Before I began working with DotNetNuke, I worked with numerous other content management systems, including Wordpress. One of the things I absolutely love about Wordpress was the amount of free plug-ins and theme designs available to the community. After working with DotNetNuke for a while, I've come to love the same things about their community, but have noticed that there is not nearly as many free skins that focus not only on semantic markup, but great design. Where are all the freebies at? Everybody likes free stuff, right?!

We decided to help spread the love to the DNN community by offering Engage: Zeen; a free skin package based on a Wordpress theme design created by WeFunction Design Agency especially for Smashing Magazine and their readers (Check it out). The theme was released free under a GPL, and open to modification and use for all types of projects without any restrictions. All they asked for in return was a link to the article to spread the word. The design simply rocks, and grew to be a popular favorite among Wordpress themes.

Although it is not an exact replica of the Wordpress theme, Engage: Zeen maintains the design and layout with some extra considerations for DNN users. Some of the rich features in the theme were strictly made for the blog functions of Wordpress, so most of the blog features and styles are missing, but represented differently. Instead of styling particular columns in the skin, we used the flexibility of DotNetNuke Containers to create the layout and design giving the user more flexibility to place their content where and how they want. We built out the navigation using the core DNNMenu Navigation tool, making sure that your menu can be dynamic and easy to manage.

I have to say I am extremely excited to see this cool design ported over to DotNetNuke. It is a clear example of how the DNN skinning engine provides a nearly infinite amount of choices to have great design with powerful content management all at your fingertips and easy to use. I hope everyone enjoys the free skin, and an extra special thanks to Function and Smashing Magazine for providing the original theme and the inspiration.