WordPress Archives - Archipreneur

5 Ways Architecture Students Can Get Started as Entrepreneurs

Archipreneur — Thu, 15 Oct 2015 16:30:10 +0000

Do architecture students as a whole realize their entrepreneurial potential? I don’t believe so. Architecture students are a rare breed: creative perfectionists that are ambitious enough to accept all-nighters as the norm. But far too often they dismiss the financial value of their skillset and complain about the lack of job prospects and associated compensation.

Please read my list of 5 ways architecture students can get their start as entrepreneurs.

By Cory Wingelaar

A professor in my final semester of University made a point that resonated with me: Why does a field of study that teaches students to envision and create so subjectively, generate graduates that view their career path so objectively?

I think there needs to be a fundamental shift in the mindset of architecture student’s. We need to ask, how can I monetize this skillset, as opposed to where can I wait tables until a firm hires me?

Why wait hat in hand for job interviews? Here are 5 ways that you can capitalize on your arsenal of valuable skills and make a couple bucks now!

#1 – Create a 3D Rendering Service

When I was working as a draftsperson for a residential construction company that specialized in addition/renovations, I noticed that we were spending far too much of the drafting budget trying to sell 2D elevations and plans to homeowners.

The reason being is that most customers aren’t architecturally trained and can’t visualize in 2D. Customers want you to show them solutions that they see on sites like Pinterest, Houzz and shows like Property Brothers.

Therefore, I created a freelance service that catered to developers and residential construction companies. This is how it worked: First meeting, I would meet with the customer to discuss their design ideas and obtain relevant job documents.

Second meeting, I would show them 12 different views of basic mass models and have them agree upon any number they were willing to pay for. We would set the fee, sign the contract and move forward. Following the second meeting, I’d send progress shots with inquiries and alter designs based on their feedback until we reached a final agreement.

How can you start?

Use your portfolio as your advertising tool. I would suggest setting up a small WordPress portfolio site and advertising your service via social media platforms. Check out this post on how to set up a WordPress site for architects.

Note: Make sure to agree upon exact perspective views early on. Customers have a tendency to change views throughout the process, not realizing how time consuming it can be for you if you have already dressed your perspectives up in Photoshop. Set the views collectively, and agree upon a fee if the customer would like to make a change or add one later on.

#2 – Set up a Residential Drafting Service

Different states or provinces are likely to have different requirements for submitting permit drawings, but there is always a need for qualified people to produce drawings for DIY projects. Most building departments require more than a “napkin” sketch in 2015, which is why your CAD skills can be of great assistance. As for payment, you can either set an hourly fee, or charge by the job. Personally, I always charged by the job.

How can you start?

Advertise your services on sites like Kijiji or Craigslist and you might be surprised how quick you get contacted.

Note: Make sure to find out what local permit drawing qualifications are required for submissions prior to putting yourself out there. You don’t want to damage credibility by making promises that you are not qualified to fulfill.

#3 – Start a “How to Blog” that offers Tips

Have you just passed your LEED AP BD+C exam? Are you an expert in AutoCad, Sketchup or Photoshop? What can you do really well that you can put in writing to help others?

Blogging is a longer path to produce regular income, but there are people making money simply sharing their skills online. For information on monetizing your blog please visit this link.

How can you get started?

A case study that should inspire you, is Pat Flynn. Pat was a job captain in an architecture firm until 2008 when he became jobless as result of the recession. He started with a simple blog sharing his study tips for the LEED AP exam and made over 5 times his previous salary in his first year. The key point is that it started as a tip sharing blog to make things easier for others and grew beyond something he could have ever imagined. For more information please visit this blog post.

WordPress is a great, user friendly blog building website. I suggest visiting this how to guide to help you get started.

Note: Your blog can also be your advertisement platform for the rest of the services on this list!

#4 – Create your own Youtube Channel

If you’re anything like me, every time you have an AutoCAD or Revit issue, you YouTube the solution. More often than not, the solution is there. Why? Because someone else has had that issue, and someone else has solved that issue.

