A boutique design studio asked me to ship a compact, fast site that could scale into a fuller portfolio later—service pages first, case studies second. I needed a theme that didn’t fight Elementor, respected long-form copy, and kept the visual language consistent across modules. I settled on the Unikon WordPress Theme and built the entire MVP over a weekend. Below is exactly what I did and what I’d repeat or change next time.
I started on WordPress 6.x, PHP 8.2, Nginx + HTTP/2, page cache enabled, and Imagick for image processing. After uploading and activating Unikon, I let the installer fetch its companion plugins. I created a child theme to keep tweaks update-safe (a minimal style.css
and functions.php
). The one-click demo import was quick; I chose the “agency-light” preset because it used fewer heavy animations.
Global styles:
I defined a three-color palette: charcoal (#1E1E1E) for headings, electric blue (#2E63FF) as primary, and soft gray (#F5F7FA) for section backgrounds. For typography, I paired Inter (body, 16–18px base) with DM Sans (headings). I locked spacing to an 8-point scale (8/16/24/32) to keep paddings consistent across blocks.
Header & footer:
Sticky header on scroll, a slim utility bar for phone/email, and a footer with three compact columns—About, Services, and a micro-CTA. Mobile breakpoint set at 992px so small tablets get the mobile nav early.
Unikon ships with multiple hero styles. I used the minimal hero (headline + subcopy + single CTA) for the homepage and a media-left hero for service pages. I saved a “credibility strip” (client logos + short caption) as a reusable section I could drop anywhere.
The service grid uses crisp card ratios, and the hover micro-interaction is restrained enough for B2B. Pricing tables supported a “billed monthly/yearly” toggle; I kept a single plan visible to avoid analysis paralysis. The portfolio module handled mixed aspect ratios without collapsing the grid; I enabled category filters and kept animations subtle.
Forms adopted global colors and spacing instantly. I shortened animation durations to ~160ms and disabled parallax on mobile to protect paint time. Icon blocks accepted inline SVGs, which kept them sharp on retina screens.
On a modest VPS with a page cache, my homepage landed at FCP ≈ 1.1s and LCP ≈ 1.8–2.1s (throttled mobile). The biggest wins:
CLS stabilized at 0.02 after I pinned image dimensions and reserved space for the sticky header. For SEO, I checked heading hierarchy (one H1 per page), placed breadcrumbs above the H1, and added FAQ blocks on service pages. Unikon’s markup played nicely with “Organization” and “LocalBusiness” schema injected by my usual tool—no duplicate attributes or broken nesting.
Astra/Blocksy + custom patterns: leaner by default, but I’d spend time rebuilding agency-specific blocks (case-study hero, timeline, testimonial carousel). Hello + fully custom Elementor: perfect for pixel-perfect systems, slower to a first demo. Unikon landed in the middle: agency patterns out of the box without heavy bloat, and editorial teams can extend layouts without calling me for every spacing tweak.
Strengths:
Limitations:
I worked with a GPL-licensed build from gplpal, which let me spin up multiple staging sites quickly and standardize my section library. If you’re comparing similar agency themes, a fast way to scan options is browsing curated categories like Best WordPress Themes and filtering for “Agency/Portfolio.”
Pick Unikon if you need to ship a credible agency site in days, not weeks, and want Elementor layouts that scale with real content. If your brand demands a bespoke design system or you’re optimizing for an ultra-minimal JS footprint, a framework-first stack may suit you better. For my client’s brief—speed to demo, clean editorial control, and room to grow—Unikon hit the sweet spot.