Early Theme Adopters: Sketch

In our Early Theme Adopters series, we focus on bloggers creating great sites with recent additions to the Theme Showcase. Barely two weeks old, free portfolio theme Sketch is making a name for itself on artists’ sites and beyond.

September 2, 2014

Michelle Weber

Sketch has barely been available for two weeks, but you’d never know it. This clean, cheerful, portfolio-focused theme is already a favorite — and not just for artists and illustrators. Here are three sites we love:

All Cats Have

Dutch artist and designer Asja loves cats, as does the rest of the internet. On All Cats Have, she takes a simple doodle of two cats sitting side-by-side and transforms them to everything from superhero cats to Matisse-inspired cats to buddy cats lamenting their hangovers:

all cats

With Sketch, she’s able to showcase her latest blog posts up top, and her cat illustrations, which are all organized as portfolios, below. Using the new Site Logo feature, she drops a mini-version of her eponymous felines in the blog’s upper-left corner.

Asja keeps Sketch’s default sans-serif font; it’s readable, simple, and doesn’t steal the limelight away from her art. We also love the personal cat-teriffic touches in her pages and menus — the blog is listed as “Random Purring” in her menu.

850 Calories

When budget issues led the United Nations to reduce food support to refugees in central Africa, most of the world didn’t hear about it. One blogger did, and is now challenging the rest of us to spend a day living on the equivalent of one day’s rations: 850 calories. He uses Sketch‘s emphasis on visuals to build a bold, engaging site that draws us in with photos:

850 calories

The blogger uses the top feature area to keep evergreen posts front and center, while the portfolio area links to more information on the humanitarian crisis and guidelines for people interested in taking the challenge. A simple logo (also taking advantage of the theme’s support for Site Logos) and Sketch‘s naturally clean typography mean that nothing detracts from the site’s mission.

BRICKrhetoric

BRICKrhetoric is a literary and arts journal from Chicago with an urban focus. And although Sketch is presented as a theme for artists’ portfolios, the editors saw it as the perfect blank canvas for the creative work they present:

brick

They’ve opted to add a custom header instead of a logo, so their online journal can mimic a printed masthead. Rather than posts and portfolios, the home page features the journal’s mission statement, and a sidebar makes it easy for visitors to access past issues or look for content by contributor.

As the bloggers at All Cats Have and 850 Calories were, BRICKrhetoric’s editors were also drawn to Sketch‘s typography. Here, the clean lines of the type have a modern feel just right for the journal’s contemporary urban focus.

Looking for more inspiration? These sites and blogs also caught our eye:

  • The Argentinian fashion blogger at RBLD nixes portolfios and sidebars for a full-width template that makes it impossible to ignore his photographs.
  • Writer Ericka Clay uses it for Tipsy Lit, the writing community she organizes. She ups the font sizes a bit, creating a version of Sketch that suits the group’s brash style.
  • Pati Montero depends on Sketch’s simplicity to keep her jam-packed site — web design, print design, and personal blogging, all available in Spanish, French, and English — from feeling overwhelming.
  • Unsurprisingly, Sketch makes a great portfolio site for photographers — we particularly like Michelle Dorman and Lymath Images.

Sketch is a free theme — learn more about it in the Theme Showcase.

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16 Comments

Comments are closed.

  1. Charlie Sep 2nd at 4:58 pm

    I want a cool techie theme. Or the ability within the first few minutes after you submit a comment, the ability to edit to (not long, 5-10 minutes), like all the websites that use LiveFyre does (like c|net and Engadget).

    Liked by 3 people

    • Michelle W. Sep 2nd at 5:12 pm

      As we try to show with our posts here, themes are endlessly adaptable — you can take any theme that catches your eye and turn it into a cool techie theme.

      Liked by 3 people

  2. David Bennett Sep 2nd at 5:06 pm

    I saw Sketch when it came out, but I dismissed it because I thought it was a grid arrangement only.
    After seeing the featured site at _Brick Rhetoric_ I saw how easy it was to arrange with a ‘normal’ sidebar, so I have adopted it.

    Nice large font and easy on the eye.

    The only slight downside is the comparatively narrow width allowed for the menu items. I am sure WP could squeeze a bit more space in, couldn’t they?

    Liked by 2 people

  3. catezapp Sep 2nd at 5:48 pm

    I love sketch. I don’t usually change themes so often, but could not resist!

    Liked by 2 people

  4. gorgeozo Sep 2nd at 5:50 pm

    Sketch is a fantastic theme. I’ve found it really versatile, and there’s still a lot of playing around that I need to do. I’m just about to upgrade so that I can customise the colours a little more, but so far I think it’s a fabulous design that really fits my needs 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

  5. Kellie Sep 2nd at 8:10 pm

    It’s been working really well for me over at mine. A few issues with the portfolio but the theme is wonderful.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Pati Montero Sep 2nd at 9:25 pm

    It is truly inspiring to see how people play with a theme to make it look so different, even unique. I particularly love the gigantic photos on RBLD’s portfolio.

    Sketch is very nice indeed and ridiculously friendly. I’m loving it!

    Thanks so much for mentioning my blog. I’m thrilled!

    Liked by 1 person

  7. kellannsheridan Sep 3rd at 12:25 am

    I might have to try this theme out, because I want my blog to be more of a portfolio site. Any helpful suggestions??

    Like

  8. Ericka Clay Sep 3rd at 1:58 pm

    Thanks for listing us, Michelle! Sketch was amazing as a blog theme, but since we’ve moved into literary mag territory, we’ve been digging The Spun Theme. Really, we haven’t gone wrong with any WP theme – love them all!

    Liked by 2 people

  9. Salil Lawande Sep 4th at 5:29 am

    Really liked Sketch the first time I saw it. The grid layout along with the featured sliders is perfect for my site. Thank you WP Theme team 🙂

    Like

  10. kbsdesigns Sep 8th at 2:49 pm

    I wonder if that’s what I have been looking for…thanks 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

  11. jimmychakarji Sep 8th at 11:23 pm

    Love it… Question: How to post projects (Portfolio) from iOS app? I don’t see the projects/portfolio option from my wordpress iOS app, only posts & pages but not projects. Am I missing something? I already activated portfolio feature. Thanks!

    Liked by 1 person

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