Moog is one of the latest free block themes to be released on WordPress.org. It features a minimal and bold layout with a responsive, masonry style grid on the homepage. Moog is well suited to blogs or even small magazine websites, with options to radically change the style with the click of a button.
Moog’s designers went wild with style variations. The theme packages 25 distinct variations, an exceptionally large number, which quickly transform the site’s design into various moods – everything from a classic style to dark mode to bold colors anchored in different font combinations. Below is a screenshot of the “Enigmatic” style variation and the 404 template, which users can further customize with their own images.
Moog includes seven custom block patterns for creating the two-column gallery, footer, header, masonry column for posts, and patterns for about, team info, and contact pages.
Users can add their own logos (in the header and footer), social media menu, and a newsletter signup. The demo users the MailerLite plugin for the newsletter and WP Forms for the sample contact form on the Contact page.
The single post template is particularly elegant, with the featured image, author avatar, and content centered on the page, creating a distraction-free reading experience.
Moog was created by the team at ElmaStudio, a boutique theme shop that was among the first to create commercial block themes. ElmaStudio released its first block theme, Aino, in 2021 and four commercial block themes during 2022, including one WooCommerce theme. The company has been creating WordPress themes since 2011 and brings a wealth of experience along with meticulous, thoughtful design decisions to the new world of block themes.
Co-founder Ellen Bauer created a video with a quick overview of the new Moog theme. She demonstrates how to customize page templates and shows how to add an SVG logo that will automatically adjust with the style variations. The company is not just creating block themes but is also educating users on how to take advantage of all the customization options, as template editing is a capability that was previously out of reach for most users in the classic themes era.
Check out the live demo on the ElmaStudio website to see the theme in action, or take it for a test drive using WordPress Playground. Moog is available for free from WordPress.org.