This Prismacolor-like template has been very reliable ever since I migrated the blog to a hosted site using WordPress. It’s quirky, suggests an artistic temperament, and is easy to use. However, I don’t want to use this one forever, so I’ve tried a few templates on for size. I want to switch to a minimalist white background, black Helvetica text WordPress template I can plunk a header image into.
There are some I can’t embed a header image into, but I want the Helvetica aesthetic. I’ve downloaded a few templates and tried them out on Saturday. Here are the screenshots.
I like the Neutica template a lot. First of all, it has the Helvetica font and it’s used artfully. The homepage layout has a wonderful order to chaos feel to it, words and texts arranged into something very attrractive. The default background color is yellow, but it’s easily switched to white. Photos used in blog entries are condensed into small squares and the entries are cut short into a click to read more form. An attractive feature is the are sidebars on the posts that display author’s name, date posted, category, and comments.
However, the info boxes were a dealbreaker for me. When I clicked to view the individual posts, those info boxes were still on the side of the entry. Unlike the homepage view, the individual post’s view does not truncate the photo. especially if they happen to line up with the boxes. Instead, the boxes run right over the photos, embedded videos, or any other image 500 pixels wide. This was definitely unacceptable to me. A shame, because I really wanted this to work.
Ever since I migrated my blog to WordPress, I’ve contemplated using the Andreas template. It’s severely clean in design, very Scandinavian. Unlike Neutica, the font isn’t Helvetica, but that’s nothing that can’t be tweaked. It has two sidebars that can be customized and the header can take about any image. It’s very well constructed and my blog posts don’t look strange when I look at them individually.
When I applied the Andreas to my blog, I felt, to use something overused on Project Runway, underwhelmed. I was hoping to go retro (reverting to a decade-old website design of mine), but it felt blah.
Now the Upstart Blogger Minim‘s even more severe than the Andreas in its minimalism. However, it has a certain charm with declarative headlines for post titles and even a space for the signature image in the upper right hand corner. What’s even better is that this template is extremely low fuss. No funky conflicts with images, and the presentation has a visually pleasing newspaper format.
My one issue with the Upstart Blogger Minim is that the blog’s title isn’t very prominent, especially in contrast the headlines that give the template its charm. I’ll have to think about this whether I could live with this feature or not, but I haven’t ruled it out yet.
Overall, I’ve still have some looking around to do. If you know of any templates that fit what I’m looking for, please send the links my way.
Tags: blog templates, font, helvetica, minimalism, typography, wordpress
I was on the way to liking Neutica until I realized what it reminded me of: Nutrition Facts.
I really like Neutica. Why not just shorten anything over 500px?
@richandcreamy It’s a good suggestion for formatting an entry. I have a lot of archived stuff where I’d have to go back and reformat, though.
@the replicant OMG! It hadn’t occurred to me me before, but I see what you mean. Especially in its default color, Neutica can look like a box of USDA ration of cornflakes or something.