Minimalism has always been an extremely popular subject. The idea of mobile responsive website layouts has taken minimalism to a whole new level. Today we can find dozens of various examples featuring white, black, grey, tan, and other very simple color schemes. Websites have been going through a tremendous change for better user experience design.
In this collection I want to present some outstanding responsive WordPress premium themes. Each of these items is very affordable for the features, and you can find examples from a handful of websites. The cleanest responsive themes are often designed around portfolios or company websites. But thankfully you can update these themes to run on any type of project!
The Essence
The Essence is a brilliant responsive WordPress theme put out by MeridianThemes. It is geared mostly towards lifestyle bloggers, who need to create a simple blog. It’s a clean magazine/blog style website layout for music, art, movies, entertainment, and other similar categories.
Essence theme is created by MeridianThemes and is available for $54.
Hero
Hero is another responsive WordPress theme which feels like it was created for freelancers. Design agencies and studios around the world may enjoy this template if only for the subtle textures and box shadows. You can easily setup a large portfolio in this theme and keep in online for years to come.
Ink
The WordPress Ink theme is probably one of my favorites in regards to responsive design. This template handles resizing the layout very elegantly and it is easy to customize the resized content through the backend. I also like how the full-width example spans the entirety of the screen displaying portfolio items. It is a great choice for an agency or individual who has their eyes on this style of layout.
Avada
The Avada responsive template is a great example for smaller companies. You can update the homepage image slideshow to focus on any photos you like. But everything else on the page is built in a minimalist fashion, which helps during responsive resizing. The theme allows you to update colors for buttons and links in the page all throughout settings in the admin panel.
Modernize
Modernize is a classic elegant WordPress premium theme for designers and businesses. I find the original homepage to be a little bland. However you can spice this up in your own site by rearranging widgets and updating the core contents.
SmartStart
SmartStart premium theme is in my top 3 favorite minimalist & responsive templates. The top navigation section is beautiful and the color scheme reminds me of HTML5. I think this website could be used for nearly any subject. However I think it is targeted towards design agencies and creative studios which need a website to showcase their work.
Gonzo
The Gonzo theme is a WordPress responsive magazine for publishing articles online. What I like most about the theme is when you resize down on an iPhone device you will notice the heading still looks very sharp.
SCRN
The strangely-named SCRN is a responsive screen-based WordPress theme. You can upload a full scale background image to cover the header which resizes naturally. Also the top horizontal navigation bar acts as a sticky block once you scroll down lower in the page. Some people do not like this effect but I do enjoy it quite a bit.
Inovado
Inovado is a retina responsive website built using dual sets of icons and graphics. This means your WordPress website would be retina-ready for all detailed pixel screens. This template itself is based around a company website launch. But with a bit of hacking you can adjust the theme to run on any website.
Good Space
Good Space is a newer WordPress premium theme using responsive tendencies. The layout uses a lot of black and white colors with shades of grey in the middle. Naturally this will not work for every single website launch. But it provides a good starting template if you are interested to build off a responsive website theme.
Big Bang
Bigbang is a WordPress theme with a lot of flat elements. The links and portfolio entries all use single-hover colored background effects. It stands out almost like a metro layout, but you can tell the difference from various gradients in the page. I do like the responsive effect but it isn’t much different than other themes in this collection.
Centum
Centum responsive theme uses a big heading image with a slideshow feature. This allows your latest featured articles to be displayed right at the top of the homepage. And best of all, this slider will resize naturally in the responsive layout. Centum is a great starting point for any basic website running on top of WordPress.
Enfold
Enfold stands out as a really creative development team or software firm website. This theme could be used in almost any professional setting because of the simplicity. The image slideshow uses some really great transition effects that almost jump off the page. It is a nice investment if you have the time to customize your own logo and set it up online.
Deadline
Deadline is a portfolio/blog WordPress theme for creative professionals. I feel this template is mostly for individuals setting up their own online portfolio. But it can obviously be used in almost any setting. The responsive traits are perfect when you are browsing on iPhone and it behaves exactly as you would expect.
Aware
The Aware WordPress theme is a very minimalist approach to displaying portfolio entries. The top heading area is based around typography and general design styles for the navigation. Then you find a whole collection of portfolio items which users may click through and browse more details. Aware does have a specific purpose but it fills that role brilliantly.
PixelPower
Now the PixelPower responsive WordPress theme is a great example of what is possible on mobile. The design itself is based around square blocks of content which resize to show the date and publication time. I really like the interface because it doesn’t require a whole lot of setup on the backend. Anyone who is familiar with WordPress should be able to figure out this theme.
Swagger
Swagger is a newer responsive theme which can help you accomplish just about anything. The design is very minimalist but easy to manipulate. Also the frontpage image slider can be adjusted to showcase any posts or articles you like.
Office
Office Responsive is the perfect WordPress theme for your new company. The design feels to lean more towards Internet and media companies, but it can be implemented for any purpose. I love the dark and light contrast which you will notice in other themes, too. But Office is one perfect choice for new companies just getting started online.
Crevision
Crevision is one of the most creative responsive themes out there. WordPress developers owe it to themselves to at least check out this live demo and see how it runs. The creator has both a light and dark version, which you can switch between after purchasing the theme. I love the heading illustration and this could be used in practically any circumstance.
Builder
Builder comes across as a very professional theme with some leeway in the design. It is responsive down for mobile devices and you can adjust the color scheme accordingly. The design is also flat and works perfectly for any new company. I think the live demo preview says a lot more than I could say, but it is a truly fantastic responsive theme.
Maxx
Maxx reminds me of a cartoon blog or personal website for an illustrator. It is an easy setup and the responsive design traits roll of very naturally. I also really like the top horizontal navbar with dropdown contents because it blends perfectly into the homepage layout.
Square
Square is a responsive WordPress theme which also includes the original PSD design elements. The site is built around portfolio entries and it is extremely minimalist. But you can learn a lot by studying the responsive features to see how this layout can manage from a full desktop down to an iPhone screen.
Conclusion
I am a big advocate for responsive web design as it fits nicely into the advancing trends on mobile. The common user interface features you might expect are very surprising as you resize the layout. I have been so impressed with these various WordPress themes that I had to showcase the cleanest, simplest, easiest to use templates among the whole set of WP themes. If you know of any other great examples please share in the discussion area below.
