My goal for the theme of this site was simple: simple. Finding that theme was difficult. I wanted it simple for the readers and simple for me, with an emphasis on text and readability. I found a wide variety of themes on the internet that had these characteristics, but a lot of them lacked the features you come to expect in a Wordpress theme in 2011. This is either because they were older, or some of them just seemed like "minimalist" meant throw up a spot for posts and be gone. So I’ve compiled this list of the best themes I found that are minimalist in nature but with good support for the backend as well. Enjoy !
A business card theme for WordPress with built in vCard/hCard support, inspired by the excellent Business Card site by Tim Van Damme (http://timvandamme.com/). To configure the theme go to admin > theme options after activating the theme.
Fabiano is a new theme from the fab series. This is a light and slightly grungy minimalistic theme. This theme holds features like, jQuery slider with post thumbnails, Twitter updates, banner ads, adsense, theme option page, widgetized sidebar and footer etc.
Work-a-holic is a free minimalistic two and three column WordPress theme that focuses mainly on showcasing portfolios for artists, web designers, photographers and illustrators.
Modern Clix is a minimal blog theme inspired in the Swiss Style of Design: It features Arial/Helvetica, grids, a generous use of whitespace for better readability and a strong focus in typography.
Renova, a new single column theme for wordpress.The main design of renova is concentrated on a minimal style dedicated to those writers who need a simple layout without any kind of useless stuff.Just words, your words.The main core of renova offers 2 different backgrounds, full white or paper, 6 different color for links, a jquery support for hover effect and mobile device support. Yes, Renova was designed to perform well on the principal touch mobile device and tablets; now your blog can be read also from mobile user.
The themes are simple but powerful, with a touch of traditional Swiss design and layout techniques. The unique style and design is what separates these themes from others. You will also be able to withhold the focus on your work, since you are the artist and should be in control of what the observer sees when visiting your site. Each one comes with a full video overview and support of how to use and manage it.
Aqualine is a unique and minimalist WordPress theme, that you can easily make customization to suit your needs. It is packed with an extensive options page – easily customise your theme without touching any code: Pick your own colour accent, choose a thumbnail with excerpts layout, or display your full posts, amongst many other built in options.
Expositio is a very simple & free portfolio WordPress theme for photographers, designers & artists. Expositio theme allows you in several clicks to showcase your works to the whole world. Adjustable main page lets you to provide any information. Integrated options panel helps to customize the template from font used to color theme.
A clean and streamlined theme that focused on the content and not the distractions. It utilizes a single column, 500 pixel wide layout. No sidebars. No widgets.
Grid Focus is a three column widget enabled WordPress 2.6 or 2.7+ compatible WordPress theme. Prominent navigation bar with room to share important pages. The latest update is completely optimized and stripped of any unnecessary code allowing for complete customizability.
Handgloves is one of the best free WordPress theme releases for some time, offering a striking two-column design that emphasizes content and uses typography and white space to create a professional tone, with good integration options for photos in posts.
Charlene is a minimalist two-column WordPress theme that uses white space beautifully to provide a crisp, attractive appearance that makes your content sing.
Fotofolio is a free wordpress template designed for easy creation online portfolio for Visual Workers; Photography, Graphic Design, Manga, Architect, etc. Fotofolio is very simple and easy to use, please read the instalation and usage for details.
