Tome theme · Architects, designers and photographers

Studio. Built to win work by showing it.

For studios whose portfolio is the sales argument: architects, design-build firms, interior designers, landscape studios, photographers and small agencies. The photograph is the largest thing on every page, and the words sit beside it or below it, never on top. Behind the pictures is a proper archive: every project filed under your own job number, with its facts, its credits and a case study told in numbered plates. The site asks for nothing until a visitor has seen enough work to want to talk, and then it asks once.

Palettes
4, each light and dark
Price
In the Craft Library and every paid plan, or $199 once with its packs
Demo
Ridgeboard Architects, a fictional architecture and design-build practice, whose inquiry form nobody answers
Studio home page in Gallery
Studio case study on a phone, in Black Box

Palettes

Four palettes. Pick the one that suits your work.

Every palette as the whole home page, side by side. Scroll inside any of them to see it top to bottom. Under the colors, the sections stay the same.

Studio home page in Gallery
GalleryA near-white wall, graphite ink and a sticker red, like the dot a gallery puts beside a sold piece. The default. A good fit for architects, interior designers and agencies.
Studio home page in Concrete
ConcreteWarm board-formed concrete, warm near-black ink and a chalk-line blue. A good fit for design-build firms and landscape studios.
Studio home page in Black Box
Black BoxA designed dark page: near-black, soft white ink and a white mark, so photographs sit straight on black. A good fit for photographers, film studios and lighting designers. It opens dark.
Studio home page in Blueprint
BlueprintA designed dark page in deep cyanotype blue, with pale ink and the yellow of a markup pen. A good fit for engineers, technical architects and design-build firms that sell their drawings as much as their photographs. It opens dark.

Captured from the demo at 1440px. Ridgeboard Architects, a fictional architecture and design-build practice.

In every palette the accent only marks things: the dot on a new project, the rule on the filter you've chosen, the square on the current plate, the underline under the current page and the focus ring. Each of those also changes shape or weight, so nothing depends on color, and the accent never colors text. The palette also sets how the Plates view frames your work: a wall-colored mat in Gallery, edge to edge in Concrete, straight on black in Black Box, and a thin keyline like a drawing border in Blueprint. Gallery and Concrete each have a derived dark mode, Black Box and Blueprint each have a derived light page, and every page has one band in the opposite tone, the inquiry at the end.

The sections

What each section does for the work.

These are crops from the demo practice, in Gallery. Each section answers something a client wants to know before they get in touch: what have you built, have you done anything like mine, how do you work, and how do we start?

  1. One project leads the page

    One project leads the page

    The home page opens on one project you've flagged as featured: its photograph runs off the right edge of the screen, and beside it, on the page color, sit its job number, its title, two sentences, the plate count with the photographer's credit, and "View project". Under both runs one line of facts in ruled cells (project number, client, place, year, scope, lead, collaborators, photographer and status). Flag a different project and the hero changes, with no page to edit. The photograph settles once from a slight zoom as the page opens; with reduced motion turned on, it doesn't move.

  2. Every project, filed by job number

    Every project, filed by job number

    The work index is your archive as real data. Each row leads with your own job number, then the title and place, the type, status and year, and a small photograph at the end of the row. Numbers never change, so an archived project leaves a gap instead of a renumbering. Chips filter by type with real counts ("Residential 10"), a count line says how many are showing, and the address bar carries the filter, so a filtered view can be shared and "Back to the index" returns to it. The same records switch to a Plates view, a grid of pictures, and the site remembers which view a visitor chose. On a phone the filters open as a full-height sheet with a "Show 9 projects" button. Without JavaScript the index still lists every project and the filters still work, by reloading the page.

  3. A case study, told in plates

    A case study, told in plates

    Every picture in a case study is a numbered plate ("Plate 04, 05 of 14"), with its caption and photographer's credit beside it on a wide screen and under it on a phone, never on the picture. The story runs in three chapters that never mix: the finished work, your drawings and the work in progress on site, with three short passages at a reading width between the plates. Drawings are set as linework in the palette's own ink, and on a phone each one has an "Open the drawing" button that opens it full screen, so a visitor can pan to read a dimension. The case study ends on your credits, in the order you enter them, and on one next project. In Chrome and Edge, opening a project from any listing grows the picture you clicked into the case study's lead image; with reduced motion turned on, or in other browsers, the page simply opens.

