In this months Web Designer magazine, I’ve contributed a feature on how to use the Roots WordPress theme as a starting point for your project.

In the past, whenever I started a WordPress site, I had a lot of work to do, stripping the parts away that I didn’t want and trying to get a markup pattern I liked. However, the Roots Theme negates much of this work. It’s based on the HTML5 boilerplate and Twitter bootstrap so it comes with loads of ‘best practice’ features built in. It also changes the default url structure, sets a menu, and activates a home page (if you want it to).

In short, I’m a massive fan and besides using it on this site, I’m currently using it as the starting point for all the responsive WordPress based designs I’m working on. Check out the walkthrough in Web Designer magazine and head over to rootstheme.com to learn more about it.