Creating a theme is no quick process. Anyone that tells you that has only used page builders. Making a theme for a forum isn't as easy as drag and drop (at least not yet unless you are using IPS lol).
Now, the first step to creating your own custom theme is thinking through your theme and coming up with a mock up. Some good questions you want to ask yourself:
- Am I going to take the time to make this mobile friendly?
- Sidebar or no sidebar?
- Where and how do you want your menu to display?
- What content do you want to display to end users?
- Dark or light theme? I cannot soundly recommend a "medium" theme as there isn't enough contrast to be accessible for low visibility users and it's important that they be able to read.
These things will help you figure out the next part which is likely the most important part. Creating a mockup. Now there are sites on the internet that can help you with it. I'll be honest, it may just be easiest to mock it up in photoshop or paint and just mark what you like and where you like it. This will change as you code it but this at least gives you a direction to go. When you are feeling lost it's good to pull it up.
You can/should make a mock up for any page that you want to customize. This means the topics page, the posts page etc. That way you have a general idea of what you're coding when you get to that step.
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