Today, there are "theme frameworks" that have all the base elements of what a theme should contain, such as a header, footer, sidebar, primary font, heading font, paragraph font and more. We'll talk about why theme frameworks are good and why they actually might not be good for your project. We'll also cover creating "child themes" for theme frameworks, that modify the base theme to include colors and style. And, we'll cover how graphical assets are delivered by the designer and how they are cut and coded into WordPress themes.

1. Child Themes with
WordPress
Michael McNeill
@michaelrmcneill on Twitter
WordPress Chapel Hill - 10/21/2013

2. What is a child theme?
Pulling from the WordPress Codex (http://
codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes)
“A WordPress child theme is a theme that inherits the
functionality of another theme, called the parent theme. Child
theme allows you to modify, or add to the functionality of that
parent theme. A child theme is the safest and easiest way to
modify an existing theme, whether you want to make a few
tiny changes or extensive changes. Instead of modifying the
theme files directly, you can create a child theme and override
within.”

3. Why would I use one?
If you modify an existing theme and it is updated, all
your changes will be lost. With a child theme, you can
update the parent theme (which might be important for
security or functionality) and still keep your changes.
It can speed up development time, because you avoid
having to build the “base” of a theme.

4. How to make a simple child theme?
Check out https://github.com/michaelryanmcneill/
wpchapelhilldemo (http://bit.ly/1h28FKF) for the source
code for my example.
All you need to do is create a folder in your themes
folder to hold the child theme.
Then create a style.css file in that folder, using the
standard format used by other themes.
You’re done! Welcome to your child theme.