Two weekends ago I set aside some time to create a new design for my blog on DavidPerel.net.

The design came from a 'mistake' mid refresh while I was going through the motions of bringing a Fireworks file to life. I decided to follow the path after seeing the potential and eventually landed up with what you see today.

Soon after that I decided that based on the reactions we were getting about the new design that we should see if we could get it included into the Premium Tumblr gallery so that all of you could have access to it.

July has been an awesome month for Obox Themes and so we would like to end it with a bang.

Today, we are finally able to launch our new OCMX control panel. Every line of code has been rewritten and the look and feel completely changed in order to fit in with the WordPress UI.

Today was the expected release date for OCMX. However we have decided to delay launch till next week Tuesday and we are not 100% happy with one or two areas.

99% of the work is done but we want a bit more time to test the control panel. It will be worth the wait.

OCMX has been written from scratch and is designed to evolve into more of a Framework than just a WP admin plugin. Most of the code is written using the core and the look and feel is very much WordPress.

This is also the first time that we have used Beta testers, Nick Hamze (Steam Engine Media) and Nick Pagano (Think Four) have been helping out with feedback and suggestions.

So, this time we promise, on Tuesday 27th you will have your first look into the new OCMX ;)

Recently we have been working on a few fixes/modifications to our themes sold on tumblr.com

After releasing our new membership offer yesterday we got a few enquiries about the matter of benefits vs price.

I answered each person individually explaining how the benefits far outway the price, however one thing in business that you realize is that there are a lot of silent voices.

In response to your comments and feedback I wanted to write a public post about listening and a new price structure.

First thing to mention is that our themes will now permanently be $30 for a single pack and $80 for a developers pack. We ran those prices for the last 7 days and the response blew our hair back. So with that in mind we have decided to make those offers permanent :)

Secondly, Membership. Considering all your comments we have gone even more radical and cut our signup fee to only $99! If we do the math it is a saving of roughly $1200 which is the cost of buying every theme in our collection. Huge.

Existing users will still benefit from our $50 discount when signing up which we think is quite awesome.

Thanks to all of you who voiced your opinions and gave us feedback. We value what you all say and I think this is a clear example of that.

Almost one year after launching Obox Themes we are totally excited to announce our new Membership package!

We believe that we are finally at a place where the benefits of becoming a member out weigh the option of just buying one theme at a time. Things are picking up in the Obox Theme lab, and with the new OCMX system soon to be released, we feel that now is the perfect time to launch this new package.

Just because it is our birthday month does not mean we are slowing down in terms of theme development.

We have a new photography orientated theme in development called 'Photolist'. We are going for an easy to navigate but unique home page layout as well as plenty of 'awesome' in the gallery sub page.

Features include the possibility of turning your images into black and white at the flick of a switch.

It has been quite a journey since we launched our little Premium Theme division exactly one year ago.

A lot of learning was done along the way and no doubt we made some mistakes during the short period as well but, creating Obox Themes was without a doubt one of the best things we have ever done as a company.

During this time we have managed to grow our user base, our theme offerings and our platforms yet still maintaining a tiny two man team.

We are super proud but also super humbled that so many of you have joined us for the ride. Thanks for all your support and we promise that the going will only get better in the coming months ahead. We have only just begun.

To celebrate our Birthday we have three big announcements due over the next three weeks.