I have been using the Semiologic theme designed by Denis de Bernardy for quite some time. I have just updated this website to version 4.2.2 and I am really impressed.

Denis is a genius. His design combined with the widget plugin by Automattic, makes this theme the only one you need. When you look at other themes, it seems that most authors take an existing theme, change the butterfies in the header to show trees or flowers and publish it as a new theme. The sameness of the themes available is apparent. But Semiologic is truly different.

The theme has 18 different layouts to choose from, including one to four columns versions, in either narrow, wide or flexible formats. If that wasn’t enough, Denis provides 12 different predesigned skins with the ability to further customize by choosing one of the nearly 30 included headers. It is also simple to make changs by editing a custom.css file, dropping it into the skin file you’re using, which over-rides and supplements the themes css file.

You can also insert your own custom headers by just dropping them into the theme file. Nothing could be easier. All of this is free for download. Denis also makes available a package which combines the latest WordPress version, the above Semiologic version 4.2.2, further customized with the addition of a feature rich package of plugins and scripts to truely make the package a website in a box. Denis’ charge for all of this is only $295.00.

You can review that package here, or download the free version. If you value your time, the time saved looking for plugins, testing and installation makes the Pro version well worth the investment.