Argent: A Free Portfolio Theme for WordPress

Argent is a bold new portfolio theme that was launched on WordPress.com last week. The theme is centered around showcasing the work of visual artists such as designers, photographers, craft makers, painters, etc., with portfolio items featured prominently on the homepage template.

Argent was designed by Mel Choyce, co-author of the popular Flounder and Aventurine themes. Her designs are generally very focused and Argent is no exception. While the theme is well-suited to a wide range of creative professionals, it wasn’t designed to be an agency/business/blogging theme all in one. Argent is clearly a portfolio theme right out of the gate.

Artists won’t need to fight with this theme to simplify it down to something that’s easy to personalize. The theme’s customizer options allow you to display 3, 6, or 9 portfolio projects on the homepage template. It also includes controls for changing the header and background images and text colors.

All of the content on posts and pages is centered. There is no sidebar, but Argent includes support for three footer widget areas.

When used on a self-hosted WordPress site in combination with Jetpack and its Custom Content Types module, you can add portfolio projects. Each portfolio item includes support for a full-width image carousel. This is automatically generated from the first gallery included in the portfolio post.

One thing to appreciate about the blog section is that you don’t have to worry about having excessively large, oddly-shaped featured images to make it look like the demo. Argent’s blog archives template is simple with short, one-sentence excerpts and small rectangular featured images.

Typography is never an afterthought in Choyce’s designs, and Argent places a strong emphasis on readability. The theme features the contrasting “Alegreya” font for headers and quotes and “Cabin” for paragraph text. It also includes styling for right and left pullquotes to emphasize text.

If you’re on the hunt for a new portfolio theme, check out a live demo of Argent. Given the small number of design options to configure, artists will have an easy time getting their works online.

The theme hasn’t yet hit WordPress.org but should land there soon. In the meantime, self-hosted WordPress blog owners can download it from the sidebar of the theme’s description page on WordPress.com.