s just great. Firstly, it’s simple and functional yet visually appealing. Secondly, it doesn’t have a wanky name which is just so amazing. This theme has great potential for customisation too, another considerable bonus.

Purchase the Premium Magazine WordPress Theme

Synthetik WordPress Theme

Synthetik, which I will now reference as “Synthetic” considering that is the internationally accepted spelling, is a WordPress theme modeled on the originally popular HTML theme of the same name and design. The theme is a unique offering, with a distinctly discernible quality about it from the subtle navigation menu to the beautiful footer – an unusual yet enticing design.

Purchase the Synthetik WordPress Theme

The Professional

Anything from elegantthemes is practically synonymous with quality, and The Professional truly lives up to the standard. It’s the little details, like the popup slider on the frontpage to the simplistic beauty of the blog layout that confirms the exceptional calibre of this theme.

Purchase The Professional WordPress Theme

Delicate News

Like The Professional, Delicate News is a stunning WordPress theme, with a distinct emphasis on beauty through subtlety. An often unrecognised element to all elegantthemes is the extensive option panel, which like Showcase (above) is extensive and sophisticated. Delicate News is a creative alternative to the mainstream, and will certainly not disappoint.

Purchase The Delicate News WordPress Theme

Light Bright

Finally, Light Bright, another offering from ElegantThemes, presents simplicity at its best through a uncomplicated yet visually alluring design. Don’t discount this theme because of it’s basic appearance: Light Bright has a surprising amount to offer both for a casual blogger and the professional.

Purchase The Light Bright WordPress Theme

13 extraordinary digitally designed advertising posters created by some of best graphic designers in the world.

1. Martini Asti Elements | Earth

2. Tiger Beer

3. Red Bull | The Spirit Within

4. Liquid Color

5. Redd’s | Pitch

6. Nike Air Lab 1

7. Wrigley’s 5 Gum

8. Make a Drawing | Paris

9. Bacardi | Shoot and Fly

10. RPM Hard Drive Clock | Reclaim Time

11. Fanta Advertisement

12. Martini Asti Elements | Water

13. Redd’s | Ekspress

Making your website cross browser compatible (that is, so it looks the same on all web browsers) is kind of like cooking a soufflé – the recipe looks simple enough until it comes out of the oven all flat and gross, and you end up hurling it into the wall at 150mph. Building your website to be cross browser compatible is a lot harder than it looks.

There’s a lot to be said for a standardized web browser. If only Microsoft and Apple could sit down at a table, and agree to only support Mozilla Firefox, the world of website creation would be a helluva lot simpler. Of course that’s not going to happen anytime soon, and while Firefox (the world’s best browser, obviously) currently occupies just under 25% of global browser use, Internet Explorer still commands over 60% of browser use worldwide – and as we all know, Internet Explorer sucks.

Over the last decade Internet Explorer, in it’s various incarnations, has gone from Prince Charming of the browser world to that distant intellectually-backward cousin with the monobrow. IE’s rapid demise is through no fault of it’s own, of course, but compared to the alternative browsers (Firefox, Safari and Chrome), it really can’t compare both in speed and usability. You and me know Internet Explorer is crap. 60% of internet users, however, don’t. Mmmm….

So what’s the problem with IE? Microsoft’s browser will display most webpages, and people will be able to read what you write. The problem lies in the little details, where IE will usually always generate something wrong, and let down your entire web design. Granted, most users won’t really notice, but that’s hardly the point, is it? You go to so much effort to create a visually impressive website which is let down by a dated but very dominant web browser.

The solution? Don’t even bother supporting crap browsers. A few of the larger websites have already taken this initiative which is encouraging to small scale websites. The only way to phase out the ancient browsers is to stop supporting them, it’s that simple. Of course until that happens, the only solution is to painstakingly modify and re-modify your website graphics and css code until your website displays roughly as intended across all browsers. And when for the eighteenth time your website search box looks crap in Internet Explorer, we don’t advise hurling your computer at the wall – as we discovered, it doesn’t actually help…

5 hand picked highly flexible premium wordpress themes in a league of their own in terms of design and usability

Shape Shifter

Beginning the list is ShapeShifter, a unique “single page” wordpress theme.  The shapeshifter theme allows content to be displayed in a minimalistic and very sophisticated way that not many other WordPress themes can boast by incorporating separate parts into one page, where the sidebar links “scroll” to a different section of the website. Sound confusing? If you can describe this theme any better please let us know – the preview image and our description really don’t do this theme justice. Available from Themeforest for $30 (deposit)

Flexolio

If you’re looking for something with a big header that’s not boring, Flexolio is probably one of the best out there. Okay, so it has a pretty bad name, but the theme itself is exceptional both in it’s design and detail. This theme incorporates the CU3ER flash header that displays a few neat tricks to wow your visitors. Beyond that, the Flexolio theme incorporates subtle visual accents that surpass the quality of most other premium WordPress themes.  Available from Themeforest for $30 (deposit)

Glow

Elegantthemes has always been one of the leaders in WordPress theme design, and Glow is perhaps one of the best themes there. Available for $19.95 (which, FYI,  allows you access to 30 additional high quality themes), Glow is a highly flexible, high quality and generally good looking theme. The accompanying ePanel allows you to make easy changes without digging into the theme files, which saves you time AND helps you’re stress levels. Available from Elegant Themes ($19.95 for one year subscription to all themes)

Marketplace Community WordPress Theme

While not as stunning as other WordPress Themes, sometimes flexibility and simplicity come before anything else, of which the Marketplace Community WordPress Theme is a great example. The layout, which is simple and intuitive is ideal for a website focused more on content visibility than visual impact. Maximus is well known for creating high quality WordPress Themes, and the level of support you will receive with this theme will be more than enough to customise it to your liking. Available from Themeforest for $25 (deposit)

Quadro

Normally we save the best until last… er, sorry about that. But while Quadro (another aptly named theme) may look dull and uninviting, upon closer inspection this theme is actually highly detailed and endlessly flexible, meaning that with a bit of love this theme could be transformed into something else. From the intuitive and simplistic layout to the pixel-perfect line work, Quadro is a great option for those looking for a foundation to build a unique custom theme. Available from Themeforest for $30 (deposit)