This is a snazzy dark grey theme with splashes of greenery (hence the name). The original template is an open-source design by Pat Heard from FullAhead.org.
I have included, as of Version 2.0, an Adobe Photoshop template file that allows the painless creation of custom theme “middle-space” images (hint: the “middle-space” is the large section between the main content and the sidebar that has lots of “greenery” in it).
I get lots of questions on this theme surrounding the menu tabs at the top. By default only a few choices are shown (homepage, about page, and the archives) because, quite frankly, there’s not a lot of real-estate up there to be showing a dozen page tabs - and there’s a secondary navigation in the sidebar that shows ALL pages. However, I have included all the PHP code you’d need (inside the header.php file) to allow your pages to be tabbed up top. 
[DOWNLOAD] v2.2 - 17 JUL 08 - 732kB
[LIVE DEMO]
I used to work for a small Christian non-profit as their in-house design guy. I would take their projects, make graphics and lay them out for print. It was a lot of work and not always as rewarding - but I learned a lot about publishing design.
First and foremost I wanted to stick with a sans-serif font. I’m naturally drawn to simple and generally “softer” fonts. Weathered fonts are an exception. In contradiction to that statement, I sometimes go for elegant fonts like Zapfino (as seen in my existing logo), which is one of my favorites. It’s much to busy, however, for what I wanted to convey with Design Adaptations.
Then I happened across Chris Merritt’s site Pixelight Creative, and immediately liked the logo. It’s eye-catching and unpretentious. It also met the criteria on my list. I decided to try my hand, selecting Optima this time. I think you’ll agree my first version was a bit TOO simple. Back to the drawing board.
We were close, but some refining was needed. The visual separation created by the icon was a nice transition between words. It also made the logo “pop”, drawing the eye and doing a better job of incorporating the blue I’ve always loved and used here.
Fanime grew out of the transition of anime to more mainstream audiences in the ’90s and the need to fill the San Francisco Bay Area’s needs for such a convvention. Several organizations recognized the growing interest in anime and manga in the early ’90s and organized independent conventions in the Bay Area, namely AnimeCon and Anime America. There were some other anime conventions prior to these elsewhere in the States, but I’ll just talk about what I know. I missed AnimeCon and the first Anime America conventions but went to AnimeCon’s spiritual follow on Anime Expo in 1993. The t-shirt that year was pretty cool with the Silent Mobius inspired logo on the front and various SD characters on the back. Unfortunately, the Bay Area didn’t seem to be able to handle two 1,000+ person attendance anime conventions in those days and Anime Expo moved on to bigger and better things as the country’s premier anime convention down in the L.A. area. Anime America continued along until it’s demise after 1996. As a side note, for that last convention I tried to be a correspondent for the fledgling AniMecca site but like many of my activities, I didn’t get too far beyond my initial report, but that’s a story for another day.
Nowadays, I’m basically only attending Fanime one day a year. Memorial Day weekend is typically busy and it’s hard to juggle work, family, the convention and whatever else happens to be going on that weekend. Unlike comic conventions which have big mix of people, I’m really starting to feel like one of the “old” people at the anime cons. It seems like it’s 80% tweens, teens and college kids. That’s great because it speaks of the vibrancy of anime and manga. But, I definitely feel the pains of disconnect to a lot of the current popular shows. I still go for the rare but gratifying experience of finding something new that I’m interested in, like the recently broadcast Macross Frontier. More on that another time.