  4. The same five steps on every job

    The same five steps on every job

    Your process is a numbered list of phases (in the demo "Brief, Concept, Drawings, Build, Handover"), and each phase has a work-in-progress photograph with its caption and credit. On a wide screen the list stays in view while the photographs scroll past it, and the phase whose photograph is in the middle of the screen is marked; that marking still happens with reduced motion turned on, because it's information. On a phone each photograph carries its phase's name and sentence instead.

  5. Start a project

    Start a project

    Every page ends on the one band in the opposite tone: your principal's portrait and a short note beside a structured inquiry (name, email, project type, where the site is, a rough budget, timing and the brief in their own words), with your response time stated in the copy and under the button. On a case study, the inquiry can arrive with that project's type already chosen.

That's what a visitor sees. Here's what you get to build it.

In the package

What's in the package, and what it's built from.

Header and footer

Navbar 1 with your studio's name set in type at the left (no logo file needed), the links centered and "Start a project" always at the right, with the current page underlined. It sits on the page above the work, takes a surface and a hairline once you scroll, hides as you scroll down and comes back as you scroll up. On a phone it's your name and a "Menu" button that opens a numbered menu in plain type. Footer 7 sits on its own tinted ground with your name, what you do, a line that can point to the inquiry instead of a street address, three columns of links, and the small print with the photo credits, and no call-to-action band above it.

Palettes

Gallery and Concrete, light pages with a derived dark mode, and Black Box and Blueprint, designed dark pages with a derived light page.

Type

Archivo, one variable typeface set at three widths, so width does the work that size usually does: wide for headings and job numbers, normal for anything a visitor reads, and condensed for facts, captions, credits and counts. Facts are in sentence case, never small spaced capitals, and every number is set in even-width figures so a column of years or job numbers lines up. The largest words on any page are at heading size; the hero is a photograph. Archivo ships inside the package under the SIL Open Font License, so the site makes no third-party font request.

Section treatments

The featured-project hero and its facts line, the work index in both views, selected work, the studio statement with facts counted from your projects, services with a representative project each, the process, people with their portraits, clients set as names, the case study's header, plates, drawings, client voice, credits and next project, and the closing inquiry band.

Work index

Ledger and Plates views of the same records, switched in place and remembered on the visitor's next visit, with no jump while the page loads. Chips by type, plus status, a year range and place in the full index, each with a count that respects the other filters, and a count line ("20 projects, 9 shown.") that updates as they change. The address bar carries the filter, and a reload or a shared link opens the same filtered list. The filters hide when you have fewer than eight projects, and the home page's index hides below three. A project you mark as new carries a dot until the date you set. Without JavaScript the chips submit as a form and the full index renders the filtered list.

Case studies

One page per project, built from its record: a breadcrumb, the lead photograph across the full width (with its own phone crop), the title, a one-line summary, the facts in ruled cells and the description. Then the plates in three chapters (finished work, drawings and work in progress), each plate numbered across the whole project, in a column, an offset plate, a pair, a trio or the full width, with three short named passages between them. The third passage can carry checkable figures, such as area, build time and budget held, and hides them when a project has none. Drawings are SVG linework that takes the palette's ink, opened full screen from a button on phones. Below come one client quote, the credits and exactly one next project, which stays inside the visitor's filter.

Facts and credits

Each project's facts sit in ruled cells in a fixed order (project number, client or "Private client", place, year, scope, lead, collaborators, photographer, status), two columns on a phone. Credits are structured: every photograph carries its photographer and source, and the credits band lists them in the order you enter them. The statement's facts (years practicing, projects completed, places worked) are counted from your records, and a fact with no data behind it doesn't render.

Inquiry form

Name, email, the project type (from your own list of types, with "Not sure yet"), where the site is, a rough budget, timing and the brief, with your response time stated in the copy and under the button. It sends the inquiry to your inbox in Tome. With Tome Forms, part of the CRM & Marketing plan ($400 a year), an inquiry sent from a case study arrives with that project's type already chosen; without it, the same form runs on Payload's Form Builder and the visitor picks the type.

