As you surf around the web you’ll see a wide variety of different WordPress looks and styles unique to each website. Here we’re showcasing two distinct style categories: minimal and decorative. Here are a few of our custom WordPress theme designs in both minimal and decorative styles. Whichever look you prefer we enjoy the challenge of developing and designing a custom WordPress theme that directly reflects your style or branding.
Custom WordPress themes: Minimal Design
A sleek and stylish website is the go-to for a wide range of top-notch companies. Apple, Restoration Hardware, and Google all showcase their products using a minimal design approach. Often minimalistic websites are more challenging than websites with a lot of detail, decoration, and textured elements. A sleek design on a custom WordPress theme will create a website that loads faster, requires less artistry, and handles the long-term changes of the internet with less fuss. To get creative with a minimal website design we typically incorporate simple shapes, contrasting colors, and negative space. We’ve done just that with some of our favorite custom minimalistic WordPress themes showcased below.
janalamberti.com
silk art showcase website
A plain white background is the perfect setting for the bright and bold silk art of Jana Lamberti. The high contrast, minimal website design makes her art pieces pop off the page. Along with the plain background we went with a simple, easy-to-read, sans-serif font in gray with magenta highlights.
What makes it work:
- Her website is built on the Genesis Framework for WordPress
- It uses a custom WordPress theme based on the Landscape Theme by StudioPress
- Her homepage uses the Slider Pro plugin
- The contact page uses the powerful Gravity Forms plugin by Rocket Genius
Unique Customizations:
- Her gallery pages are customized to showcase her work
- Each section of the gallery and blog use unique sidebars
- Custom designed social media icons match her artwork style
- Custom built sidebar gallery widget for each gallery
3200 Creative has been wonderful to partner with on all aspects of building my new website–I’m extremely happy with the final product. As a silk artist and designer, my website is often the first medium in which people see my art. So it’s essential that the site reflects my design aesthetic, displays the art well, is intuitive to navigate, and is easy to modify/update as I complete new work. That’s a tall order. Ryan and Cathi delivered. They were easy to work with in conceptualizing and designing the front end–including multiple rounds of tweaks until it became exactly what I had in mind–and were very helpful and responsive in teaching my husband how to run the back end, all under a timeline.
theculture-ist
magazine style food and culture blog
The Culture-ist approached us with a need to redevelop their existing site on the Genesis Framework. They wanted to implement the power of WordPress while keeping the overall feel of their site with a custom WordPress theme. We achieved this easy to read, creative minimal website design by using a neutral color pallet with high contrast pulled from the company’s branding model. This minimal website design allows users to focus on the high quality imagery and content of the magazine style website. To-date it’s been one of the most referenced custom WordPress themes we’ve designed.
Website features:
- It uses a custom WordPress theme based on the Eleven40 child theme by StudioPress and runs on the Genesis framework
- Their homepage uses the Slider Pro plugin
- We implemented custom forms using the Gravity Forms plugin
- High quality imagery and content creates the impact and focus site-wide
Unique Website Customizations:
- Plug-in style customizations to match site look
- Custom built widget driven homepage layout
Wanting to compete with some of the best online magazines on the Internet, we searched many months for the perfect design team who could see our vision through. 3200 Creative exceeded our expectations, providing personalized attention to our vision every step of the way. Our project was done quickly and efficiently with no straggling issues left to clean up. We highly recommend 3200 Creative and look forward to working with them again in the future.
montessaurus.com
Montessori Education Method product design website
Before we began designing the montessaurus.com website we researched the Montessori education method and found that a minimal website design approach was appropriate for this website. The nature of the Montessori education platform is extremely minimal and non-branded. Our creative website concept was to use basic shapes and colors to represent the different ares of the content to make it easy for users to follow. The custom WordPress theme uses a minimal design approach that is family friendly and intuitive to navigate.
What makes this website work:
- It’s powered by the Genesis Framework made for WordPress
- We designed and developed a custom child theme for the Genesis framework
- Throughout the site we designed custom online forms using Gravity Forms
Unique custom WordPress theme Features
- Large homepage slider made with Slider-Pro
- Customized category styling
- Custom designed web graphics
I have finally decided to pursue my dream and start my own company centered around products for children. I knew that I needed an outstanding design that will show everything I stand for and more! I did not hesitate at all before commissioning this work to 3200Creative. Cathi and Ryan are a pleasure to work with. They are very professional, enthusiastic and amazingly creative individuals who have the ability to truly understand the client and read between the lines. The results of their efforts are everything I have hoped for and more. Additionally, they are very helpful; answering my questions and assisting with running the website. Thank you!
Karin Newstrom Photography
pet photography
We worked side-by-side with Karin to create a minimal website design to showcase her gorgeous pet photography. Clean, simple lines along with a soft color scheme compliment her work and style of photography. We designed her custom WordPress theme about three years ago and the site still gets mentioned by perspective clients.
