YIW Minimal: a free & clean template for a simple yet professional website

by sarah | 10 Feb 2010 | in: Design, Freebies, Web

A few weeks ago we looked at how to design a minimalist layout, both professional and aesthetically pleasing. YIW Minimal – that’s the name of the layout we made with Photoshop – had a great impact on the users of this community that had asked us, on several occasions, to make a full template, designing the internal pages and coding everything in (x)HTML and CSS. So here we are with another free YIW resource: a template that’s simple but at the same time professional and enticing, easy to personalize and completely free.

Live Preview Your Inspiration Minimal

Versione: 1.0
Pubblicato: 10 February 2010
Dimensione: 3.61 MB
Download: YourInspirationMinimal

Features of the Your Inspiration Minimal template

Your Inspiration Minimal is a free template, extremely versatile and simple to personalize. The layout is optimized for a portfolio but is easily adaptable to any business or individual who’d like to put their products or services on the web.

A closer look: under the hood of the template

As we’ve already seen in the planning phase, Your Inspiration Minimal was designed with the 960 framework in mind. Consequently, the same framework was used in the development phase: for more information, I suggest you read our article on this topic. The layout’s graphics are purposely basic, to stick to the minimalistic trend (Less is more, some may say), as well as to facilitate the personalization of the template to meet your needs (logos in various colors, images, other graphic elements, etc…).

The typeset is important, too

Specifically because the graphics are reduced to a minimum, we gave some special attention to the typeset: the choice and size of the characters, line spacing, letter spacing, color contrast in the titles: everything working together for a harmonious aesthetic and visual impact. The font used, needless to say, is Georgia, chosen for its elegance and noteworthy graphic efficiency.

The various sections that make up Your Inspiration Minimal

Home Page

In the central section of the home page we’ve put a slider that, thanks to the javascript coda slider, permits the user to visualize some of your work or products as soon as they enter your site. You can add text, images, or slogans. The important thing is that the content attracts the user’s attention immediately and intuitively. Below, just as we designed with photoshop, we created three separate sections: The first has the latest twitter messages, integrated following the explanation in Ivan’s article; in the second you can put a client testimonial or, if you prefer, your choice of other content; in the last section we’ve added contact information: telephone number and a link that allows the user to send you an e-mail.

About

In the central section of the about page we added a cute critter created by stockazoo and a balloon with a short, incisive slogan. In the sections below you can introduce yourself or explain in detail the work you do.

Portfolio

This section is fully dedicated to the display of your projects. To do so we used Fancy-zoom, a Mootools framework plugin that enables image zooming with an animated effect.

Contacts

On this page website visitors looking for information, estimates or more, will find a contact form so they can send a message directly to your e-mail inbox. The contact form is ready to use (you just need to specify a valid e-mail address) and it’s supplied with an error check for the required fields. On this page we added some additional information like phone number, address, and the icons of various social networks, to give users alternative means of contact.

What’s included?

Inside the archive you downloaded we included:

The Photoshop source files (.psd) so you can easily modify the graphic elements of the template.
The theme folder in (x)HTML & CSS.
Pdf support file.
Screenshots and a brief description of the theme characteristics.
User’s license.

Support

If you have difficulties personalizing the template or you need to clarify something, you can leave a comment on this article or you can visit our support forum. If needed, open a new thread: we’ll respond as soon as possible.

License and credits

The template is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license; this means that you’re free to reproduce, distribute and modify this work. Your Inspiration Minimal by Your Inspiration Web is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

Live Preview Your Inspiration Minimal

Versione: 1.0
Pubblicato: 10 February 2010
Dimensione: 3.61 MB
Download: YourInspirationMinimal

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L'immagine principale dell'articolo è stata fornita da @Fotolia

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Tags: minimal template, template free

The Author

Web designer, has been working in the field of graphics and web development for six years and at the moment besides collaborating with a web agency successfully manages her freelance activity under the name of mascara design. Like many freelancers she is used to handling more roles, ranging from paper graphics to the development of html and css codes; nonetheless this passion of hers remains, always and however, web graphics.

