Web & Code

Featured Author: Meet ThemeMove

Most of the time theme developers, in our view, are IT professionals, but they’re sometimes like artists as well. Creating a new theme is like composing a new song with the design as the lyrics and the coding process as the melody.

ThemeMove

Keeping on theme, our latest team of authors that make up ThemeMove also hail from Vietnam. Find out how being constantly on-the-move is both a product of, as well as a motivator for, the inspired WordPress themes they produce.

Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from, what do you do for a living?

We are a team of developers from Vietnam, all under 30! We call ourselves young, wild & free because we’re ready to go the extra mile for what we are passionate about – building themes. We work full-time at our company, 8 hours a day, 6 days a week just focusing on designing and optimizing WordPress themes. We also run other projects concerning media and online marketing at the same time.

To what do you attribute your success – how is your business unique?

As we all know, success requires a combination of various factors. We consider it good luck that we found each other, and get to work together as a team. Working with the right partners boosts our creativity and give us strength to overcome obstacles. When each of us works independently, we can come up with many original ideas. Then other team members help to refine and materialize them through sound suggestions and advice.

At what moment did you decide to pursue your business?

It was 4 years ago when we started to create and sell exclusive WordPress themes on ThemeForest.

What do you love about your work and why?

We just love to develop WordPress themes. We share the same opinion that this is one of the most challenging yet rewarding careers. Most of the time theme developers, in our view, are IT professionals, but they’re sometimes like artists as well. Creating a new theme is like composing a new song with the design as the lyrics and the coding process as the melody.

What’s the most challenging thing about your work?

Honestly, getting a new theme approved is the most challenging part. Sometimes this process might take up to a month or longer. New authors are often getting frustrated when receiving feedback or rejections from review teams. We did feel that when we first started as an author on ThemeForest.

Sometimes, when we are too proud about our products, we might overlook some potential issues. Accepting that there’s something unsuitable or incompatible with ThemeForest marketplace in a project that you worked so hard on can be a difficult thing. We have to remind ourselves of this all the time in order to find the best solutions.

Is where you live a good place to be a creative professional and why?

Yes, definitely. We have the most modern equipment, a comfortable working space with a serene view and refreshing air to keep us positive & motivated.

What or who inspires you and why?

Being able to make it to the Wall of Fame is one of the biggest factors that inspired us from the very start. Our main focus when becoming a Power Elite Author was not the number of sales, but the idea that our works have been well received by customers. The sales growing higher means that what we have created is functional, useful and meaningful. When clients love our work, we feel inspired to keep moving on and perfecting our themes.

What are some of the biggest lessons that have impacted your work?

It’s “quality surpasses quantity”. We paid the price once for our haste to create as many themes as possible in a short period of time. Obviously, when a work is completed with haste, its quality doesn’t meet the requirements. As a result, we had to redesign our themes and check through all the coding. Thus, being hasty just made us end up wasting more time & effort after checking and making corrections. Luckily, our items weren’t hard rejected. We still had a chance to rectify our mistakes. We learnt a big lesson.

What’s your most memorable client/customer story on Envato?

As we all know, for authors like us, every comment from clients or followers is taken into great consideration. We are lucky enough to have some passionate followers, active supporters, and loyal customers.

In particular, there is one user who has been enthusiastically following and commenting on our works for all these years. We truly appreciate his confidence in our team and his support through regular theme purchases. We do spend time reading all of these comments. They keep us optimistic and motivated through thick and thin because we can’t risk frustrating our dear supporters. We feel deeply thankful for their appreciation indeed.

What is your advice to other authors regarding how to create a successful portfolio?

Three things that we want to share with other authors: Never stop learning, find what motivates you and listen to your customers.

Don’t stop learning and trying new things, even if you are a big author on Envato already because no one can stay in one place forever. Staying in one place for a long period of time means you are going backwards at the same time others are moving forward quickly. Listen to your clients to understand your strengths and weaknesses, find your motivation and keep moving on with your journey, success is near for sure. That’s the reason why we have the name ThemeMove: we never stop moving.

Apart from yourself, who is your favorite marketplace author, and why do you like them?

Solopine. Their work is so nice & clean. Their WordPress themes are built on a foundation of solid coding and striking design.

What tools and resources (online or offline) do you use?

Our designers and code developers have different styles, so of course the resources and tools that they use are different, too. In addition to Sketch, Invision App and Unsplash, they have their own secret weapons that help them better perform the job and form a distinctive styles in each theme.

How do you balance work and family life?

We are humans, we’re not machines. Hence, between work and life there’s only a relative balance. Even when you  have a very well-planned schedule to follow, things outside of your control might still happen. There are times when we have to put family time aside to focus on work because there is too much to do and timing is vital to your projects. What matters is that afterwards we set aside some time to compensate for the lost quality time with family. This is how we maintain the relative balance between work and family life.

What are your hobbies and interests outside of work?

Besides theme development, we love to play soccer as a hobby and organize team-building activities to strengthen the bonds between members. Physical health also plays a part in keeping us motivated.

What are your plans for the future?

We are hoping to reach $2,000,000 in the near future by putting in our best effort and energy. We are also working on some spectacular projects with uncommon concepts for WordPress themes. However, that’s all we can say for now, we can’t disclose any more. If you are interested in our upcoming projects, please continue to follow us on ThemeForest and share your thoughts with us. Thanks for your attention and support during all these years.


You can view ThemeMove’s full portfolio here. If you have any questions or want to continue the conversation, jump over to the forums and say hello!


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