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Default Theme Releases May Become More Frequent Following WordPress 5.9

photo credit: Matt Bango

The new Twenty Twenty-Two default theme coming in 5.9 hasn’t even been fully built yet but many WordPress enthusiasts who saw yesterday’s design reveal are already eager to use it on their sites. Contributors have just 40 days before the scheduled Beta 1 release on November 16 to get the theme ready. While that seems like an impossibly tight deadline, more frequent default theme releases may be ahead on the horizon.

In a couple of short paragraphs tucked into the end of the announcement, Kjell Reigstad commented on the future of default theme release frequency:

The community has produced a dozen best-in-class themes together, and we’ve come to look forward to a new one arriving at the close of each year. That said, themes are in a transition period today, and it seems like this may be a reasonable time to step back and to re-evaluate the annual cadence with which we build default themes. 

Innovations like theme.json, block templates, and block patterns are making theme development far simpler, and are providing new ways for users to customize their sites. There’s reason to believe that the community can leverage all this to build more frequent and diverse theme and customization solutions for our users in the coming years. 

It wasn’t clear whether Reigstad meant that the cadence of default theme releases would be slowing down or speeding up. I asked him for clarification and he confirmed that the idea is to consider the possibility of speeding up.

“I hope these new tools allow us to create and release more frequently than we’ve been able to in the past,” Reigstad said.

“The general idea came up as part of the ideation process for the default theme this year, and that part of the post is meant to give it a wider platform for conversation in the community. I’m excited to hear what other folks think since this idea is in its very early days! I really think there’s a lot of opportunity here.”

 The ideation process he referenced, which varies from year to year, included early conversations with project leadership to plan and make sure the theme is aligned with the future of WordPress.

Before the discussion officially kicks off regarding increasing default theme release frequency, contributors are focused on getting Twenty Twenty-Two out the door. Reigstad said people can jump in on testing now, as the general structure is already in place. This includes fonts, colors, and basic templates, although details like spacing and specific block styles are still in progress along with block patterns. If you want to contribute to making Twenty Twenty-Two the best it can be, check out the development happening on GitHub.

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First Look at WordPress’ Upcoming Twenty Twenty-Two Default Theme: “The Most Flexible Default Theme Ever Created for WordPress”

Twenty Twenty-Two, the new default theme coming in WordPress 5.9, was unveiled today on WordPress.org. The design goes full steam ahead in support of full site editing and new customization capabilities.

Like its predecessor, Twenty Twenty-One, the new default theme makes some bold design choices wrapped around a central theme. In this case it’s bird illustrations, complemented by Source Serif Pro for headlines, and a delicious array of patterns for limitless combinations.

Image Credit: Introducing Twenty Twenty-Two

The theme will be developed on GitHub until it’s ready to be merged into core. Kjell Reigstad, an Automattic sponsored full-time design contributor to WordPress.org, is leading the design with Jeff Ong leading development. In the announcement he sets expectations high for users to be able to make the theme their own.

“With the advent of Full Site Editing and Global Styles, themes are changing structurally and functionally to enable far more avenues for customization than users have come to expect in the past,” Reigstad said. “To take advantage of these new abilities, Twenty Twenty-Two has been designed to be the most flexible default theme ever created for WordPress.”  

In addition to the wide variety of patterns expected to ship with this theme, Twenty Twenty-Two will offer a lively selection of six pre-designed color palettes. Reigstad shared a video preview of how they instantly change the character of the theme. (see below) Combine this with the promise of being able to manipulate every aspect of the theme’s appearance through global styles, and users are in for a treat with WordPress 5.9.

“Twenty Twenty-Two will take advantage of a wide network of page templates, headers, footers, and other patterns so that users can easily make the theme their own,” Reigstad said. “In another nod to the behavior of birds everywhere, these will offer a balance between fun and utility: some are irregular and unpredictable, while others are straightforward and traditional. Together, these patterns will act as a window into all of the possibilities that the theme enables.”

The design preview for Twenty Twenty-Two has received overwhelming positive feedback on Twitter and in the comments of the announcement. Many users were excited to see a default theme that can be quickly transformed for so many applications. Too many default themes have only been applicable to a narrow set of use cases. In the past, users had little hope of being able to change things around to make the design work for their needs. Unrelenting progress on the block editor and full site editing has made it possible for Twenty Twenty-Two to become the most user-empowering default theme in WordPress’ history.

Reigstad said the theme will be “built for Full Site Editing first,” with as little CSS as possible, and all theme styles configurable through theme.json wherever possible, so users can edit them through Global Styles.

“Twenty Twenty-Two is designed with the acknowledgement that its default appearance is not most people’s endpoint,” Reigstad said. “Everyone deserves a truly unique website, built on a solid, well-designed foundation, and Twenty Twenty-Two aims to help them achieve that.”