Yes, you aren’t the first person to do this. But who cares? If you’re good at a particular program and you communicate the solution well, your services may be in high demand. Check out Eric Reinholdt’s video blog to see a great example of how to offer tips to users on a video platform.

For information on how to monetize your video blog, visit this site.

How can you start?

First, find your niche. You’re more likely to be successful with a target audience.

Note: Niche is the keyword. Be specific with your topic!

#5 – Use Freelance Job Platforms

Why not take advantage of platforms that were created for people like you? There are too many great platforms available online for freelance work to list, but I will outline 2 that I am familiar with:

GreenLancer

A Detroit based start-up that hires people with architecture and engineering backgrounds to create solar design documents via correspondence. Your hourly wage is dictated by your experience. For more information please visit GreenLancer.

Upwork

Unlike GreenLancer, Upwork is not industry specific. It is a platform designed to connect various types of employers to freelancers and vice verca. Compensation is unique job to job. For more information please visit Upwork.

How to get started?

You can simply get started by creating a profile on one of these websites and bidding on your first project. Your first freelance job can be a start on your own freelance business.

Conclusion

I must reinforce my point: architecture draws creative, driven people that are trained to innovate and adapt. Therefore, why can’t these skills be implemented for entrepreneurial ventures? They can and they should!

Don’t accept the status quo for graduates and more importantly, don’t fall victim to the negative banter you hear about how there are no jobs for graduates. Pick a service, advertise your work, network and good opportunities will present themselves.

Am I missing any great entrepreneurial services for architecture students? Your feedback would be greatly appreciated!

***

This post is a guest post by Cory Wingelaar.

Cory is a graduate of Architecture at Lawrence Technical University and a LEED AP BD+C. Cory’s professional experience ranges from drafting/design in architecture firms to Project estimating/ technical sales for a building façade Curtainwall firm. Cory is passionate about architecture, entrepreneurship, travel and sports.

The post 5 Ways Architecture Students Can Get Started as Entrepreneurs appeared first on Archipreneur.

How to Launch an Architect’s Portfolio Website in 20 Minutes or Less

Archipreneur — Mon, 15 Jun 2015 10:00:27 +0000

Your website is your online calling card for presenting your firm, showcasing your work and building up an audience interested in your design brand. Today, the easiest way to build a great website is by using a WordPress template. Read this step-by-step guide to launch a highly aesthetic website for your design business without spending thousands of dollars on web design.

In 2013, I started a new job for an architecture firm. A friend of mine had approached me for it and I thought it would be an interesting opportunity to learn more and develop my career. I remember that firm’s website very well – a single page with low-resolution images – it looked so 90s… and the logo looked like something from the 80s!

I was shocked! Did I really want to work for a firm that put so little attention into its online presence?

After a few talks with my friend and the other members of staff, I finally did work for them, as it appeared that behind that disappointing front-of-house showcase, the job would be both interesting and challenging.

I started as one of the firm’s youngest employees. Highly motivated, I wanted to inject something new to the place. So I suggested a new web design – we had to drag the firm’s online presence back into the 21st century somehow …and also avoid any more negative reactions from potential employees in my age group!

Alongside my daily tasks at the firm, I started to create a draft design in Photoshop. My friend was a great help to me, gathering all the firm’s projects together to produce web-compatible images. Once I was finished with Photoshop, we had to find a coder who would take my design and turn it into HTML.

Long story short, the whole process took about half a year until we were finally able to go online. The coder wanted around $2,500, which was a special rate because we knew him – it could easily have been twice or three times that price considering the work he did. We got a lean website with a news page, projects section, contact page and an “about the firm” subpage.

