Looking forward to see the new b5 look in 2009!

That said, if there is enough transferable value in what we’d do, we’d probably look at releasing it in some capacity.

As far as why Streamline vs a custom theme, the very simple answer is time and money. When we mocked up our ideal template, it really came down to a 2/3 column layout, with a nice header and some great features. We then wanted the ability to add/remove features on a per-Network (ie: Bizzia, Starked, etc) basis. And we wanted the pages to load faster.

Streamline accomplishes 80% of our goals. And getting the themes up 5 months faster at 50% of the cost and a much better user experience in a couple of months just made all the sense in the world.

It isn’t our ideal world scenario, because ideally every blog would have features and elements custom to it. But for where we’re at it’s a huge step forward – and a step forward we couldn’t have taken without someone like Brian lending his expertise.

I’m going to try and write post later this week on why we have the design we do, what we’re hoping for the next design (only v3 in 3.5 years of b5media history) and what we’re looking at for design stuff 1-2 years down the road.

Ultimately our job is to try and create designs that add value for readers and advertisers while getting out of the way and letting the content speak for itself as much as possible. And Brian’s design work is the classic example of just that :)

I can say with absolute certainty that we’ve honestly never even considered asking Brian to lock Streamline down just for us. In working with Brian on dozens of modifications for the network, we’ve customized the theme to suite our specific want and the broad needs for our network of 300 blogs. That doesn’t make Streamline “ours”.

For us, the decision to team up with Brian on this project really came down to his ability and reputation for designing themes that are light, flexible and incredibly adapt to customization.

So, when a blog outside of the network implements Streamline, we won’t be thinking “Argh, they’re using our theme”…but rather – “Hey – we both made a fantastic choice.”