21 Fresh, Usable and Elegant WordPress Themes
Sometimes it’s just amazing to see, how developers use creative approaches to design amazing layouts, based upon a simple WordPress template. Every now and again we take a look around, and select WordPress themes, which offer thought-out design, flexible template structure and conform to the basic principles of usability. The choice is big enough, but the search is worth it. We invest our time, browsing through dozens of web-sites, news aggregators and design-communities and put enhanced solutions together, so you don’t have to.
Let’s take a look at 21 23 fresh, usable, simple and and elegant WordPress themes, which have been released over the last few months. Among other things, we’ve also selected some of the new minimalistic solutions – all of them make use of clear and precise typography. They’re definitely worth a look.
You can also take a look at
- 83 Beautiful WordPress Themes You Probably Haven’t Seen,
- 8 Fresh And Clean WordPress Themes and
- 10 Fresh, Elegant and Clean WordPress Themes.
Elegant WordPress Themes
2. Dark_Black
3. HemingwayEx
4. Deep Blue
5. i3Theme brothers, Left and Right!
6.1. (Bonus, updated) Illacrimo
7. PinkLove
9. School’s in Session
10. Xenoria
11. Autumn Concept 1.0
12. Blue Idea
Simple and Clean WordPress Themes
15. Alexified
16. Cutline Theme for WordPress
17. Photopress
19. Experimental
20. Simplicity
21. Deliciously Blue
Bonus (Updated)
22. Sharpfolio
23. Coldblue
Further References and Collections
- Best of WordPress theme galore — BlogoSquare
- A collection of collected WordPress themes at Witty Sparks
- Part3 Top Best Beautiful WordPress Themes and Templates
- SEO WordPress Template Pack #1
- 18 Adsense Optimized WordPress Themes to Maximize your Contextual Ad Earnings
- WordPress Themes, Web 2.0 Themes
- 100 Favourite WordPress Themes
- Free WordPress Themes and More at Fresheezy!
- Weblog Tools Collection
fatih
June 26th, 2007 9:27 pmreally fast research for new wordpress theme
thank you smashingmagazine!
Cherie Young
January 10th, 2011 2:52 pmThanks Smashing Magazine, was googling word press designs and came across your posts. We also provide word press themes at cherieyoung.com.
Rajeev
February 10th, 2011 2:20 amVery Nice list of themes would love to try on my blog (www.regexhacks.com)… Someone like to recommend a nice me, for my blog?
WraithX
June 26th, 2007 9:30 pmThey are all really beautiful – particularly the Bus full of Hippies. I found a great one a while ago which I am using on my blog: Simply Fine Things – there is a link at the bottom to the author – he has others on his site too. The amazing thing about his themes is that he really pays a great deal of attention to detail.
I am also using number 5 on my personal blog: Blog.frater.com – it is a breeze to set up and works well on all browsers. I would definitely vouch for it.
Thanks for yet another great post smashingmagazine. This is fast becoming my favourite blog :)
raziel
June 26th, 2007 9:30 pmDon’t like them tbh, all these fresh themes look like the old “fresh” designs :-F
Hans
June 26th, 2007 9:45 pmThanks a bunch for the link
Ron S
June 26th, 2007 9:54 pmAnother sparkling piece from Smashing Magazine. You guys rule!
Xin
June 26th, 2007 9:55 pmthe bus full of hippies theme is completely broken or very very ugly in IE6
Richie
June 26th, 2007 10:05 pmThose wordpress themes are amazing,thanks for the post!
Arpit Jacob
June 26th, 2007 10:24 pmhey thanks for the link :) …. love your collection there are a few themes I seem to have missed out
Upstart Blogger
June 26th, 2007 10:31 pmThanks for the links! To have two of my themes selected by Smashing Magazine, and to be in such good company… You’ve made my day!
meizopan
June 26th, 2007 10:41 pmThanks for the list. always smashing.
Volkan Karakus
June 26th, 2007 11:17 pmOooo super! Thanks for the list SM! The most beatiful collection of WordPress Themes.
taozz
June 26th, 2007 11:34 pmthanks for collecting these good stuff
Sandaruwan
June 26th, 2007 11:45 pmcool…
Sue
June 26th, 2007 11:56 pmBus Full of Hippies is a rip off of Calibri, a theme published for Blogger.
Whoever did it also failed to remove the gridlines in the image, which I did when I was using it.