Back then I was pretty proud and, thinking about it, I guess the design was okay. But now, 2 years later, I can tell you one thing: spending all that time and money was a mistake! I would go about it very differently today…

You don’t need to spend thousands of hours and dollars designing your website

In retrospect, I would not have spent hundreds of hours and dollars for a coder to create a website for me. Before I teach you the 5 steps to easily create a good-looking and professional website for your design business, let me summarize the main learning points for you real quick…

First of all, I was hardly a pro in web design – the whole thing took me a very long time to create. It was definitely fun, but my time could have been more valuably spent focusing on other things. From what I know today, I would simply search for a nice WordPress theme and customize that to my needs.

Now knowing the ins and outs of WordPress from my blog, I realize we made the whole thing too complicated. WordPress is so easy in the backend and gives you thousands of possibilities for customization, like adding a blog to your site, easily uploading projects, and editing content.

One thing that we tried to do with the firm’s site was to make it mobile responsive, meaning that the site would change to the size of the device being used to view it. It didn’t turn out too badly, but it had nothing on the WordPress themes you can get your hands on today. Nowadays, you can find really great, mobile responsive premium themes for under $60!

Mobile responsiveness is actually the one thing I am still missing on my own blog at archipreneur.com, so I still have work to do. But starting a blog at all has taught me a lot of rewarding things. Namely, that you do not have to be a web designer or coder to start a professional site for your architecture projects, portfolio, blog and profile. You just have to work out WordPress, which is much easier!

Now, go make yourself a cup of coffee and then we’ll start with our step-by-step process on how to start building your own website…

How to Start a Website for Your Architecture Firm… or any Type of Design Business

Launching archipreneur.com has taught me a lot about websites, WordPress and blogging. I thought that I would write up everything I have learned about launching my website and break it down into a simple, 5-step process, so that you can easily build a page for your design business.

Before we start, I will quickly go over what a blog is and how it functions. Otherwise, you might wonder why you should be starting your website on WordPress over any other site platform out there.

A blog is in essence a website that is regularly updated with post entries. WordPress is the web software on which your blog runs, as well as the backend Content Management System.

It really can look like any other website: it can have a homepage, an about page, a project page and so on. In fact, many websites you read are likely blogs, or are set up in blog format.

Here is a brief overview of what we are going to be covering in these 5 steps to build an architect’s website. Below that, you’ll be able to read how to complete each step in more detail.

Register your domain – A domain is your unique URL – mine is archipreneur.com. Yours could be abc-architects.com.
Set up a hosting account – A host is a server that stores your files, so that when someone types abc-architects.com into a browser (like Google Chrome or Safari), your blog will show up on their computer screen or mobile device. To start with, I recommend Bluehost, which I used in this tutorial because it is super easy to handle.
Install WordPress – WordPress is an open source platform for building blogs and websites, as well as archiving all your content.
Choose a design theme – A theme is the design front of your website. It provides all the front-end styling of your website, like colors, page layouts and fonts.
Upload your content – Once you have finished steps 1–4, you will be ready to upload your projects, firm profile and so on, to your new website… you might even want to start blogging on your own company’s blog!

Okay, now we are ready to begin the section where I walk you through the steps of building your own website. I will explain everything through screenshots, which you should be able to easily replicate.

Step #1: Register Your Domain

Your domain is the URL of your website, like archipreneur.com.

The first step is to register your own domain. If you are planning to sign up with a hosting company like Bluehost, which I will cover in Step #2 below, you can often get a free domain name with the cost of the webhosting. So, if you plan to sign up for hosting you can skip to Step #2.

If you have already registered your domain, no problem, you can simply transfer your current domain name while setting up your hosting account…

So let’s go over to Bluehost. If you click here, you should see the page shown in the below screenshot.

Step #2: Set up a Hosting Account

Your website or blog consists of many files. These files are all stored on a server that can be accessed from your web browser, like Google Chrome or Firefox. You will, in effect, “rent” a space on the host’s server in order to install the WordPress software and manage your website. So the host plays a very important role in setting up your site.

