The MiniMoo WordPress theme, available for download from the theme directory since October 29 and I am proud that it has recorded well over 400 downloads to date. So far, it hasn’t received any negative feedback though there are several unnoticed bugs with the theme.
Every theme developer has to start somewhere, including myself. I didn’t just decide that I wanted to create a theme and out it came.
Though there are plenty of guides teaching you how to create a WordPress theme from scratch on the web, I never really liked using that as a point of reference. Sure they get you through the skeleton, but for most parts, you are actually copying the snippets, not learning how to create a theme.
Personally, the biggest challenge is not understanding the technical part of WordPress but laying your design right. A grasp in web design is a must too.
I started off using a downloaded theme and tweaking its sidebar. At that time, widgets weren’t available so things weren’t just drag and drop like they are now, whatever changes had to be made directly to the sidebar.php.
When I got more comfortable, I moved to editing other theme files. What makes a site layout a WordPress theme? What makes it tick? I found the answers just by playing with the theme and it all started to piece together.
The Codex is a very good helper for new and advanced users, the amount of information available is amazing. There is nothing on WordPress it doesn’t cover. Even till today, I still refer to it when looking for WordPress specific functions. It needs some reorganizing though.
The best way to learn how to create a theme is to get your hands dirty. There is no two ways about it.
Darran Low is a 22 year old sports enthusiast currently pursuing a Bachelor degree in Computer Science at the University of Adelaide and aspires to become a Web Developer in the near future. 
ohh
nice. i like the colours too. hehe.
Hi Darran, congrats to your wordpress theme that you had created. I am a big fan of minimalistic themes and with 3 columns too!
Probably want to give you another tip to help you become an even better theme developer. You should standardize your fonts all to serif or sans serif. It would look more standardized and neat too.
Cheers!
Cris: That would be a consideration for my next scheduled update.