Loudness: A New Block Theme from Automattic

Automattic has released a new block theme called Loudness that is available on both WordPress.com and WordPress.org. It’s an artistic and opinionated theme based on the company’s Block Canvas starter theme. Although Loudness’ brief description suggests the theme was created for “music and learning,” the design and custom patterns lend themselves to a variety of different use cases. It could easily be used to whip up a quick event website with ticketing, an artist’s portfolio, or even a personal blog.

Loudness’ typography features the energetic combination of the sans-serif Rubik font for headers and DM Mono for paragraph text. The type design and font development for DM Mono was commissioned from Colophon Foundry, an award-winning type foundry based in London.

Installing and activating the theme on a fresh website offers users a good experience, as it automatically puts everything in the design in place exactly like the live demo on WordPress.com. Users don’t have to figure out which patterns to add in order to get it looking like the demo.

Loudness packages 12 custom block patterns, which can be previewed on WordPress.org. The pattern organization in this theme could be improved, as Loudness’ patterns are intermixed with selections from the pattern directory. It’s not easy to differentiate which ones belong to the theme. For purists who like to use only the patterns included in the theme to keep the design tight, it’s much easier when a theme creates a custom label in the pattern explorer for its own patterns.

Not pictured in the demo is a full-width FAQ pattern with a dark color scheme, which matches the other quirky design elements in the theme.

In addition to the instructors pattern and pricing table shown in the demo, Loudness includes artistic designs for a pullquote pattern and a section of large text.

Two illustrations are included for use in the header area or to break up the design. They can easily be swapped out for a photo or a custom illustration from another source.

Loudness doesn’t include any style variations, likely because most of the patterns are highly dependent on the established color palette. Although users are free to alter it in the Site Editor, the results may not be as harmonious as expected when using the illustrations in the site design.

Loudness is a unique block theme that makes a strong impression and can be creatively applied to many different types of websites – from events to blogs to businesses and agencies. The theme is available for free from WordPress.org and is also available to users on WordPress.com.