There are a thousand of possibilities for getting a hosting account. However, if you are starting a page that doesn’t have a lot of content or blog entries, it is best to take an easy-to-handle and inexpensive offer. From my research, I recommend Bluehost. I believe it’s a great option for a design business or an architectural practice because:

Bluehost has proved to be a very reliable hosting provider, which hosts over 850,000 WordPress blogs to date.
Bluehost has great 24–7 customer support via phone, email or chat.
Bluehost is inexpensive. Hosting packages start at $3.95 – $5.95 a month, depending on which plan you select. The longer you commit, the cheaper it gets.

So, super handy and easy for beginners to set up! If you are still in, go to the Bluehost homepage and click on the green “Get Started Now” button.

Next, you need to decide which of the Bluehost plans is right for you. I recommend the Starter Package. If you think you’ll have a lot of projects and content, which will extend the 100 GB server space in the Starter Package, then the Plus Plan would be a better option because it comes with unlimited website space. The same goes for email storage, which is limited in the Starter Package.

Now you need to decide whether you need a domain name. If you have not previously registered a domain, you can enter your desired name in the left-hand box and click the “Next” button.

I chose to register the domain name wp4arch.com (standing for WordPress for Architects) for this tutorial. This is the domain where I will install WordPress and an example theme to take a look at later.

If you have a domain name registered with another domain registration service, e.g. GoDaddy.com, then you can also enter your domain name in the right-hand box and sign up with your existing name.

Please note: You have to change the name servers at the company you bought your domain to the Bluehost name servers. This process is a bit different depending on the registrar that you have chosen. Bluehost takes you through the entire process here.

Now you can enter your account information and scroll down to select your desired plan. You can choose the price range – from $3.95–$5.95 a month, depending on your commitment of 12, 24 or 36 months. I would recommend the 36-month length because it works out to be the cheapest over time and you will probably have your site longer than one year, right?

Enter your billing information, confirm that you have read and agreed with the Terms of Service and then click the “Next” button.

After clicking through some of the upgrade offers which (in my opinion) you do not need, you should reach the “Welcome to Bluehost” screen. Create your password by clicking on the blue button and… congratulations, you have made it to the next step!

Step #3: Install WordPress

Now you are ready to install WordPress on your host server. This is where Bluehost has made the process so simple.

WordPress is a free, online, open source website creation tool. In non-geek speak, it’s probably the easiest and most powerful blogging and website content management system (CMS) that exists today.

On the Bluehost site, click on the menu button “Hosting” and you will bring up your Bluehost main control page (if you are not already on it by default after you signed up).

Click on the “Install WordPress” logo in the fourth row and wait for a moment until the page loads. It might take a while.

A new WordPress screen will then appear. Click the green “Install” button. That will bring you to a new screen, saying “Select which domain you would like to install to”. It should default to the one you need. Click on the green button “Check Domain”.

The next screen will say, “Last step, you are almost there.” Click on “Advanced Options”, then type in the title you want your site to have. Don’t worry about getting it perfect; you can always change it later. Accept the “Admin Username” and “Admin Password” that Bluehost suggests.

Now click on the item that says, “I have read the terms and conditions of the GPLv2.” Click on the “Install Now” button and the installation process will begin. It will take a minute or two to install entirely.

Here, you might get an “upsell” pop-up, which you can easily click away with the “X” in the upper right-hand corner. After that, you should see a screen saying, “Your install is complete!” on the top of the page.

Now, click on the black “View Credentials” button. This will take you to the Notification Center. Click on the “View” button.

Once that is done, you’ll get a screen with your blog URL, login URL, username, and password. Bluehost will also email this information to you, but I would suggest having a backup. You can write it down or just take a screenshot.

Log into WordPress

Great, you have just installed WordPress!

Now you are ready to login to the WordPress admin area. Either click on the “Admin URL” link or type the following link into the address bar of your browser:

www.yourdomainname.com/wp-login.php

This will lead you to the WordPress login page. I recommend that you bookmark this link because you always will come back there when editing your website.