Author's web site | Other articles written by sarah

135 comments

Rafael

February 22, 2010 at 11:05 am

# 1

Realmente impresionado con el diseño del tema.
CSS de calidad, template de calidad, minimalista, sencillo, profesional y con adabados realmente de resaltar. El contenido del paquete también impresionante: un detallazo incluir el diseño en psd.

Un trabajo en general de mucha calidad y de agradecer el que lo hayas compartido.

Un saludo cordial,
Rafael Ruiz
Descentrao.com
Kopito.es
Twitter: @kopito

Reply
- sarah
  
  February 22, 2010 at 12:54 pm
  
  # 2
  
  Bienvenida a YIW, Rafael!
  Muchas gracias, nos complace que nuestroYIW Minimal te gusta
Gautham

March 11, 2010 at 1:21 am

# 3

Hi ! I’m a budding designer. This theme is really good.
I’m working upon creating a personalized version of it for my site.
Thanks for making it available for free and providing such a good documentation.

Reply
- sarah
  
  March 11, 2010 at 9:56 am
  
  # 4
  
  Hi Gautham, welcome to YIW
  We are satisfied if our readers enjoy this theme. We love to release freebies and sharing our works and experience. See you!
Francisco

May 21, 2010 at 9:11 am

# 5

Simplemente maravilhoso!

Em tempos que tudo é a base de flash e muitos textos desnecesários, esse seu layout aparece com uma luz no final do túnel.

Parabéns!

Reply
- sarah
  
  May 30, 2010 at 6:20 pm
  
  # 6
  
  Thank for your very kind feedback, Francisco
Omar BELKHODJA

May 30, 2010 at 5:52 pm

# 7

This is the best free theme I’ve ever seen on the internet ! I’m wondering if I could use it for my company, but I do really want to remove the line after the copyright. Do you think I have the right to do so ?

Reply
- sarah
  
  May 30, 2010 at 6:21 pm
  
  # 8
  
  Hi Omar, no problem, you can remove the copyright info. i’m happy you enjoy my theme.
Alex

June 1, 2010 at 8:23 am

# 9

Hi. Thanks for sharing your work. Looks so nice and easy to amateurs (as me)… Cheers!

Reply
- sarah
  
  June 2, 2010 at 8:20 am
  
  # 10
  
  Hi Alex, welcome to YIW. Yes, the theme is very easy to customize
Spruch

June 1, 2010 at 10:16 am

# 11

Hello from Germany! May i quote a post a translated part of your blog with a link to you? I’ve tried to contact you for the topic YIW Minimal: a free & clean template for a simple yet professional website | Your Inspiration Web, but i got no answer, please reply when you have a moment, thanks, Spruch

Reply
- sarah
  
  June 2, 2010 at 8:23 am
  
  # 12
  
  Hi Spruch, yes, you can quote our post with a link, thanks.
Irina

July 1, 2010 at 4:07 am

# 13

Great template! I was looking for a new template for my website and this is a lot like what I’m looking for. Nice and neat! Thanks!

Reply
- sarah
  
  July 2, 2010 at 6:52 am
  
  # 14
  
  Hi Irina, i hope you enjoy my template Welcome to YIW and have a nice day!
STB

July 27, 2010 at 1:55 pm

# 15

You are very talented designer. I don’t know how to choose colors, how to paint so nice buttons and menus, so templates like this is very good basic for me. Thanks.

Reply
- sarah
  
  July 27, 2010 at 3:46 pm
  
  # 16
  
  Thank you
cssProdigy

August 12, 2010 at 12:11 pm

# 17

This is a great theme. Just what I was looking for. Thank you so much for sharing

Reply
John moore

September 13, 2010 at 4:04 am

# 18

Hi, i love this design its so awesome!

But the download link is not working, is i possible for me to have a copy of the theme? its brilliant

Reply
- sarah
  
  September 13, 2010 at 7:20 am
  
  # 19
  
  Hi John, now the download work. Check it
- sarah
  
  September 13, 2010 at 7:20 am
  
  # 20
  
  Hi John, now the download works. Check it
Ben

September 14, 2010 at 4:58 pm

# 21

Hi Sarah

Thanks for the wonderful theme.
I also want to remove the copyright info on our site, but wanted to check this was ok with you first.

