It’s (nearly) a wrap. The submission period has just ended and it’s been so exciting to see 104 wonderful WordPress theme concepts from contestants in different countries of the world. We deeply thank all of you that have participated in the contest. And as we all know, there are obviously people who succeed making their way into the final now and there are also people who do that later in the future (let’s hope that we can host another theme contest, right?).

Anyway, we know that you’ve been waiting for this. Here are the finalists, in a totally random order. We deliberately do not publish the designs as the competition has currently not ended (yet). Please welcome the finalists! (drum snares…)

Category A: General Blog/Lifestream and Photo/Videoblog

• JoyColors by Elio Rivero
• The Hives by Nurul Izwan Dahlan
• KeithSpot by Keith Donaldson
• EasyBlog by Taufik Ridha

Category B: Business Blog/Portfolio

• Narcilicious by Septi Yulia
• Valentine by Wendell Fernandes
• DarkMagz by Ronggur Hutasuhut
• CreatifStuff by Taufik Ridha

Category C: Newspaper/Magazine

• GridPrefection by Jan Klosowski
• TypeMagz by Firman Firdaus
• Synkrographiks by Hendra
• Humble by Ronggur Hutasuhut

Congratulations to all the finalists, you can check your email inbox for further information and technical details about the final competition! In the final round, you are required to submit the inner pages of the theme concept along with the source files (PSD files). Those source files will be assessed to determine the core quality of the design. Remember to submit them all by February 21, 2009. You are now all one step closer to the prizes!

Finally, we want to thank all participants and media that have helped us in hosting this contest. We won’t say any goodbye now and we can’t wait for the final day to come!