Now enter your username and password (the one you created in the Notification Center). Put a check in the “Remember Me” box if you’re using a private computer and then hit the “Log In” button.

You should now be looking at the WordPress dashboard. This is the back-end of your site, from which you will steer and edit your website. You might see a welcome offer from some plug-ins like the JetPack. Do not worry about those right now.

Okay, now you have set up WordPress and are more or less ready to write your first blog post! If you take your cursor to the upper left-hand side of the dashboard where the name of your site is, a little menu should come up, to say “Visit Site”. Just for fun, click on it. It will bring you to a preview of your website; you will see a pretty basic blog layout.

Now we need to change that to a nice design that will suit your company’s brand. And that is where the fun begins…we’ll get there!

Step #4: Choose a Design Theme

Now that you have a domain, you have set up your hosting, and you have installed WordPress… it’s time to find a nice design theme.

What is a WordPress theme? It is the skin of your website; the visual component, like the body of a car.

When you install WordPress, you are automatically given the default theme (the one you likely just saw if you clicked on “Visit Site” earlier). If you are an architect or designer like me this will probably not satisfy your tastes, right?

From here, you basically have two options: either find a free theme, or buy a premium theme. You can find thousands of free themes on the wordpress.com website or by googling for free WordPress themes. However, my experience has been that I am never 100% satisfied with the free themes on offer. Premium themes are much better in terms of design, optimization and service. A premium design theme will cost anywhere between $30 to $100 but it is totally worth it.

I have written a post on my 10+ favorite themes for design businesses here on my blog. You could take a look there before searching for one yourself, as you may just find one that you like.

I would suggest that, for architects and designers, the following list of requirements should be matched by whichever theme you choose:

Aesthetic, minimal and clean design
Compatibility with all devices, meaning it has to be mobile responsive
A portfolio section that’s able to contain all your projects
An “about” page
Social media features and plugins
The option to have a blog

I really like the “Angle” theme from WPZoom (see the image below) because I like the clean and minimal design and it ticks everything on the list above. For the purpose of this post, I will take this as an example theme to install.

If you want to search for a premium theme all by yourself, there is a lot of choice available out there. If you want to google design themes, it would make sense to use the following searches:

Portfolio WordPress theme

Design theme

Premium WordPress theme

Mobile responsive portfolio theme

Here are some links to pages that also offer a range of good themes:

Find a theme that matches your aesthetic and functional needs for your business before we take the next step.

How to Install your WordPress Theme

Once you’ve decided on a theme, you can then download it to your computer; it should be a zip file, like theme.zip. In my case, it is angle.zip.

Next, go to your blog dashboard – again, you can get there by going to yourblog.com/wp-login.php (the link you should have bookmarked before) and typing in your username and password.

To install your new theme, go to the menu panel on the left-hand side and then choose:

Appearance > Themes > Add New > Upload Theme > Upload theme > Install Now > Activate.

Once you hit “Refresh”, your new theme should be live on your site. I installed the “Angle” theme for the domain wp4arch.com for you to have a look at. Don’t be afraid to see how it looks at this stage. The theme is not filled with content, but rather as you see in the screenshot below.

Now you have installed the raw theme, which is burning to be filled with your projects, profile, contact information and anything else you might find useful. You can also add your logo, change the colors, background, etc.

Step #5: Upload Your Projects and Profile

Congratulations, you have set up your firm’s new website! Now the real work begins ;-)

If you sped through steps 1–4, it might have taken you somewhere between 15–30 minutes to set up your website (providing you already knew your theme and had all your resources gathered).

In this final step, filling your new site with content will probably take some more time because you have to have all your project images, texts and all that goes with them at hand. But do not worry, I will show you how to upload your first project and how to change the “about” page of your website.

If you also chose and installed the “Angle” theme for your new site, then your dashboard section will look like the following:

You can customize everything you want from your WordPress dashboard. WPZoom has a great tutorial site for each of its themes, as well as the steps you should take for customization:

http://www.wpzoom.com/documentation/angle

But let’s do the first steps together. We will upload an image for the slideshow, set up an “about” page and create the project section.

