Everyone meet Chris Molitor. Chris is a very talented designer, illustrator and wordpress theme developer from Themeforest and Graphic River with an impressive portfolio collection on both marketplaces. Chris took a few minutes to sit down and answer some questions with WebTipsMagazine.com and to help us understand the man behind his awesome designs.

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Hi Chris, thanks for taking a few minutes to answer some questions for our readers. Can you tell us a little about yourself and how you got in to creating themes and templates for ThemeForest.net:

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I’m 27, living in the outskirts of Seattle, WA with my beautiful wife, Christine (yes, Chris and Christine). I received my BA in marketing from the University of Washington.

I work as the lead developer for a fantastic company called Blackwave Creative (blackwave.net) where I build custom WordPress themes all day. Recently I’ve taken up skiing as a hobby, so I’ve spent the last couple of months falling down the slopes of the Cascade Mountains. I started making themes for Theme Forest when it first opened its doors back in 2008.

WordPress HUD – By Chris Molitor – preview here

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How did you get into Web Design?

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I’m a gamer. For a long time I frequented an Xbox 360 blog that was built with WordPress. I looked into this WordPress thing and thought it was so cool that I could have my own website and share all my Photoshop pictures and Chuck Norris comics (based on the Chuck Norris facts).

After awhile, I decided to purchase the CSS upgrade so that I could mess around with the actual code of the theme. I had so much fun that I decided to learn HTML/CSS so I could totally customize the look of my site. Later I decided to branch out and get my own hosting account and install WordPress so I could customize it even further.

Hobby turned into obsession. Obsession turned into profession. The rest is history

Samurai Warrior Illustration by Chris Molitor – Preview here

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Why did you choose to use ThemeForest as your sales outlet and can you let us know about your experience there?:

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When Envato first announced Theme Forest, I got a sudden rush of anticipation. I knew it was going to be huge.

I first encountered the Envato marketplaces as a buyer on Active Den (then called Flash Den). I wasn’t very good with flash, so it was an awesome resource for me when clients had flash needs. I was really impressed with the quality of files on the site and how strong the community was.

I remember putting together my very first submission for Theme Forest. I spent hours and hours on it, and was so sad when it was rejected. While it was tough getting rejected, I realized that it only made my themes that much better. To this day, I’m so thankful for the high quality standards that Theme Forest enforces. It really does make us better web designers.

WordPress University by Chris Molitor – Preview here

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Tell us a little about your work flow when designing and creating WordPress themes, do you have a set pattern or some other method?:

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I always start in Photoshop. I typically spend a week playing with design ideas. When I think I’ve reached the end of my creative exercise, I start developing the site in Coda. I’ve spent the last 2 years making my own WordPress framework so that I can develop a fully custom WordPress site in less than a week (in some cases a couple days). I remember when I was so excited about finishing my WordPress University design that I actually stayed up all night developing it until it was done (I love coffee). For some reason, I feel most creative in the midnight hours. Weird.

I try not to think of Theme Forest as a money making tool, but more as a creative outlet. With that mind set, I only build themes that I think are cool and allow me to incorporate some new jQuery techniques or WordPress functions I’ve learned recently. Sometimes I build themes that fill a gap, such as my WordPress Church theme or WordPress University theme, and other times I build themes just for the sake of making something cool, like my WordPress HUD theme and WordPress Glass theme (which I also use for my personal website).

WordPress Church by Chris Molitor – Preview here

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Where do you find inspiration from for your themes, templates and graphics – do you have any people that inspire you?:

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For web design, I’m heavily inspired by the authors on the Envato marketplaces. Especially Collis, DigitalScience, Kriesi, Maximus, and Akay. These guys are really amazing web designers. I’m also a fan of Design Bombs. They not only have a fantastic site design, but offer really astounding designs in their gallery.

For general graphics, I’m really inspired by 17th century Japanese art. I’m not sure why, but I think it is one of the most interesting periods in the history of art and design.

Japanese Business Card by Chris Molitor – Preview here

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You also sell graphical items on GraphicRiver – how does that work for you?:

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Graphic River is great. It’s the perfect place to flex your artistic muscle. Like with Theme Forest, I don’t really focus on using Graphic River to make money, but use it as a platform to try out some of my ideas. I get goosebumps when I receive nice comments about my items and receive 5 star ratings. I honestly think making money on Graphic River and Theme Forest as an added benefit of the sites. It’s extremely satisfying just having an audience that enjoys my work.

WordPress Glass by Chris Molitor – Preview here

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What are your professional and personal goals for 2010?:

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I have an ongoing goal of learning as much as I can about WordPress. I think for 2010 my focus will be on plugin development. I haven’t really explored this aspect of WordPress and it’s definitely one of the features of WordPress that sets it apart from all other CMS options.

I also look forward to possibly speaking at WordCamp Seattle again this year. We’ll see

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Some of our readers may be looking to start to produce themes, templates and photoshop files for sale on ThemeForest, or graphical items on GraphicRiver, what advise can you give them from an experienced author’s point of view?:

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The most important thing I’ve learned is to make it easy for buyers to customize your item and make it their own. That means clean code, totally layered PSD files, and lots of admin options in WordPress.

I’m amazed when I get emails from people who bought my files and totally made it their own. In some cases, they almost completely changed it to where it was hard to tell it was ever my theme to begin with. I think that’s really cool.

Also, it never hurts to have great support resources for you buyers, such as video walk-throughs or having a forum for them to ask questions.

Chris’s Workstation – nice!

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Mac or PC?:

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I’m rocking’ a 27″ iMac 2.66 GHz Intel Core i5 and a 13″ MacBook Pro, Photoshop CS4 (upgrading to CS5 soon!), Coda and FireFox.

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If you could only visit 5 websites from this point forward in your life – which ones would you choose?:

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I’m tempted to say Google Reader because then I can still “visit” all my favorite sites.

To play along, I’ll go with Theme Forest, Twitter, Facebook, College Humor and YouTube.

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Thanks for taking a few moments out of what is obviously a very busy schedule Chris to share your story, workflow and interests with our readers – hopefully you can become an inspiration to many readers!

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Keep in contact with Chris

Twitter
GraphicRiver
ThemeForest

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