Reply
Ben

September 14, 2010 at 5:31 pm

# 22

Hello again

I wondered if you could help me understand how to remove the middle section (including the grey background) entirely on some pages only?

I think I need to copy and modify one of the css files, and then tell some pages to use that modified css instead of the original.
Any pointers you can provide would be greatly appreciated!

Reply
- sarah
  
  September 14, 2010 at 7:33 pm
  
  # 23
  
  Hi Ben, yes, you can remove the copyright.
  To remove the middle section, you can cut the code from ” START MEDIUM SECTION” to “END MEDIUM SECTION” in the page. It’s really easy, check it
Ben

September 15, 2010 at 1:56 am

# 24

Thanks for the reply Sarah

Unfortunately that doesnt remove the grey background.

I only want to do this on some pages (all pages except index.htm)

Thanks again

Reply
- Ben
  
  September 15, 2010 at 1:54 pm
  
  # 25
  
  I found out it was as simple as editing bg.gif
- sarah
  
  September 18, 2010 at 8:06 pm
  
  # 26
  
  Good
seolar

September 26, 2010 at 3:33 pm

# 27

Really nice template and really useful. Even for SEO aspects. Thanks a lot for sharing this nice one.

Greetings from Germany

Reply
- sarah
  
  September 26, 2010 at 9:10 pm
  
  # 28
  
  Hi Seolar, welcome to YIW and…greetings from sicily, italy
Ben

October 19, 2010 at 4:51 am

# 29

Hi Sarah
Can you explain to a newbie like me how to get the ‘contact page’ working? It keeps trying to download in firefox. Thanks, Ben

Reply
- sarah
  
  October 20, 2010 at 6:30 am
  
  # 30
  
  Hi Ben,
  the contact page doesn’t work on local host. Please, explaine me what type of problem you found whit the contact form. Send me an e-mail at sara [at] mascaradesign [dot] it.
pabicell

December 16, 2010 at 7:08 am

# 31

“If needed, open a new thread: we’ll respond as soon as possible.”
Where I have been able to read about this?

Reply
- sarah
  
  December 16, 2010 at 7:54 am
  
  # 32
  
  here: http://forum.yourinspirationweb.com/your-inspiration-minimal-caratteristiche-generali-t22.html
Elsa

January 26, 2011 at 11:53 am

# 33

Wow, that is really an awesome template. Less is definitely better

Reply
Basic Seo

May 10, 2011 at 2:51 am

# 34

Really nice website. I learned web issues…

Reply
Edwin

July 8, 2011 at 5:02 am

# 35

Minimal is the way, i’m put off by so many websites as they just bombard you with information or blatently coveer their website in keywords for SEO purposes, it just looks cheap and would but me off as a client or reader. Cool post.

Reply
Personal

July 25, 2011 at 9:08 pm

# 36

Estimada Sarah:

¡Dejeme felicitarla, por este gran talento que desborda en creatividad! Pero, sobre todo, creo que usted conoce la ley de: “Da, pero da de corazón y recibirás, mucho más del millón, por uno”. Con esto, quiero decir, que es usted, una persona generosa, por mostrar al mundo su trabajo y darlo, a corazón abierto.

Admiró su personalidad, vaya y que decir, que se ve que usted (con todo respeto), es una mujer muy guapa ¡Vaya, ni dudarlo!.

Nuevamente la felicito y le deseo, por siempre toda clase de èxitos!!
Un saludo cordial, amable y respetuoso.
-Bambino
Un admirador de su talento (como usted pocas)

Reply
Henri G

July 29, 2011 at 6:49 am

# 37

Thank you sooo much! I am trying to renez the design of my website and I think I found the good template I needed. Cheeeeeers!

Oh, just a question btw: is it possible to change the height of the coda slider box (the box in which the elements slide), and how?

Thxxx

Reply
cuneyt

September 1, 2011 at 9:51 am

# 38

super super superrr very thanks

Reply
marco

September 5, 2011 at 3:42 pm

# 39

Boulder theme — Gorgeous, but WordPress claims it’s broken ???

Sarah: I love your theme, but when I upload the Boulder zip file (that’s all I’m uploading) WordPress tells me the theme is broken.

Any ideas as to what I messed up?