Set up the Slideshow

To upload an image to the slideshow, go to the left-hand menu and select:

Slideshow > Add New

Now enter a new title. I will go for “wp4arch – WordPress For Architects”

Now, go to the “Featured image” section on the lower right-hand side and press the “Set features image” link. Upload an image and the first step is complete. Now it’s starting to look like a real website! Check it out below:

Create an About Page

Now we will create an “about” page.

Go to the left menu bar and select:

Pages > Add New

The title should be “about” and in the below post section, I entered the following text:

WP4ARCH is a WordPress tutorial site for people within the architecture and design community. Our goal is to help you launch high quality websites for your design business by providing knowledge about web design, hosting, themes and WordPress.

You now have to create a menu button for the “about” page so that we can see it in the upper left-hand side of the site. Go to:

Appearance > Menu

The “about” page you created should already appear in the menu section. Just type “about” into the blank “Title Attribute” field and check the little box next to “Main Menu” directly below it, to make sure that the button for the page will be shown in the main menu. I did the same for the homepage, so now you should have two menu buttons already once you refresh the page.

Create the Project Page

The last step to take, before you continue finalizing your page, is to set up the project page, or portfolio section, if you chose to name it differently. The “Angle” theme includes 2 different page templates for the portfolio page:

Portfolio (isotope) – this template is based on the isotope effect, and will display all your portfolio posts on one page. You will be able to sort them using the categories at the top.
Portfolio (paginated) – this is the default template, with paginated navigation, which will display as many portfolio posts per page as you set under: Theme Options > Portfolio Options.

To create a portfolio in which you will showcase all your projects, navigate to: WordPress Dashboard > Pages > Add New
Look for the “Page Attributes” box on the right-hand side, and select any of the 2 available portfolio templates from the template drop-down menu.
Once you have created your portfolio page, navigate to: WPZOOM > Theme Options.
In “Portfolio Options”, select your newly-created page from the dropdown menu.

So you’ve made it through the tutorial! Now you should enter your content on the page and work on making it as professional as possible. In the next section, I will give you some ideas about how to do this…

What’s next? Start Blogging, Add Social Media, Collect Emails…

Wow, great! How does it feel to have a new look for your business?

I want to give you some ideas on what else you can do with your website once you have set it up. Of course, it all depends on your individual goals and motivations, but I have a feeling that many architectural practices could get much more out of their online presence if they had the right tools at their disposal.

Start a blog

Blogging is a powerful tool to connect with your clients and become a recognized authority in your field.

For many years, architects and designers have shown their projects as a reference for what they do, on their websites. Friends and followers might like your projects, but what people really love are the stories told about them.

Telling the story of your business, writing about things of which you have special expertise, or simply using your blog as a news section, will build a relationship with your readers. Those readers could be existing or potential clients, even future employees. You may even be invited to lectures because someone recognizes you as an authority in your field from reading your blog and news articles.

Blogging can be very rewarding if you can integrate it consistently to your business structure. I like blogging both as a hobby and as a method of learning, sharing and connecting with like-minded people.

Integrate social media

Social media is another great avenue to share your work and connect with your readers. You could set up a Facebook page, a Linkedin group and a Twitter profile for your business.

Most themes come with integrated social media features. Often they are those little icons that can be found in the sidebar or footer. You could add links to your social media profiles so that people can easily find and follow you on their favorite platform.

If you integrate “Share” buttons to the post section of your blog, you give your readers the opportunity to spread the word and share your projects and posts, multiplying traffic to your website. Search for “Share” buttons in the plugin section of your WordPress dashboard. There are many free ones available. I use the plugin Shareaholic.

Collect email addresses

Building up an email list is another great way to stay in contact with your audience. You could inform them of news of your projects, as well as upcoming events or lectures. Imagine you are organizing an exhibition of your work, or you are publishing a book. If you have an email list, you can easily inform all of your clients and friends about these events and ensure that you will have a pool of visitors and/or buyers.

