Jun 27 2010
Two new templates: Variant Rounded and Variant Portal
Saturday passed and it is now two hours into Sunday, so this post is a bit late. But the news will hopefully be interesting to you anyway! I have uploaded two new free website templates, called [Variant Rounded->http://andreasviklund.com/templates/variant-rounded/] and [Variant Portal->http://andreasviklund.com/templates/variant-portal/]. As I have in the past, I try to keep the designs simple and useful. Variant Rounded is an 800px-friendly template with more design than content in its basic 3-column layout. Variant Portal is lighter, less colorful, 1024px-friendly and made for sites with more text content that needs to be in focus. Both templates have been tested in multiple web browsers and on mobile devices, and I have not found any problems. The code is valid XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS2. Basic accessibility features are included, such as skip links and full functionality with screen readers. Like most of my previous designs, these two new templates should be perfectly functional even in browsers that do not support CSS, thanks to the simple code structure.
Screenshots are below, click the images to download each template:
Jun 27, 2010 @ 02:25:00
Hello Andreas!
Great news to have your themes back! Really liked the Variant Portal – straight to the point.
If it's not much to ask, would you share with us if you have plans to release new themes and what/when should we expect anything?
Cheers!
Jun 27, 2010 @ 07:21:00
Variant Portal looks really promising. If I had one wish granted, I'd love to see alternate colour schemes, to add a little warmth for instance. Would you consider this as an idea for a future release?
Jun 27, 2010 @ 09:31:00
The Variant Portal looks great to me and I agree with Leandro that it's great news to see you back, alive and kickin';-) I also agree with Natalya that a colorscheme would be great. Would it also be possible to have the Variant Portal available with only one navigation at the right side? Two of them looks a bit overdone, although once again, with all the work you have done, you're a credit to website developpers!
Jun 27, 2010 @ 10:35:00
Leandro: During the last couple of weeks, I have worked with finishing several template design ideas from my "unfinished" and "unreleased" folders, as well as creating some new ones. There will be more releases for sure, atleast one new template every week during the summer. Refreshing (or rather rebuilding) the WordPress themes is also a priority, as well as working on a new and improved andreasviklund.com with more related material.
Natalya: That is a good idea. The plain style is intentional, but it would be useful to have options for simple customization added to the template. It would be easy to add, I'll consider it for the next version!
Hans: When I made Variant Portal, I also made an alternative version with a single sidebar and a smaller feature area. More of a classic blog layout, probably. I considered including it as an alternative stylesheet, but decided against it to keep the template as simple as possible. I will probably release the alternative version separately soon. Including the possibility of easily removing one of the sidebars while keeping the button styles may possibly be added in the next version.
Jun 27, 2010 @ 11:52:00
Variant portal reminds me to Carrington but this one is much more better. Simple and Elegant. I like it. Thanks Andreas for providing both for free. That's very kind of you.
Jun 27, 2010 @ 13:31:00
I'm planning to make a mini site, It seems that Variant Rounded v2.0 looks suitable for my project. Both website themes looks great. I'll try on my localhost first. Thank you Andreas.
Jun 27, 2010 @ 13:42:00
Very good! I want the second theme: Variant Portal :-) But I wanna change some colors there. Nice work!
Jun 27, 2010 @ 18:27:00
Another wish for the wish list is a template that looks like BentoBox, but that is free. (I think we are getting spoiled here ;)
Jun 27, 2010 @ 18:35:00
Anyone given it a serious try to create Joomla 1.6 templates yet? (it's in beta 3 now) Making some templates available for Joomla 1.6 would be a great way to make this site even more popular I think.
Jun 27, 2010 @ 23:40:00
These two are amazing. I'll download them. So, you'll produce some more website templates this summer ya Andreas. Good luck! and Thanks!
Jun 27, 2010 @ 23:57:00
Hello Andreas! I like the rounded corner and navigation style on Variant Rounded V2.0. You rock!
Jun 28, 2010 @ 00:09:00
Andreas, another excellent effort. Your themes continue to impress me with their clean, intuitive interfaces. Did you do any work in the web usability sphere?
Also, hope you are feeling better.
Jun 28, 2010 @ 01:44:00
Very good, congratulations! I'll take "Variant Portal"
Jun 28, 2010 @ 08:08:00
Great work, i like the Variant Portal but will it maybe use with pastell colors.
Jun 28, 2010 @ 09:29:00
The both are clean and beautiful themes.
Is "Variant" the name of your new theme serie, like the previous ones "Andreas" and "Daleri"?
Jun 28, 2010 @ 10:10:00
Variant Portal and Variant rounded are two good reasons for having you back :)
At 21kb I thought that Rounded was pretty cool. And then you blew me away with 4kb for Portal!
Jun 28, 2010 @ 15:19:00
Hi Andreas,
Great to see you back in action.
I look forward to the release of your WP themes.
