Need help finding a clean, "minimalist" cms theme for research institute

  • I love the look and feel of https://unu.edu/ (especially their main page) – alas, it’s a custom theme. I’ve been looking for a theme with roughly the same features, to be used for a research institute/think tank. Although it’s not that complicated, finding a theme with the same elegant look seems almost impossible?Having looked at many hundred WordPress themes, I really wonder why most WordPress themes, premium or not, are so ugly and overloaded.

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  • I really wonder why most WordPress themes, premium or not, are so ugly and overloaded.

    Really? Was that necessary?

    I don’t often get upset by comments like yours but the WordPress community is filled with designers who create free and commercial themes and while I’m not a designer I could see them reasonably taking offense to your post. Truth-be-told one of the main reasons I came to WordPress was because of the large number of both attractive and functional themes available for it, and that’s not the case for any other web platform.

    If you want help, best not to start by insulting the people you are asking to help you.

    Although it’s not that complicated

    Code a custom theme yourself then? Why not, if it is easy?

    finding a theme with the same elegant look seems almost impossible?.

    Really? Funny, I found many here:

    You are complaining you haven’t found a theme that someone has built for your exact preference. But the funny thing is, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. If you don’t like what’s available in off-the-shelf themes then either build one yourself (it is easy, right?) or commission someone to make it for you, and then pay them a fair amount for their effort.

    Having looked at many hundred WordPress themes, I really wonder why most WordPress themes, premium or not, are … overloaded.

    Really? Have you looked at how many features https://unu.edu/ has?

    • Search Box Functionality
    • Main Menu (top and bottom of page)
    • Main Image Rotator Linking to Articles (Posts)
    • Recent Articles (Posts) List w/Images
    • List of Article (Posts) “Themes” (Categories)
    • A “Who We Are” Widget
    • An PDF download Widget
    • Two Column List of Posts
    • Column of News Items (Posts)
    • Column of Events (Posts)
    • A List of External Links
    • Big Footer
    • Logo and Address
    • 4 Column secondary menu

    And that’s just the home page. Seems pretty “overloaded” to me.

    The thing is that when you start trying to implement you’ll often find that your specific business requirements will usually require a custom theme anyway. Surely a research institute/think tank has the funds to pay a theme designer for a couple weeks work to create a decent custom design for a thing that represents their brand to world in many people’s eyes? After all, that is the way it works in the real world.

    Hope this helps.

    -Mike

    P.S. Sorry for my aggressive reply but I ask you to please reread your original post and maybe it will be clear why I responded as I did?

    You must not have looked very hard. There are heaps of high quality free and premium WordPress themes. Sure you won’t find one exactly the same as the site you linked to. That is quite unreasonable. However there are many premium themes that with a bit of customisation can look similar.

    really, was that long, rude, response necessary?

    I think so, yes. As a developer of quite a few free WordPress themes, I found your comments rude and quite unnecessary.

    Thanks @esmi. ??

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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