Check it out here Michigan Memories Test Blog as a “fixed” image, as opposed to the blue gridlines in the other link above.
This is just a blogger test blog, so no posts are there.
It’s pretty, but kind of busy. And it doesn’t translate well to MSIE6 or less, due to the png transparency.
However, if anyone wants to use it, please contact me for the revised image. I’ll be happy to email it to you. sbclark2002 at yahoo dot com
Arthur
June 27th, 2007 12:38 amMan this is one of the best compilations.
Rob
June 27th, 2007 1:27 am@Sue
You obviously didn’t follow the link on the “Bus full of hippies” template.
Here is a quote from the page…
“Credits:
Original design by John Oxton
Illustration by Denis Radenkovic
Based on the Textpattern template reworked by Graham Bancroft.”
At no point does the author insinuate they created the design.
eRay
June 27th, 2007 1:27 amSimplicity is amazing!!!
Ozh
June 27th, 2007 1:44 amAnother list of WP themes…. *yawn*
Karsten
June 27th, 2007 2:03 amUh, das freut mich, dass Euch meine Themes gefallen.
Schaue hier immer gerne auf der Suche nach Inspiration vorbei.
guido_cc
June 27th, 2007 2:26 amNotables, muchas gracias por el listado. :D
Mac-Sage
June 27th, 2007 2:31 amThese are nice, but some seem familiar.
J David
June 27th, 2007 3:15 amAwesome! Thanks for having my theme on the list!
Ben Tucker
June 27th, 2007 3:51 amSome nice themes there cheers for the post will be trying a couple
markus941
June 27th, 2007 4:48 amYou guys rock. I always use these posts as reference.
mickeyckm
June 27th, 2007 9:37 amCan’t believe my i3Theme got feature here ;) Thanks
skarld
June 27th, 2007 11:57 amNice list. There are some new themes I have not seen and some old favorites as well.
I am going to have to start spending more time online and adding to my collection.
firman firdaus
June 27th, 2007 1:01 pmwhy didnt you include the grid focus public by derek punsalan?
sd
June 27th, 2007 3:04 pmgreat themes, great cms. well done.
Hitesh Mehta
June 27th, 2007 3:31 pmLoved Illacrimo theme!! will try using it someday :)
Suryaningsih
June 27th, 2007 7:12 pmNice Info, Thanks For You …
loops
June 27th, 2007 7:55 pmThe simple and clean ones like the Upstart Blogger Modicus one are pretty sweet.
iddaa
June 28th, 2007 1:32 amVery good read, thank you!
Marco
June 28th, 2007 4:09 amNice selection. i3Theme is awesome.
I also recomend Web2Themes (www.web2themes.com). They have some pretty good themes that could have made the list.
IhateDesign
June 28th, 2007 5:15 amThanks for the links, one of them are interesting, very useful!, cheers!
skyjuice
June 28th, 2007 9:09 amLike usual nice compile of GREAT WORDPRESS Theme
Teft
June 28th, 2007 10:48 amNice themes! Great resource.
e7art
June 29th, 2007 11:55 amnice!,so many good theme,thanks!
Jonathan Moore
June 29th, 2007 1:01 pmGreat list… I think I need to just go ahead and download one, slightly tweak it, and finally launch a blog.
chinaseo
June 29th, 2007 3:47 pm真是非常漂亮，统统收下，隔日换着用~~~thanks!
PoXLine
June 30th, 2007 9:45 amWow so nice themes !
Thanks for share many wordpress themes ;)
Jerome
June 30th, 2007 4:47 pmTHanks alot..
atomise.net is cool too !
jayhan
July 2nd, 2007 3:40 pmThanks for the recommendation! :D
Now I’m using one of it. Thanks.
Christian
July 6th, 2007 2:48 pmCool themes … shame I don’t use wordpress ;-)
yaramazadam
July 9th, 2007 11:58 pmthis site is great.it has got the most beautiful wp themes..
Astrid Paramita
July 10th, 2007 2:16 amThanks for the wonderful list :)
I changed my blog theme to Autumn Concept 1.0, almost perfect to what I need!
Keep up the good work!
Nico
July 14th, 2007 3:46 amGreat themes! I love your work. Hello from France. :)
Best Wordpress Themes
July 16th, 2007 8:21 pmHi,
Check out this new listing of the best WordPress themes from all over the web. There are some really interesting listings: http://www.bestwpthemes.com.
