Soft rejection of CORPO ThemeForest theme feedback needed

My CORPO theme for MODX got soft rejected after a big update

I made a lot of improvements and changes after feedback that I got here http://themeforest.net/forums/thread/corpo-theme-for-modx-hard-rejected-/131538 (thanks to all for that).

But unfortunately I got soft rejected this time and am a bit at a loss on how to improve.

See a live version of my theme: http://corpo.themesmodx.com/

Concept for the theme

The name is ‘CORPO’ as in corporate. Since I do not see any business/corporate themes yet for MODX Revolution, I wanted to create a clean, minimal and easy to use theme that has most features that a business site will need:

• Homepage with slider
  
• Responsive
• CTA area’s
• Quotes slider
• Image gallery with retina support
• Contact form
• Google map
• One page sticky sub nav
• SEO optimized with integrated Analytics an sitemap

I feel like the theme has a lot of features and a great MODX back-end setup, but ThemeForest does not seem to like the design style…

Inspiration for the theme

I looked at some corporate best sellers like:

AVADA http://themeforest.net/item/avada-responsive-multipurpose-theme/2833226?WT.ac=category_item&WT.z_author=ThemeFusion
ENFOLD http://themeforest.net/item/enfold-responsive-multipurpose-theme/4519990?WT.ac=category_item&WT.z_author=Kriesi
Inovato http://themeforest.net/item/inovado-retina-responsive-multipurpose-theme/3810895

I wanted a white clean background with some options to change the colors of sections (these are included) and added some Google font options to choose from.

Using em based font sizing and Bitters from Bourbon.io, I feel that my typography and line spacing looks good on small and large screens. (element overview here http://corpo.themesmodx.com/about.html)

Here is the feedback I got:

This looks uninviting, plain and unfinished



No focus, plain, uninviting weak visual hierarchy



Generic, plain, looks unfinished







Of course design is quite subjective but I am not sure I see why may theme is considered to be so generic & plain…
They actually find the whole site to look boring!

See a live version of my theme: http://corpo.themesmodx.com/

Any help is greatly apreciated.

Hi Menno,

The theme sounds great, I look forward to using it.

But I think the feedback from themeforest is fair.

The design is nice and clean, something I'm a bif fan of but I think it needs some 'flourishes' or 'accents' (sorry I'm not a graphic designer so not sure of the technical terms)

What I mean is maybe not radical changes but just a 'little something' here and there.

What that little something is I'm not sure. Maybe someone with a graphic design background could give some fresh input/ideas.

Maybe the subtle use of a complementary colour?

And maybe the titles (Main features, Amazing design etc ) should be demarkated more strongly.

With the exmples you've based your theme on I notice that their top menus are smaller text a bit more subtle. Their overall design are very similar and clean, but their content has a bit more going on, maybe that has an influence?

Also there are a few typos: powerfull should be powerful and controll > control

And maybe your blue semi transparent info box over the images should be more transparent, so the viewer gets more pleasure from the images.

Hope that helps.

Mike

Feedback For The Template:

Excuse me for being extremely direct, but that's how I am.

First glance:

W3C validation: 34 Errors + 1 warning

The footer is horrible - text in the middle of nowhere, giving no structural appearance

The heavy use of the borders between the elements is too HARD - something thinner / lighter colour

It needs the use of a different font for the headings

Buttons have unequal white-space / padding e.g. top and bottom are unequal


My Rant

You are not the first and won't be the last to get that kind of response from the users at themeforest.

They have a group of people who rate / test the templates and if they have a bad day, your work, no matter how good, will be rejected.

They don't give you reasons why, they just say go to the forums and ask the people there - pathetic in my opinion.

They sadly now have a monopoly position and that won't change in the near future.

I've watched the development of their site(s) over the last years and its always the same - one person creates a great product, within a couple of weeks of that product being published, you will see a load of new products based around this one - in relation to a template the design & functionality.

Quality control used to be a major part of their submission terms - no W3C errors etc. - take a look at a lot of the demos which are online and you will see tons of errors in the code - and cross browser isn't worth talking about.

They price dump on a scale that I have never seen before, the amount of time and work that goes into building a template or theme is in no relation to the price that they place on the work.

There are obviously times where a template or theme is bought by thousands and then it can pay off - but there is no guarantee that that will happen.

You shouldn't compare your work with other themes & templates on Themeforest - your work should be based on how you work, not on that of others.


Quote from: thingstodo at Jun 25, 2014, 09:58 AM

Also there are a few typos: powerfull should be powerful and controll > control

@thingstodo

Have you taken a good look at the themes and template on themeforest lately - the typos in this theme are nothing in comparison

Sorry to hear that Menno. I can see the huge amount of work that goes into your themes.

I noiced your content is mainly promoting the technical, design and SEO features of the theme.
When I look through the other designs, they are built with latin text but built with the eventual content in mind. IE they might have a profiles area, a pretend location map etc etc.

Could this be something thats negatively affecting your theme in the eyes of the judges? [ed. note: eladnova last edited this post 9 years, 10 months ago.]

@iusemodx

Thanks, I like brutal feedback, is the best to get.

• the validation errors are all image tags that are used for responsive images, I really do not care about that at all and the W3C validator is not up to date I think....
• Working on a better footer as we speak... thanks
• Will see about the borders if I can tweak it, but I like some strong borders actually
• Will update fonts and buttons spacing yes

100% agree with your rant, and am at a loss sometimes in how TF actually reviews and works...

@eladnova

Good point, looking at other winning themes they all use dummy content in a different way... I don't really like it but might be the way to go.

I don't pretend to be a designer, but it looked a little harsh to me. I think a small amount of rounding and/or drop shadow on the rectangular buttons might help. Also, a lighter, thinner border might work.

change the font will do allot of improvement, maybe set a couple of fonts peoples can pick?

Quote from: fourroses666 at Jun 26, 2014, 07:44 AM

change the font will do allot of improvement, maybe set a couple of fonts peoples can pick?

Thanks fourroses666,

I actually have 5 header and 5 base fonts to choose from included in CORPO theme via Client Config, just choose one from dropdown.
Even added different line-heights and sizing for each option....

That is why I know that ThemeForest did not event test the back-end, the options are there and one can choose a font he/she likes....
Finally a font choice is quite a personal opinion I think, my theme should not get rejected when using a popular Google Font with correct spacing and line-heights.

Quote from: BobRay at Jun 25, 2014, 11:09 PM

I don't pretend to be a designer, but it looked a little harsh to me. I think a small amount of rounding and/or drop shadow on the rectangular buttons might help. Also, a lighter, thinner border might work.

Good suggestions thanks Bob.

Try making the three rectangular photos under Main Features into circles. As ThemeForest are so keen on trends, it might help a little.