@donnacha - I see your point but there are some pretty good theme developers on ThemeForest who offer competent support. Probably a good idea to review their support responses before purchasing. Personally, I have received good support for the themes I have bought there. Perhaps purchases there are better suited for more advanced users.

That said, my money was spent first with StudioPress and then WooThemes. Brian's themes have been instrumental in my WP learning and I have been really impressed with many of the recent releases by WooThemes both in design and code.

@harris Ort - Brian has tweeted that he is looking for a good designer so I expect we will be seeing good things ahead from StudioPress.

I think Darren Hoyt and Ben Gillbanks are two others to keep your eye on. They have what looks to be a great theme on the way. I recently bought Darren's Gravy framework/base theme/photoshop file which was a steal at $15.