By the creator of Mimbo Pro, the Elemental framework is well thought out and a good choice for a content-heavy website. The homepage retains a typical blog format, however, unlike Mimbo Pro – one main story is featured, with posts organized chronologically. I almost prefer the category pages, where snippets of posts are listed. The category and subcategory pages have a nicely updated breadcrumb feature, which is always good for SEO.

Being a framework/CMS, Elemental is highly configurable. There are a lot of things which can be controlled from the admin panel, which some of the videos on the Elemental page attest to, for instance changing up which categories and pages are blocked from the front page. If you’re someone who shies away from touching actual code, then this may be the framework for you.

The site also has a feed of your latest twitter posts, which is a nice way to include conversation into the post, as well as “popular posts” and what I’ll term a post utility bar.

The two top navigation menus are handled well, separated by the header so that all of your options are clearly accessible.

Live Demo | More Info

This straightforward theme is probably a good choice for someone who doesn’t know how to do tons of customization. One of the most common questions when implementing a theme is inevitably “How do I change the logo/header”? This developer has thought of that. Advertising in also integrated, as is the popular most commented and most commented functionality.

Would love to see a larger search, email, RSS box, as well as category-based drop down navigation.

Live Demo | More Info |