Regards
Marcus
Jun 28, 2010 @ 19:11:00
Hey Andreas, Thank you for making these 2 beautiful templates.
Totally love them. Looking forward to seeing more.
Jun 29, 2010 @ 00:32:00
Good job! Great to see you back in business. Hoping to see some new WordPress templates soon, hopefully some that are "premium" looking but no extra functionality required, just awesome looks.
Jun 29, 2010 @ 12:01:00
I agree with all positive comments: good job!! :)
Jun 29, 2010 @ 16:23:00
Great work! The second one looks really clean and simple.
There is actually one thing i would like to see from you. A wordpress theme based on CSS. Only CSS and nothing else. That would be very interesting.
Keep up the good work budd!
Jun 30, 2010 @ 03:02:00
The ability to change the main colour on variant Portal would be a nice feature. I like to use blue like you have up in your header section.
Jun 30, 2010 @ 04:58:00
Great work! Waiting for more of course :)
Some premium-looking maybe?
Thank you!
Jun 30, 2010 @ 18:48:00
The templates look nice. however I think that you should not make templates without a single front image in them (Variant Portal). The first one (Variant Rounded) looks very nice to say the least!
Jul 01, 2010 @ 03:21:28
Keep up the good work and thanks a lot.
What else should I say?, Yeah, the themes are just great :-)
South America – Brasil
Jul 01, 2010 @ 07:31:00
That's great to see you are back with two new themes. I really like the variant portal. Keep up the good work as it certainly is appreciated!
Jul 01, 2010 @ 14:31:00
Hi Andreas,
Nice to see that you are back in business and hope you are doing well. I will sure check out the new templates you are releasing. The two above looks nice.
Jul 04, 2010 @ 18:54:00
Hello Andreas, I have been following you for a while now and have been really impressed with your content here on this site. These two templates look great, I especially like the second one due to the dual sidebar. Keep up the great work.
Jul 05, 2010 @ 09:15:00
Hej.
Finns det några planer på att uppdatera WP-Andreas01 v2.0 för wordpress 3.0 inom en snar framtid?
Tack på förhand.
Jul 05, 2010 @ 09:16:00
Nice work! Most of them i like the Variant Portal-Template.
I'm looking forward to see more of your impressive work.
Jul 05, 2010 @ 17:10:00
I really like this new variant series.
Jul 06, 2010 @ 05:19:00
very simple template, i like Variant Rounded but my blog is from blogger :(
Jul 06, 2010 @ 07:52:00
Hello : I discovered your wweb site today searching for a customizable templates for my wp blog and what a great discover !
VariantPortal is exactly what I have been searching since a while. It is unbelieveable how it is possible to find almost anything (something I imagined) but only if you invert some hours… ;-)
Many thanks for this template that it is EXACTLY what I searched !
Bernard
Jul 06, 2010 @ 21:13:00
Good job, Great to see you back in busines again
thx.
Jul 07, 2010 @ 00:48:00
That Variant portal theme could actually work very well for a business news blog I am starting. Variant rounded is probably a little too simple for what I am doing now, but I can see how it would be perfect for some.
Jul 07, 2010 @ 08:04:00
Welcome back Andreas ;). Waiting to see the promised site redesign :P
Jul 07, 2010 @ 08:39:00
Wowww, Super, and The templates look nice. however I think that you should not make templates without a single front image in them (Variant Portal). The first one (Variant Rounded) looks very nice to say the least!
Jul 07, 2010 @ 09:11:00
Variant Portal is simple but has an outstanding appeal. I'm planning to used this in one of our business blog. Indeed, Simplicity is beauty
Variant rounded has no menu in the center?
Jul 07, 2010 @ 14:12:00
Hi Andreas,
I am also pleased to see that it is raging once again on your website.
The new templates look very good.
Your fan Mason
Jul 08, 2010 @ 09:37:00
Hi andreas,
i have been your fan for a long time. i used your free themes in some of my projects. thanks, keep it up!
Sep 13, 2010 @ 23:11:00
I've have recollections of porting Variant Portal to WordPress for you a long time ago. Did you keep the WordPress version? I think I may have it somewhere…
Mar 20, 2011 @ 11:41:46
Variant portal reminds me to Carrington but this one is much more better. Simple and Elegant. I like it. Thanks Andreas for providing both for free. That's very kind of you
Jul 25, 2011 @ 22:17:13
Very nice themes!
You are so skillfull!
Thanx for putting out your work!
Jul 26, 2011 @ 03:29:17
Variant portal reminds me to Carrington but this one is much more better. Simple and Elegant. I like it. Thanks Andreas for providing both for free. That's very kind of you
Oct 21, 2011 @ 22:29:08
Really nice template, it is very elegant and easy on the eyes!
Jan 06, 2012 @ 22:23:55
Hi Andreas
Nice template. Hope that there will be more.