ESC is developing a new website as part of its overall communications revival.

This page documents briefly some themes which have been tested but which showed quickly that they would not likely be customisable to our needs.

WordPress have changed their product to our advantage – all the “premium” themes which had a price tag are now available to new premium customers free of charge, so most of the tests have been made using premium themes.

A. PURPOSE THEME
At first glance this was to be the choice – beautiful full width front images with live link capabilities were a definite attraction.
However, other than the front page there were page width limitations which would limit good layouts.
The slideshow was amazing.

B. FULL FRAME THEME
Top menu plus a hamburger – good start!
1 menu only, no side bar, but very good video implementation.
Good text control over background images – text can be shifted left, right, center to find the best position for readability.
I don’t remember exactly why I trashed it.

C. WAYFARER THEME
Designed for music

D. TRAVELER THEME
Sidebar switching similar to Ovation not with a manual type switch, but simply if no content then it disappears – this actually is true in many themes.
There were lots of category layout options – seems it is big for blogs.

E. OBSIDAN THEME
Another theme where the pieces float very nicely over a background image.
The video archive page operates really well – each video pops out of the matrix when the thumbnail image is clicked and autostarts in a separate, larger frame.

F. DEMAND THEME
Slider with live action.
Full background image

G. The 3 tests made in 2016 used DYAD and SELA THEMES
Good standard side-bar themes – in those days I was not looking for the “wow” factor on the front page, so these themes are quite “normal”.

H. SEQUENTIAL THEME (with which this site, luther250, is running) is a free theme and with the front page customization does most of what we want in terms of functionality, but there is no awesome “wow” factor !