Reply
- Pisyek
  
  October 19, 2011 at 8:59 pm
  
  # 40
  
  This is clearly not a wordpress theme.
PhotoshopWarrior

September 23, 2011 at 3:38 am

# 41

This simple minimal theme looks gorgeous Nice layout, perfect of portfolio

Reply
PhotoshopWarrior

September 24, 2011 at 1:13 pm

# 42

Very nice work Bro,

Reply
Lucia

October 11, 2011 at 12:33 pm

# 43

Hola .. Muy buen template! me gustan!.. descargué el YIw Minimal pero no me funciona el formulario de envio.. funciona correctamente??? Saludos.

Reply
Tharischev

November 8, 2011 at 6:10 pm

# 44

I am kind of ignorant in these matters. I would really like to use this on my blogger site, but I really don’t know how to do it. Would you please help me?

Reply
Ugyen

November 10, 2011 at 1:51 pm

# 45

Hi,
i really love this theme. Can i also get this this for wordpress?

Thanks,

Ugyen
with greetings from Bhutan

Reply
Nick

December 17, 2011 at 5:05 am

# 46

great job! minimal but quality at the same time! Thanx!

Reply
Iker

December 22, 2011 at 9:31 am

# 47

Hello Sarah,

This is an awesome template, my impression is that you are a really talented Web Designer, and thanks a lot for making it available for free.

I was just wondering if I could use it for a commercial application removing the attribution implicit in the Creative Commons license.

Thank you so much for your time and attention.

Best Regards

Reply
Çağlar YILDIZ

December 29, 2011 at 12:24 pm

# 48

Hi Sarah! i love your work. can we integrate an e-commerce module on it?
as fallows;
http://www.klokkerent.com/

its simple, pure but useful. please send me an e-mail about it. Thanks

Reply
sohbetodalari

January 6, 2012 at 9:11 pm

# 49

I have to admit this is one of the most unique and good looking free web templates I have ever seen. Just perfect place to get quality design for a small business. We in Norway call it just billig hjemmeside Thanks for sharing.

Reply
tengkuleon

January 13, 2012 at 12:25 pm

# 50

Hi Sarah ;

I would like to ask a silly question. Which file is required to upload to my web server. And i should upload to which directory ? I am using wordpress 3.3.1

Jim

Reply
triactol

January 25, 2012 at 3:15 am

# 51

Good day! Do you use Twitter? I would choose to adhere to you if that may be ok. I’m absolutely savoring your web site and search ahead to new updates.

Reply
aravind

March 2, 2012 at 9:28 pm

# 52

thank you so much for the awesome Template.

Reply
Rachel Rowan

April 26, 2012 at 5:19 pm

# 53

Hi Sarah! Thanks a million. The template is great. How do I change the jQuery Twitter feed so the date is in English? I think it’s the date; it reads #[circa 8 ore fa] and #[64 giorni fa]

Reply
SEO Atul Sharma

April 27, 2012 at 6:00 am

# 54

Great Themes list. Thanks for providing clean and elegant themes for the users. I surely will try one from thees.

Reply
Kiefer

April 29, 2012 at 3:31 pm

# 55

i like yiw theme better

Reply
Troy

July 10, 2012 at 11:39 pm

# 56

Sarah,

Thanks so much for sharing this theme, I’ve been learning CSS the past few months and have searched a great deal to find a theme with this quality and simplicity. Thank you. I’m in the process of building my own site with your theme, would you by chance be willing to let me take off links and copyright at bottom and reference somewhere else on my site your website/CSS template creation?

Reply
Rajesh

August 9, 2012 at 12:19 am

# 57

this design its so awesome………..!!

Reply
kizi

September 4, 2012 at 9:09 pm

# 58

The template is great. i like it

Reply
beppe

December 16, 2012 at 4:20 pm

# 59

fantastico template, veramente molto bello e sopratutto molto versatile.
ho un paio di dubbi su come poter agire nei div di alcune pagine, posso contattarti in qualche modo?

Reply
mike

December 18, 2012 at 2:26 pm

# 60

Hi
I`ve noticed that tweets aren`t shown anymore. It has not worked for a while (see the live example). Could you please have a look to get it working?
Thanks a lot!
Mike

Reply