Motion

The hero photograph settles once from a slight zoom, plates and portraits rise and fade in once as they arrive (a photograph waits until it has loaded), and the process list marks the phase in view. In Chrome and Edge, a project's picture grows into its case study's lead image as the page opens. With reduced motion turned on, nothing settles, rises or grows, and the process list still marks its phase.

Portfolio blocks

Five, from the Portfolio Blocks pack, which is free with any theme: Work Index, Project Hero, Title Block, Plate Sequence and Service Rows. They read your projects from one archive kept in Tome Portfolio, so the hero, the index, selected work, the services and every case study always agree. They need Portfolio Blocks 0.1.0 and @wabbit/tome-portfolio 0.1.0 or later; both are free.

What it's built from

A theme owns no blocks of its own. It restyles blocks from the Tome packs below.

On the pageBlockPackWith the theme
Hero, work index, selected work, next projectWork IndexPortfolio BlocksFree
Case study headerProject HeroPortfolio BlocksFree
Facts line, studio statement, creditsTitle BlockPortfolio BlocksFree
Finished work, drawings, from the sitePlate SequencePortfolio BlocksFree
ServicesService RowsPortfolio BlocksFree
Client voiceTestimonialMarketing StarterFree
ProcessPhase Ledger (pinned variant)Dossier BlocksIncluded
ClientsRecord RosterDossier BlocksIncluded
People, closing inquiry bandTeam Roster, Contact (estimate variant)Agency EssentialsIncluded

Buying the theme includes Agency Essentials and Dossier Blocks, and the Portfolio Blocks pack comes free with it, so you can build the pages exactly the way the demo has them. The theme also restyles any other Tome block you add. *(the Roster note, with Studio's packs)*

Two ways in

Install it yourself, or have us set it up.

Developers and agencies install it themselves; business owners usually want it set up. It's the same theme either way.

Install it yourself · developers and agencies

The Craft Library

Every theme and every paid block pack, Studio included, for $250 a year.

Or just Studio, $199 once

It includes the packs the demo is built from (Agency Essentials, Dossier Blocks and the Portfolio Blocks pack). Each purchase covers one production site, and staging and development copies are unlimited. The purchase adds it to your account, and you install it from our registry with the token on your account page.

# after purchase: registry token from your account page
pnpm add @wabbit/tome-theme-studio

// app/layout.tsx
import '@wabbit/tome-ui/tokens.css'
import '@wabbit/tome-theme-studio/styles.css'
import '@wabbit/tome-theme-studio/fonts.css'

<!-- pick the palette on the html element -->
<html data-tome-theme="studio" data-tome-palette="blackbox">
$250a year

Set it up for me · business owners

We set it up

We install Studio on a new site and replace Ridgeboard Architects with your practice: your projects entered once as records, each with its job number, type, status, year, place, lead and credits; your photographs, each lead with a focal point and a phone crop; the case studies you want told in full; and your process, people and clients. The demo's illustrative people, example quotes and sample figures come out, and your own go in as you give them to us, with every photographer credited. You get a written proposal with the price before any work starts, and it says which way the inquiry form is set up.

Quotedin a written proposalAsk for a proposal

Runs on

What it runs on.

Payload
3.67 or later
Next.js and React
Next.js 15 or later, React 19
@wabbit/tome-ui
0.21.0 or later, below 1.0
@wabbit/tome-core
1.25.0 or later, below 2.0. Only needed to list the theme in the admin's theme switcher.
Package
@wabbit/tome-theme-studio 0.1.0, a preview release
Fonts
Self-hosted from the package, SIL Open Font License
License
One production site per purchase. Staging and development copies are unlimited.
Set it up for me

Tell us about your business.

Pick a palette and tell us what the business does. We'll reply with questions or a written proposal for setting up Studio with your details.

Installing it yourself?

The Craft Library includes Studio, every other theme and every paid pack for $250 a year. Or buy Studio alone for $199 once, with the packs it needs, for one production site.

Set up Studio for my business

  1. REQUIRED
  2. REQUIRED
  3. REQUIRED
  4. REQUIRED
    Palette
  5. OPTIONAL
  6. OPTIONAL

We read every request and reply by email with questions or a written proposal. Nothing is charged until you accept a proposal.

Checking this is a real visit. The button unlocks in a moment.