A long time ago, I released a version of my core WordPress theme, called Parthenon. It was well received, but I ended up making so many changes to it that I eventually scrapped that theme – and the name – in favor of something more fitting to it’s purpose: to be the baseline for my client’s themes. Thus, I created Downbeat about 2 years ago, and started building my client’s websites on top of it.
And it was good – it was built on the Skeleton framework, and was even modified to fit 1200px wide sites with 0 problems.
I read online a few days ago that Skeleton 2.0 was released, and I *really* like how slim this framework is – even more so than it was.
So, if you’re looking for a nice, lightweight theme to use as the starter for your web projects, may I suggest… Downbeat 2.0!
About Downbeat 2.0
Really, there’s a few theme enhancements, but this theme is meant for 2 things:
- Rapid prototyping for wireframes and mockups
- To be used as a child theme and built on top of
There are a few functions built in, but mostly ones that I use for my client’s to give them some freedom in customizing their experience:
- Custom excerpt lengths (full, short, medium, long)
- Use of tags
- Use of Footer Widgets
- Layout (Left Sidebar, Right Sidebar, Full Width)
- Logo Upload
- …and more!
Get Downbeat 2.0
Head over to the Github Repository to download / fork the theme (and if you fork it and make it better, let me know and I may merge in the changes!). If you’re happy with how it is, you can also use:
git clone git@github.com:studionashvegas/Downbeat-2.0.git downbeat
…and clone it right into your wp-content/themes folder (I added the ‘downbeat’ at the end to ensure that you have a clean theme folder to work with)
Thoughts?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the theme – as far as I know it’s one of the first ones using the new Skeleton 2.0 additions, and I’ve been extremely happy with Skeleton over the past two years.
