One thing that's become abundantly clear as we sprint toward launching TopNotchThemes: creating a theme that can be used for a variety of sites is a very different project compared to doing a theme for a particular site.

Designing for a single client has its own difficulties in the form of pixel perfection, changing designs, conflicting requirements, fluctuating budgets, and more. But you know what you're shooting for and you can pretty much tell when the theme for a site is done. It reproduces the design, delivers the functionality, and makes the client go "wow!"

They always take longer and cost more than you think they will.

Taking a moment to write this as we round the final bend for TopNotchThemes. I just spent 4-5 hours testing an initial batch of our themes and I am both exhilarated and slightly cross-eyed. I have a little moment of giddiness when I think about how these are actually Drupal themes, how we're actually going to be making them available to people who would never otherwise be able to hire someone to spend the 30-40 hours crafting each one.

I can't wait. I've always wanted to change the world... or at least a little corner of it.