General Design
Being minimalistic doesn't mean that your CV isn't outstanding. That's what the design of Portfolio Web tells you. The use of line, elements, and colors are clean, minimalistic, and very reasonable. When needed, the important sections like featured images, about me section are made to be very prominent.
Other Elements
Color and Font
The main color the author used is light grey - the typical color of minimalism design. To make the whole theme less boring, he added some blue elements in special items like quotation marks, lovely icons, tags, ... I really love this idea!
Review the use of minor elements
Moreover, different from other free WordPress themes I've reviewed, Portfolio Web prepares 6 pre-built style presses. These styles will help you make your site more creative with the skillful combination of color and typography.
6 pre-built style presses
Among the 6 styles, I love this dark one because my site becomes so bold and special. It's up to you to choose the one that fit your characteristic.
The dark pre-built style presses
Home Page
The home page is the most important page to show your portfolio so it's carefully designed.
The section I love the most is this gallery section with a masonry structure. If you look closely at each image when hovering the mouse, you will find that the sharp corner becomes curved. Although that's a small detail, I think it helps reduce the sharpness and makes this free portfolio theme softer.
The sharp corner becomes curved.
Uhm, the only design I think that it needs improving is the testimonial. While other elements are so soft and light, this section with 3 items looks really sharp, which I think violates the harmony of the design.
While other elements are so soft and light, this section with 3 items looks really sharp
Other Inner Pages
On other pages, you can show the sidebar on any position you want: right, left, or both. It doesn't a big matter to me. I paid attention to the design of the sidebar, which is a bit too simple. I think there should be some elements like bullet points, icons, or lines, ... to make the sidebar less boring.
The design of the sidebar and archive pages
And as you can see in the image of the archive page above. This list of posts is prominent with large featured images, nice arrangement, and design of the article's details. But it doesn't stop there. You can choose one from various styles for the featured images on archive pages and even single post pages. But I still think the default style is the best one among others as you can see in the image here:
Review different featured images of posts on archive pages
Responsive
When you switch to mobile devices or any screen size, this free WordPress portfolio theme display quite beautifully. However, I don't think I like the design of the first screen area on tablets and smartphones.
Responsive design
