Introducing Twenty Twenty-One ![rw-book-cover](https://make.wordpress.org/core/files/2020/09/Device-Mockups-1.png) ## Metadata - Author: [[Make WordPress Core]] - Full Title: Introducing Twenty Twenty-One - Category: #articles - Summary: Well friends, it’s time for what I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for: an announcement about the next WordPress default theme! The rumors are true; WordPress 5.6 will launch with a brand new default theme: Twenty Twenty-One.  - URL: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/09/23/introducing-twenty-twenty-one/ Well friends, it’s time for what I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for: an announcement about the next WordPress default theme! The rumors are true; WordPress 5.6 will launch with a brand new default theme: Twenty Twenty-One. [![](https://make.wordpress.org/core/files/2020/09/Device-Mockups-1.png)](https://www.figma.com/file/Fv7BODXobfo2prksqRDySy/Introducing-Twenty-Twenty-One?node-id=0%3A1)The default theme team includes: #### Background Twenty Twenty-One is designed to be a blank canvas for the block editor. After trying some designs heavily inspired by print resources, [@kjellr](https://profiles.wordpress.org/kjellr/) remarked to me, “why not try something natively digital?” I added even more ideas to my [increasingly unwieldy pinterest board](https://www.pinterest.com/melchoyce/tt1/) and gave it a shot. The concept ended up being the most natural, usable design of the bunch. It was simple and un-opinionated, yet still refined. It felt like a fresh canvas, waiting to be painted. Twenty Twenty-One will use a modified version of [the Seedlet theme](https://wordpress.org/themes/seedlet/) as its base. This provides us with a thorough system of nested CSS variables to make child theming easier, and to help integrate with the global styles functionality that’s under development for full-site editing. Once the theme is stable, after Beta 1, we’ll start exploring [Full Site Editing](https://make.wordpress.org/design/handbook/focuses/full-site-editing/) support. #### Design Decisions [![](https://make.wordpress.org/core/files/2020/09/Mockups.png)](https://make.wordpress.org/core/files/2020/09/Mockups.png)By default, the theme uses a native system font stack. I made this choice for a couple reasons: * No extra load time. Let’s keep this theme simple and fast. * This particular stack is pretty typographically “neutral” — none of the fonts are super opinionated, so the theme can be used broadly across different types of sites. * Using just the one font stack, without loading additional font files, also makes it easier for folks to customize or create a child theme for Twenty Twenty-One. We want this theme to be a teaching tool, and an outlet for your creativity. The theme also uses a limited color palette: a pastel green background color, and two shades of dark grey for text. We’ll be bundling the theme with some additional color palettes, including both a white and a black color scheme. Why pastel green? [Pastels](https://www.garnishstudios.com/) and [muted](https://www.designbyparker.com/) [colors](https://westportcondos.ca/) are [pretty](https://arisacoba.com/) [in](https://www.collaborativechange.global/) [right](https://paradigmacreation.com/) [now](https://taregrocery.com/) (seriously I could keep going). [![](https://make.wordpress.org/core/files/2020/09/Mobile-Colors-2048x749.png)](https://make.wordpress.org/core/files/2020/09/Mobile-Colors.png)(Who doesn’t love a little pastel cottagecore during these troubling times?) All this is to say: the design? It’s pretty simple. That’s where patterns come in. Gutenberg [introduced support](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/07/16/block-patterns-in-wordpress-5-5/) for [patterns](https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/developers/block-api/block-patterns/) in WordPress 5.5. This is the perfect time to show them off. Twenty Twenty-One will come packaged with a bunch of unique patterns designed explicitly for the theme. The theme’s overall design is simple, so you can make it your own, but the patterns will be opinionated. There are a couple already designed, and we’ll be relying on our talented community designers for more ideas. Here’s what we’re thinking about so far: [![](https://make.wordpress.org/core/files/2020/09/Patterns-1.png)](https://make.wordpress.org/core/files/2020/09/Patterns-1.png) Want to contribute a block pattern? [We have an issue template for that](https://github.com/WordPress/twentytwentyone/issues/new?assignees=&labels=Needs+design+feedback%2C+%5BComponent%5D+Block+Patterns&template=block-pattern-ideas.md&title=Block+Pattern%3A+). Lastly, we’d love to make the theme meet relevant guidelines from [WCAG 2.1 level AAA](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/). We loved the idea [when](https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/2020/08/25/accessibility-teams-goals-for-wordpress-5-6-and-beyond/#comment-72994) [+make.wordpress.org/accessibility/](https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/) brought it up, and would appreciate any and all guidance from our community a11y experts to help make this possible. [You can find full page mockups of Twenty Twenty-One in the Figma file](https://www.figma.com/file/Fv7BODXobfo2prksqRDySy/Introducing-Twenty-Twenty-One?node-id=0%3A1). #### Timeline Per the [development cycle information](https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-6/), the upcoming important dates are: * WP 5.6 Beta 1 – October 20 + Last chance for feature projects and new enhancements + Theme should be committed to trunk + Start exploring FSE support in a second, block-based theme * WP 5.6 Beta 4 – November 10 + Soft string freeze + Starter content should be committed * WP 5.6 RC 1 – November 17 + Hard string freeze + Starter content needs to be finalized * WP 5.6 Release – December 8 #### Get Involved If you are interested in contributing to Twenty Twenty-One, make sure you are following this blog. During the design and development process, there will be weekly meetings starting [Monday, September 28, 2020, 08:00 AM PDT](https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20200928T1500) in [#core-themes](https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/core-themes/). We’ll also be holding weekly triage sessions at starting [Friday, September 25, 2020, 09:00 AM PDT](https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20200925T1600). Theme development will happen on GitHub and in the interest of time, an in-progress version of the theme code has been uploaded here: <https://github.com/wordpress/twentytwentyone>. Once the theme is stable, it will be merged into core and the GitHub repo will be deprecated. #### Learn More If you’re interested in learning more about default themes, you can read the following posts:, Introducing Twenty Twenty-One, Make WordPress Core, 01gnmcxcy6m2rw9b8q60p7n0v6.