IMJUK
August 19th, 2007 6:37 pmCheers for the templates – I’m now setting up my new site and blog and have found these to be the best set of templates so far. Cheers for the help.
Hassan1
August 21st, 2007 9:33 pmThanks,sir
continue your great work.
Adam Breckler
September 17th, 2007 11:25 amNice themes! Check out my latest theme High Rise.
BlogsTheme.com
October 2nd, 2007 1:54 amGreat themes, I just love these lists with good looking and free themes! Keep the lists coming, you’re doing a terrific job!
Rene
October 11th, 2007 10:58 pmVery good list of great themes I didn’t know of. Thanks!
spor
December 15th, 2007 10:46 pmthanks….
Ensest Hikayeler
January 1st, 2008 7:57 pmtheme thanks.
Leatrice
January 28th, 2012 8:05 amShiver me timbers, them’s some great infomarotin.
Victor Hugo
January 10th, 2008 5:52 amReally nice.Thank you.
Serdar SER
January 20th, 2008 4:17 pmThanks.
karikatür
February 5th, 2008 11:40 amthnks
sinspy
July 14th, 2008 2:16 pmnice template here http://www.sinspy.co.uk/
basetta
September 30th, 2008 1:34 amgreat themes, as awlway…
I’ve used the upstart blogger one for my blog.. check it out!
http://www.thesparetimetyper.com
chikitita
November 21st, 2008 8:19 ammost of them are like the old templates that has been re edited.. nothing amazing.. they are all the same except that theres a minor changes thats it..
ForumKd
December 23rd, 2008 11:44 amvery very thanx…
suiye
January 3rd, 2009 7:48 pmvery very cool…
Petr
January 16th, 2009 1:46 pmTHANKS !
Felix
March 17th, 2009 10:23 amI tried to widgetize the Simplicity Bright Theme, maybe it’s useful for some of you: Simplicity Bright Theme Plus
davetiye
March 26th, 2009 3:04 amdavetiye It is really great. I also used same technic in my web site and it works.
AhMeTMnS
May 11th, 2009 3:35 pmwery beauitiful templates. Thanx.
UnderMedia
May 17th, 2009 3:41 pmWow… Wonder themes. I am used #5 i3Theme brothers, Left and Right! in Blog UnderMedia
FabGreen
August 12th, 2009 8:14 amI like Cutline for my private blog/journal. It’s definitely a great, clean design as you listed.
But how usable are black background designs? Yes, they’re sleek and clean looking, but are they readable? Not for me. In design school that reading too much white on black creates a retinal problem — burnout. Some people find it really difficult (or impossible) to read white text on a black screen: http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum116/48.htm. So you may actually be driving away users.
Thoughts?
ipage review
November 18th, 2009 11:00 amnice page to bookmark with amazing collection.
but love ur new footer about picture most! :)
Tommy J
November 21st, 2009 11:04 pmlove the themes, thank you for the great list, cant wait to use one of them,
please also visit my website for some free goodies, thanks guys
wicked free photoshop tutorials
Philip Hastings
January 25th, 2010 6:32 pmI’m all over that simplicity theme – clean design is underrated these days. Thanks for sharing.
Guilletube
February 4th, 2010 5:24 amGracias por postearlo lo probare en mi blogg Guilletube.com
Blends
February 8th, 2010 7:18 amEvent it a old post but still give the great wordpress theme collection. Thank you
David
May 5th, 2010 5:03 amthanks very much, i got one of ur themes which i want to use for my site
Craig
July 28th, 2010 11:10 amIt’s funny how 3 years can make “fresh” designs look bad. Some still hold their ground but most are not very good.
nikhil
August 17th, 2010 1:57 amnice collection thanks for sharing it.
Julian
September 18th, 2010 5:50 pmwhat a list of awesome themes
loves the ilacrimo
Share it to
April 19th, 2011 7:46 amNice theme I’m gonna use it on my next site. I loved the layout and design of the site. Share it to each other is my current website and I am constantly conscious of it’s design factor. Thanks.
Lorenzo Laporte
October 14th, 2011 12:31 pmIt’s actually a nice and helpful piece of information. I am happy that you shared this helpful information with us. Please keep us up to date like this. Thank you for sharing.
Techie Salsan
February 4th, 2012 7:10 pmThanks for the list of such great wordpress themes…