Romanesco
Romanesco is a website builder that allows you to jumpstart your project and add content right away. It's based on an open source CMS (MODX) and comes with a flexible design system, so you still have plenty of freedom to customize it to your needs.
You can also receive updates from (and maybe contribute to?) the central Romanesco repository, meaning bugfixes, improvements and new features are shared across all Romanesco projects.
Romanesco homepage Explore MODXWhy yet another website builder?
There's no shortage of choices when it comes to making a website. But that doesn't mean it's always easy to find a fitting candidate. Website builders like Wix and SquareSpace are easy to use and offer high quality templates to get you going in no time, without the need to fiddle with hosting or code. But in many cases you can't do exactly what you want with these platforms. Plus: you don't really own the website. If you end your subscription, the website is gone.
On the other end of the spectrum are custom made websites by a freelancer or digital agency. The sky is the limit, as they will undoubtedly tell you, but you need to bring your wallet. And because the website is often created from scratch, it can take a long time to develop. It's not uncommon for ideas and priorities to shift or evolve during that process, resulting in a website that's not quite what you need.
To fill that gap for my own projects, I developed Romanesco. It provides all the basics of a modern website, so you can start adding content right away. And it still leaves plenty of room to add your own customizations or change the styling.
Need a website?
Fractal Farming can help you set up a Romanesco project.
Websites created with Romanesco
What clients value most about the platform, is that they're always able to accomplish what they need to do. So despite reusing the same patterns, each website is a unique, tailor made project.
The bullet points below the image highlight the unique features of each project.
AEX
- Slideshow presentations
- Forms for quotations and staff evaluation
DDGC
- Multilanguage (NL/EN)
- Shares styling theme with sister site
Hoehler AlSalmy
- Arabic version (RTL)
- Crosslinking projects, architects and awards
Why is it called Romanesco?
In nature, the romanesco is a curious crossover between a broccoli and a cauliflower. Its flowers are shaped by repeating mathematical patterns, forming a mesmerizing collection of green fractals, spiraling up and multiplying in perfect resonance with Fibonacci's golden ratio. The result is a vegetable that looks almost too stunning to be eaten!
To me, that perfectly symbolizes my intention with this platform: (re)use patterns to create modular websites, without sacrificing aesthetics and uniqueness.
