Created by Automattic’s Laurel Fulford, whimsical Scratchpad showcases your writing, photos, and drawings. Full of bright colors and illustrative details – courtesy of fast-loading SVGs – the theme pays special attention to styling post formats for visual variety. A perfect fit for sharing projects, recipes, and stories, Scratchpad is now available for download on WordPress.org.
We have a November treat for theme-lovers – a slew of new free themes by Automattic designers and theme wranglers have made their debut on WordPress.org. Meet the fabulous five:
Crafted by Caroline Moore, Affinity features an elegant multi-panel scrolling front page. Geared to weddings and family announcements, it’s flexible enough to suit a wide variety of sites.
Thomas Guillot designed Shoreditch especially for businesses who want to easily combine multiple panels on any page.
Looking for a fresh new blogging-focussed theme? Check out our trio:
Take your favorite for a spin today!
Introducing Orvis: a minimalist portfolio theme for photographers, designers, or visual artists. Activate Jetpack’s Custom Content Types module to display portfolio projects in a contemporary Masonry grid.
Designed by Automattic’s Thomas Guillot, Orvis was inspired by the photographer wife of a colleague/friend, and named as a nod to their dog, a sweet black Lab.
Take Orvis for a ride on your site today!
Two new themes are available for download in the WordPress.org theme repo: Escutcheon and Toujours.
Escutcheon (pronounced ess-KUH-chun) is a bold, typography-driven theme for long-form writers to showcase their work. Designed by Mel Choyce and developed by Caroline Moore, Escutcheon — an unusual word referring to a type of shield — supports a social icon menu and displays post excerpts on the front page.
Laurel Fulford crafted Toujours (French for “always” — pronounced too-DJOOR) as a responsive remake of the popular Forever theme. Geared to weddings, it features a large slider (available via Jetpack Featured Content), a unique layout for three recent posts, and a special guestbook template.
Whether you’re planning upcoming nuptials or getting down to serious blogging, we welcome you to take Toujours and Escutcheon for a spin.
Pique (pronounced “peek”) made its debut in the WordPress.org repository this week. A spiffy scrolling front-page theme crafted by Automattic’s Sarah Semark, Pique lets you add up to eight panels to the homepage by choosing static pages via the Customizer.
Designed with coffee shops in mind, Pique is a great fit for many types of small businesses. It supports a logo or customer testimonials with Jetpack and can display a custom menu in both the header and footer. Check it out!
Looking for a fresh, elegant theme for a restaurant or other food-related site? Explore Canapé, now available in the WordPresss.org theme repo. Designed by Automattic’s Ola Laczek, Canapé retains its sophisticated look on mobile, tablet, and desktop screens.
Add features like food menus and customer testimonials with Jetpack, and showcase up to three food-menu sections on the homepage.
Check out the Canapé demo or download it and start experimenting.
Dyad, a new theme crafted by Automattic’s Laurel Fulford, balances text and images in beautiful harmony. Now available in the WordPress.org repository, Dyad is well suited to blogs where words and photographs are equally important.
Dyad is a fork of Receptar, a theme by WebMan Design.
Designed by Automattic’s Caroline Moore with crafters and hobbyists in mind, Button features detailed accents, featured images, gallery slideshows, and a soft color palette. With Jetpack active, you can add a logo for extra flair. Now available in the WordPress.org directory, Button is the perfect theme for a blog showing off your sewing skills, chronicling your latest DIY endeavors, or keeping a running list of your favorite things from around the web.
A minimalist theme crafted by Automattic’s Tammie Lister, Sapor is geared to showcase your passions. Designed with food blogging in mind but well suited to anything from gardening to healthy living, it features a left sidebar for menu and widgets, and offers a Site Logo option with Jetpack active. We’re pleased that Sapor is now available in the WordPress.org directory — visit the demo or take it for a spin.
We’d like to introduce another pair of free themes now available in the WordPress.org directory: Blask and Colinear.
Putting the Jetpack portfolio custom post type to good use, Blask showcases all types of creative work – like photography, graphic design, illustration, or painting – in an elegant, minimalist way. Blask was developed by Automattic’s Ola Laczek, based on a design by Mel Choyce.
Colinear is Thomas Guillot’s revamp of the classic Coraline. With six layout options accessible via the Customizer, Colinear offers tremendous flexibility in displaying large amounts of content, perfect for news or magazine-style sites.
Both Colinear and Blask support a Site Logo with Jetpack active, and are fully responsive, looking spiffy at any screen size. We hope you enjoy this handsome theme duo.
