Bokeh and Blurry Backgrounds

I first saw this style from this popular Tumblr theme. Bokeh is an effect where a colorful palette of round reflections are so washed and blurred from an out of focus lens of some sort. This mystique of photography somehow brings the subject (the content in our case) a much more focused and sharper look. The Bokeh effect gives the entire page an overall feeling of harmony and beauty.

Blur

Bokeh in combination with transparencies as well as rounded corners give this template a thumbs up from me!

You can view the Item here, or Demo from Here

Modern Business 3

This template uses bokeh in the inner frames of the page. Very sleek, professional and elegant.

You can view the Item here, or Demo from Here

Dark ‘n Clean

Another Bokeh Beauty, don’t miss the amazing typography from this theme!

You can view the Item here, or Demo from Here

Overlapping Folds

This style has been around for a while, but still doesn’t fail to amaze me. It is when the designer takes page elements and wraps them among sections of the page, as if it was three dimensional.

Unite

Definitely one of my favorites. Exceptionaly detailed – the folds even change in orientation when scrolling up and down

You can view the Item here, or Demo from Here

Stage

This one is very unorthodox. Folds, peels – 3d everywhere!

You can view the Item here, or Demo from Here

Fancy Folio

More in the safe and conservative style, checkout the folded navigation button

You can view the Item here, or Demo from Here

Wild Slideshow Transitions

May it be Flash or Javascript – I’ve noticed a trend in transitions. The “fade” and the “sweep” no longer suffice, check out the slideshows in the templates below for a better demonstration.

Perception

Sliced, reversed, waves – the slideshow on Perception will leave you breathless.

You can view the Item here, or Demo from Here

CleanCut

The transition effects on CleanCut will give your images that “Wow” factor.

You can view the Item here, or Demo from Here

Infinite xHTML/CSS Theme

The slideshow on this template is a combination of many styles, played in random order. Tastefully done.

You can view the Item here, or Demo from Here

Accordions

Instead of the regular slideshow, some templates integrate an Accordion effect (or both) right in the home page. Both are somewhat similar, though the Accordion is a new trend that gives your website that out of the ordinary style.

Innovation + Science

Definitely of of my favorites – Innovation + Science is very sleek, sharp and clean. The accordion is a good choice for this template.

You can view the Item here, or Demo from Here

Newscast

Again, one of my favorites – this template’s got it all: typography, spacing, color, javascript effects – and of course the accordion. Probably the best magazine styled theme I’ve ever seen.

You can view the Item here, or Demo from Here

Echoes

Awesome, awesome, awesome!!! This template simply echoes “awesome!”

You can view the Item here, or Demo from Here

Minimalist

Just as the title describes, minimalist styled websites try to achieve the best look out of the least styling. The aim of the minimalist is to present beauty out of pure simplicity.

Europa

Big solid fonts, grayscale schema, massive spacing – this template speaks simple yet beauty.

You can view the Item here, or Demo from Here

Squared3

Squared3 has good typography, as well as excellent color scheme.

You can view the Item here, or Demo from Here

Minimalistic Studio

This template should also have been in the “Wild Slideshow Transitions” category, again – a nice solid template with simple accents and design applications yet effective results.

You can view the Item here, or Demo from Here

Conclusion

There you have it, a collection of tasty design trends in themeforest templates. What did you think of them? Would you buy any of these templates? Did you at least get inspired to build something as beautiful? Do you notice any other trends in Themeforest or elsewhere that is worth mentioning? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section:

Features

The slider in the home page templates are dynamic. Meaning – they are actual posts in your blog that you set in a specified category (i.e. feature) – so they show up in the slider. You can set it to run automatically and are allowed up to eight slides. The slider uses CSSGlobe’s “easy slider“. All images that link to other images automatically loads “FancyZoom” – which which is the amazing javascript zooming effect you see in many modern websites. Monte Cristo also comes with four different “characters” or color schemes: Jacopo is the gray and burgundy guy, Danglars swaggers in brown and taupe, Mondego likes it purple and green while Dantes is different shades of blue.

Why Friendly?

Monte Cristo has a built in options panel where you can set your preferences. Friendly because this way – you don’t have to know HTML, or Javascript to tweak the code. You can set which character you want from the options panel, set the slider categories, automatic or not, plugin your logo files – just about all that you need to customize Monte Cristo to fit your website.

Why Buy?

Monte Cristo is up on sale at ThemeForest.net for a measly $25.00. You can check out the live demo from this link. Why buy if I have been giving away stuff for free? Oh I don’t know – maybe because since I spent a whole lot of time making this theme that I figured I might as well try to make money off of it. Maybe since I give away free support once you purchase is another reason. Or maybe if I make enough money from this that I can now spend more time with my son – teach him not to say bad words like “what the heck“. Of course, its completely up to you.

Updated to Version 1.3 – Drop Down List Support for the Page Navigation!

For those of you who have asked for a drop down list for sub pages – the update is here. I will be glad to send you the update files if you contact me. If you already have Monte Cristo running and have made some edits to the css files – contact me, and I will send you the code to paste in the css files.

Get the Updated Files Here!