Functionality Features and Design Customizations
- We implemented a full width homepage image slider
- Throughout the site custom social media icons were added
- This photography website is designed on top of the Genesis Framework
- Our custom WordPress theme was based on the Pixel Happy child theme by StudioPress
I cannot say enough about 3200 Creative! Ryan and Cathi completely “got” me from the beginning and worked fastidiously to realize my evolving brand and vision until it was perfect. I received incredibly prompt and thorough customer service and have an amazing website and logo that completely exceeded my expectations in terms of both functionality and design. After only a short time live, I’m already seeing staggering SEO results and constantly receive glowing compliments on my site from friends, colleagues, and even complete strangers. Thank you again!
benhamimages.com
large format landscape photography
One look at the detail captured by Ben’s photography and you’ll see the need for a minimal website design. Our concept behind this website design was to focus the look of the site on the elegant framing methods offered by the photographer. As it should, the site mimics the presentation of the photography in it’s final form. The high contrast color scheme along with subtle lines and an elegant serif font are the perfect fit for these large format landscape photographs.
Tools under the hood:
- This site runs on the Genesis Framework
- It uses a custom WordPress theme based on the Landscape child theme by StudioPress
- The site is powered by the WordPress content-management system
- It uses Gravity Forms contact form
- We’ve customized a WordPress gallery plug-in
Custom WordPress themes: Decorative Design
Amongst the minimal website design popular right now are the artistic, decorative website designs. They stick out as unique and creative designs mainly because they bring in real world textures, patterns, shadows, and elements. Since we’re both artists at 3200 Creative we enjoy the opportunity to get creative with a artistically heavy custom WordPress theme design.
mandybirdwellphotography.com
family portrait photography
“Kitschy” was the word Mandy used when she explained the way she wanted her new website to look. The new blog was to sit alongside her existing Flash site. We took that idea and came up with a creative and decorative custom WordPress theme design that fits the bill just right without overpowering her family photography. Throughout the site we used graphic elements like pencil lines, masking tape, and Polaroid picture frames with a soft neutral color scheme.
Website Features and Functionality
- The site is built on the Genesis Framework
- It uses a custom WordPress theme based on the Pixel Happy child theme by StudioPress
- Customized gallery page
- We created all custom artwork designed and developed specifically for the photographer
- Vimeo video player is integrated right into the site
- It has a music player that opens in a separate tab while you browse the website
zen jewelz by ZenJen
gemstone jewelry designer
We’ve worked closely with ZenJen since 2007 on multiple projects from web to print to product photography and have grown her company branding alongside the expansion of her jewelry design. The decorative website design that showcases her work comes directly from the style of her jewelry and packaging. The zen jewelz online store shares the same decorative website design as her primary website and blog.
Features and Functionality:
- Genesis child theme based on the Corporate child theme offered by StudioPress
- Custom WordPress theme design
- Completely custom artwork made specially for the client
- Custom built widget driven homepage
- The homepage features a large image slider with highly customized slides that are updated often
- She has multiple pages and categorical archives
madisonhousedesigns.com
wedding florist
We asked Lynette of MadisonHouse to give us three words to describe the look of her new website. She answered organic, fresh, and modern. We went for a decorative design and custom WordPress theme based around a pillow with a damask print that she liked. Her website features a soft yellow, gray, and white color scheme along with a style that matches the type of weddings she works with.
What makes this website work and look good:
- It’s built on the Genesis Framework and uses a custom WordPress child theme
- We’ve developed custom services, galleries, rentals, and reviews page layouts
- We designed all custom artwork and graphics
hungryjacklodge.com
vacation resort and campground
After a visit to Hungry Jack Lodge we learned exactly what the new resort website needed in both functionality and style. The resort nestled in the great outdoors has rustic as well as modern features that give visitors that “at the cabin” feel. We used actual structural elements pulled directly from the lodge to design the look and feel of this decorative website design.
This Custom WordPress theme design features:
- A custom WordPress child theme built on the Genesis Framework
- High-end hosting provided by WPEngine
- Custom built online submission forms using Gravity Forms
- YouTube video integration
- Complete custom graphics including logo and map design
- Online reservation booking engine integration
photoboothexpress.com
event photo booth rental
We were fortunate to have a large amount of creative freedom when designing this photo booth website. The client wanted a decorative website design that had the feel of a 1950s diner. We spent some time researching the look along with the client’s current branding and put together a custom WordPress theme design this is decorative yet simple.
Decorative website design features:
- All custom button, background, widget, and slider graphics designed by 3200 Creative
Functional Features behind the website:
- This website is built on the Genesis Framework
- It uses a customized version of the Outlook child theme by StudioPress
- The website features a large homepage image slider
- Popular wedding network review integration
- Date availability checker integration
- Custom online forms built using Gravity Forms for WordPress
- Google maps integration
Whether your looking for a minimal website design or a decorative website design we enjoy making both. We pride ourselves in developing creative website designs using custom WordPress themes that fit the look and feel needed for each individual client. Take a look through our portfolio and you’ll see that we don’t have a single set style but a variety of different looking sites.
Also check out our print design, custom llustration, and logo design pages to see some of our other creative work.
Contact us today to get started with your custom WordPress theme design.
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