Who are the Superheroes behind WonderThemes?

WonderThemes was dreamed up and built by Michael Kimb Jones (just Kimb to his friends), a UK-based web designer who works in the NHS and runs a small design agency ‘base6 Design Ltd‘ offering WordPress-based project developments to clients.

Alongside Kimb is Jonny Allbut the lead developer of the Wonderflux WordPress theme framework and an expert design creative with over a decade’s experience in the web and graphic design industry. As a freelance creative he specialises in bespoke WordPress themes and plugin development.

How it all got started…

Kimb and Jonny met at WordCamp UK 2009 where they were both invited to talk about how they had used WordPress in the past. But it wasn’t until months later that they began the journey of working together.

I realised I needed a partner to get the marketplace idea up-and-running. I also knew that any serious modern marketplace would have its own, unique theme-Framework which was something I didn’t have the skills to build.

Out of all the speakers I saw at WordCamp that year, Jonny was the one I had the most affinity with. He was clearly an expert in the field, so it just made sense to email him.

– Michael Kimb Jones

After their meeting, the stage was set to build a brand new WordPress theme-Framework – based on specifications drawn out of hundreds of emails between Jonny and Kimb through 2010.

Meeting in the middle

In the end, it just seemed to make sense that Jonny would concentrate on developing the Wonderflux framework while Kimb worked to build the marketplace. The plan was to meet in the middle.

The collectively named ‘WonderProject‘ was aptly launched at WordCampUK 2010 after being briefly mentioned during Kimb’s morning keynote ‘How WordPress Themes Changed the World’ (see video).

This was then followed by ‘WordPress Template Design and Theme Frameworks’ (see video) where Jonny bravely launched the Wonderflux framework to the audience – initiating the first private BETA.