Good email list services are AWeber and MailChimp. You could integrate an opt-in form on your site and connect this to one of the client lists. There are also email list plugins available; SumoMe is great for email opt-ins.

Finally…

WordPress websites are a great way to build your online homepage, and easily maintain and develop it. I hope I was able to help you a little in getting started and helped you understand that you do not need to spend thousands of dollars for professional looking websites.

You have now learned how to get a domain and setup hosting, install WordPress, select a design theme, and, finally, how to fill the theme with your own content. I hope that I also inspired you to use all the powerful “extras” at your disposal, like blogging, social media and email lists.

You can always come back to this step-by-step guide to use as a reference and review the example page I set up under wp4arch.com.

Blogging has been very inspiring for me so far and I believe this is just the start. I hope you will stay to follow the architecture and entrepreneurship community; perhaps you’ll become an Archipreneur yourself.

Please let me know if you have any questions about how to start a website by leaving a comment. I would love to hear from you and will do my best to answer your questions.

Note: Some of the links in this tutorial are affiliate links, and if you choose to purchase I will get a small commission, but this is at NO extra charge to you. This commission will only help me to continue to develop and maintain archipreneur.com. Every tool and piece of software I mention in this article is what I personally use and recommend.

The post How to Launch an Architect’s Portfolio Website in 20 Minutes or Less appeared first on Archipreneur.

10+ Aesthetic & Responsive WordPress Portfolio Themes for Architects

Archipreneur — Tue, 26 May 2015 12:16:22 +0000

When it comes to websites of architecture firms, I strongly feel that a lot of things about their online presence can be improved. In this article, I will show you just over 10 beautiful WordPress portfolio themes, each perfect for professional websites about architecture. These themes provide the easiest and fastest way for an architect to have a beautiful, modern website, which is also state of the art in terms of the website technology currently available.

I had the idea for this article from my own research over past few weeks into creating a website for my architectural profile and projects. I thought it would be cool to have a place that housed all my projects so that future clients, firms or partners could browse my profile and take a look at the projects and firms I have been a part of.

I wanted to create a minimal – but also unique – layout and did not want to hire a professional designer or spend a great deal of money. I also wanted it to be mobile responsive so that it would look good on each of my devices. It had to have extra features, like the possibility to integrate my posts to social media outlets. And, importantly, I wanted to be able to update the content and projects by myself.

Here is the wish list I made for my portfolio site:

Aesthetic, minimal and clean design
Compatibility with all devices, meaning it has to be mobile responsive
A portfolio section containing all my projects
An “about” page
Social media features and plugins
The possibility to have a blog
Inexpensive and low cost to maintain
Easy to customize and update

I quickly found that the easiest way to fulfill this wish list was to take an existing WordPress portfolio theme and then customize it. Many themes are designed to be mobile responsive, which means that whether the user is on a laptop, iPad, iPhone or any other device, the website layout should automatically convert in order to accommodate the different resolution, image size capacity and script. (Illustrated in the cover image above)

Nordic is a clean, minimal responsive WordPress theme, optimized for best portfolio showcase. Nordic is a full ajax theme, which loads only those dynamic parts, and makes browsing experience very smooth for your visitors.

Price: $43

View Demo | Download

Fount

The Fount theme is great for architecture firms. It comes with tons of useful options to ease and speed up the content creating. The theme was envisioned to be a one page theme, but it can be also used as a regular multi page theme.

Price: $58

View Demo | Download

I hope you have enjoyed looking at these themes. Please feel free to share your favorite WordPress themes for architects in the comments. If you are already using a WordPress theme for your website, it would be very interesting for us if you could share your link so that we could all take a look at a real, live example!

The post 10+ Aesthetic & Responsive WordPress Portfolio Themes for Architects appeared first on Archipreneur.