A little overwhelmed by themes . .
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I’m a Typepad refugee trying to find a theme for a site and I’m overwhelmed with the available themes. I’d like to find some options before I import and apply them. I want to maintain the header image, colors (which are part of the overall brand) and general approach (at least at first during this transition).
The site is JazzRochester. I publish a weekly post with listings for live jazz around Rochester, NY. My vision is to have that post displayed at top and then other recent or selected posts (you’ll see some of the other types I have if you visit the link and page down) display in a gallery on the front page as well. I think I want to retain at least some of the side panel links (some I may move to a separate link page). I’ll need several other static pages as the site has now.
Although this is a brand new account, I’m not a complete newbie on WordPress.com as I’ve built several sites under another account. I’m on a Premium plan for JazzRochester (for now) and just hoping I can get some direction toward some possible themes that I can retain the general look and feel.
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Themes always feel like the trickiest part! One thing to consider is that our block editor themes are fully customizable, so if you find one that’s close to the look you’re going for, you can customize colors and layout to get the exact look you’re going for.
That being said, I know just starting can be the hard part, so I’ve looked at your site, and I’ve got a couple of themes you can try out:
- https://wordpress.com/theme/podbase – this one most closely matches your current color scheme.
- https://wordpress.com/theme/booknest – this is kind of the inverse of your color scheme but has that header area already built in.
- https://wordpress.com/theme/bain-marie – this one does not match your color scheme at all but has a layout close to what you’ve got.
Now, with the Premium plan you mentioned you have, you also can customize the styles (colors, typography, etc.) for any of the block editor themes. So, you can take one of the themes I mentioned and tweak the colors of every aspect to exactly match your color scheme: Learn how to style your site.
Some additional resources for further customization:
- Edit your website’s templates – templates are part of your theme, and allow you to further customize page groups (like how all pages look.)
- Create a sidebar – just in case you select a theme that doesn’t have a sidebar like your site has, this guide will show you one way to create one.
One last option, if you would rather not build the foundation yourself, is to reach out to our team to have them build your site in fewer than 4 business days: Express Website Design Service
Also, a feature of the Premium plan is direct access to our team from within your WordPress.com account. Visit the question mark icon in the top right of your WordPress.com dashboard to chat directly with us.
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Thanks for the guidance and suggestions. It’s really hard to visualize until I get my content imported and can see them with my content. I was thinking about the Flat Blocks theme. Although I want to incorporate the colors into the theme somehow, I want to move away from them as well (they are not very accessible). The main thing I’m looking to do is have the current listings post display in full (or with a “fold” to open up beyond the current week as it is now in Typepad), with selected posts displayed as cards below that post. There will be several static pages as well. I’m not sure about having a left or right panel display on the front page, or moving the links in the current right panel to their own page and just call that out.
That’s where my thinking is so far. I hope to import the content tomorrow and then will start checking out themes once I have some content to work with.
I thought about the service, but it only can work with a few pages and I built my site on Typepad and have built several other sites on WordPress.com (free). But that probably means I know enough to get myself in trouble… I’ll be back, I’m sure, but will mark this as resolved. Thanks again!
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You’re most welcome! You’re right about the visualization aspect. Once you get everything imported, you can really see how the layout looks.
We’re here to help (both here in the forums and through your account) as you get your site moved over from Typepad.
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