Lullabot

Making It Pretty

Drupal is widely known amongst web-developers for its clean, powerful, web-development framework. But what is not often known is that Drupal's presentational layer is just as flexible and powerful for web designers. With a little knowledge of Drupal's theme system, it is possible to get pretty much anything you want to output anywhere on the page. Did you know that all of Drupal's output functions can be rewritten-and-reworked in your theme? Did you know that you can add different page templates for any page or section of your site?

Join us in this three-day interactive workshop as you learn how to make a professional-looking Drupal theme. We will walk through the design process and discuss the tips and tricks we used to create great-looking Drupal sites for MTV, Lullabot.com, Participant Productions, Leo Laportes This Week in Tech, and Fearless Living. You'll learn first-hand about Drupal's flexible presentation layer and how to create your own Drupal template. We'll take a look inside some core Drupal themes as well as those of some of the Lullabot sites listed above. Well also cover:

• How to find the "secret" parts of Drupal that can be themed, rearranged, and mangled to your liking
• Best practices for keeping your templates clean and "designer friendly"
• How to add new variables into your templates
• How to add page and section-specific page template files
• How to manipulate the links that usually appear at the bottom of Drupal's content items
• How Drupal handles CSS and how to override the default styles
• The PHPTemplate system in detail and walk through advanced examples of what it can do
• A look at the new features offered in Drupal 6

Who's Teaching?

The Drupal Theming workshop offers practical advice, best practices and hands-on training from Drupal experts whove developed real-world commercial web applications. This workshop will be lead by Lullabot theming ninjas Addison Berry, Nate Haug, Jeff Robbins, and James Walker. The Lullabot team has created sites for Ringo Starr, MTV, Participant Productions, Leo Laporte at This Week In Tech, television star Rhonda Britten of Starting Over, the BBC and many others.

Who Should Attend?

• Web designers
• Web developers
• Drupal developers looking to improve their theming ability
• Anyone wishing to put some polish on their Drupal's site

Attendees should be familiar with (X)HTML and CSS concepts. Previous experience with Drupal is a plus, but not required. Attendance is limited so register soon.

Past Attendees Say:

The Lullabot Drupal Theming Workshop is a must! My main concern with using Drupal had been 'can I make it look like I want it to'? This workshop showed me how to do that. As a result, I have decided to go 100% Drupal with my web development business.
-- Rick Hood, Flow Media Design

As everyone who's tried to customize drupal knows, there's a really steep suck curve. Lullabot helps you learn all those crazy mad ninja kung fu skills so you can become a drupal superstar.
-- Gwen Park, Director of Technology, OurChart

The Lullabot Theming Ninjas walked us through the tools we need to truly take control of the look and feel of a drupal site. Now it's time to go home and break out of the mold!
-- John Jones, ESSDACK.org

What Should I Bring?

You will find it helpful (but not absolutely necessary) to have a laptop computer with you. Each attendee will have access to their own sandbox installation of Drupal for use during the class. However, if you would like to take your work with you, you will want to either intall Drupal on your laptop (Mac instructions, Windows instructions) or have FTP access to a Drupal test-site somewhere on the web.

Providence, RI:

We've found a great location on Providence's historic College Hill right near Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design. The Music Mansion is a 10 minute walk from downtown Providence and the Amtrak and Boston commuter-rail train station. Just a 2 1/2 hour train ride from New York, 45 minutes from Boston, and a 15 minute drive from the Providence airport, this is a very central location with affordable hotel options. Come join us for some crisp Fall days in New England amongst the brownstones and historian victorian homes that make up College Hill.

If you need help making a decision about attending, have further questions about the class, or wish to pay by means other than paypal, please contact us.

Well see you in Providence!