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Choosing a theme for the Sigil Gate project

·2 mins·
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I had virtually no doubts about which framework to use for building the site. Hugo, of course — minimalist and fast. I’ve accumulated some experience with it on other projects. If I ever need to dig into its internals and fix something — it won’t be a big deal.

However, choosing a theme is a different story entirely. Design, personal taste, creative agony — the choice is never easy. In the end, after reviewing quite a few options, I settled on Congo. Here are a few reasons.

Why Congo? #

Fresh look. Sometimes you just want something new. The previous theme worked fine for me: it was clean and suited for documentation. But here I wanted more room for creativity. After all, this is meant to be half personal blog, even if with a professional slant.

Multilingual support. Congo has first-class i18n support with per-language config files. I try to build multilingual support into all of my projects — it helps me maintain and practice my English. Besides — who knows what region or audience this project might reach in the future?

Dark theme out of the box. Congo’s default dark appearance leans into deep violet tones — and that happens to match the mood I’m in right now.

Mascot idea #

I have an idea for a project mascot — a catgirl sorceress. Purple hair, dark violet robes and a druid’s hood with glowing pink eyes peeking out from underneath. A magic staff in hand, bearing Sigil Gate’s signature symbols (I have a few ideas on how to use it as a logo). Purely a concept for now, but it fits the vibe. I’ve been thinking about the project’s visual identity: dark purple and blue on a white background, with bright pops of red-pink and cyan-blue as accents (a proper brand book is on the to-do list).

Examples of Congo in the wild #

If you want to see what the theme looks like on real sites:

You can find the full list of sites using Congo on the theme’s users page.