2025-07-19T12:25:38+00:00
SkinnyWP: WordPress Design with Etch and ACSS
Hey, I’m John! Thanks for taking the time to read this post. You’re probably here to learn what SkinnyWP is, why I created it, and a little about me. If so, keep reading.
About me
I’m John, a UI designer based in Greece, where I live with my wife and daughter. My WordPress journey began in 2013 when I designed my first themes. Together with a developer partner, we released them on ThemeForest.
Since then, I’ve worked across the WordPress ecosystem – designing plugin UIs, themes, and client websites. I was an early Elementor adopter in 2017 and created some of the first templates for the platform. Over time, my focus shifted to Design Systems, template and pattern libraries, and design-to-development workflows.
In 2023, at WordCamp Athens, a friend introduced me to Bricks. That discovery led me to Automatic.CSS (ACSS) – and it completely changed my workflow. Since then, I’ve been sharpening my front-end skills, exploring CSS and HTML in depth, and focusing on semantic Figma workflows, bridging the gap between design and clean, ACSS-powered front-end builds.
You can learn more about me and my work at my personal website.
SkinnyWP
SkinnyWP is my hub for documenting and sharing my journey with Etch – a WordPress page builder that’s pushing me (and many others) to rethink how we work in our daily project operations.
For someone coming from a purely design background, diving deeper into how things work under the hood has been liberating. SkinnyWP is where I’ll share design-first resources and workflow ideas, including:
- Components, layouts & template kits
- Practical tutorials
- Figma-to-Etch workflow experiments
Who is Skinny for
SkinnyWP is for anyone who has skin in the Etch game – designers, developers, or anyone who wants to improve their workflow with Etch and ACSS.
This is a design-first space. If you’re looking for advanced CSS techniques or complex JS snippets, this isn’t the place. I keep things as simple as possible, with ACSS as the backbone and design as the primary driver.
If you care about building clean, thoughtful, design-focused sites with Etch – and want to see how Figma can fit into that workflow – you’ll feel right at home here.
What’s Next?
I’ll be sharing resources, templates, and workflow experiments soon. If you’re curious about Etch and want to follow along, subscribe to get updates as I publish new stuff.
Thanks for being here!
