Nostalgia – Responsive Portfolio WordPress Theme

On a full-screen portfolio, your first exhibited piece is the background

You carefully review which work goes into your portfolio, then pick the background image almost without thinking, because it is what sits behind everything. In this theme that decision carries weight: visitors have not opened a single project yet and they have already seen that image filling the whole screen.

When the entire site slides over a full-screen background, that background stops being decoration and gets judged as the first piece of your work. Nostalgia, the QuanticaLabs theme for personal or corporate portfolios, is built on that idea: a full-screen slideshow, pages that slide over it and a retro-toned background that contrasts with modern, minimalist content.

That is why it is worth treating background images as one more selection. Choose those that represent your work and can hold text on top.

How the Nostalgia design works

• Full-screen slideshow, with a background that adapts to any resolution.
• Transition, speed and interval of the slides are configurable.
• Background images assignable to specific pages.
• Unlimited pages inside a scrolling menu.
• Theme and single-page colors, chosen with a color picker.
• Portfolio template with accordion categories, a built-in lightbox and YouTube and Vimeo videos.
• Blog template with categories, comments and a lightbox.
• About and Services pages through shortcodes.
• Contact form with a configuration page and a Google Maps shortcode.

Navigation with no reloads and background music

The theme relies on Ajax and jQuery: pages slide over the background instead of loading as a new page, and the background stays in place. So that this does not spoil the basics, it has browser history support and updates the tab title when the page changes.

Nostalgia comes with a background music player. It fits when sound is part of what you present, as in an audiovisual project. On other portfolios it deserves more thought: someone reviewing your work in an office may not welcome the sound.

Built to show work, with selling left aside

Nostalgia is oriented toward showing work. Among its features there is no store or visual page builder: the About and Services pages are put together with shortcodes, and it is Gutenberg optimized.

Three things depend on outside pieces. The About, Portfolio and Services content types live in separate plugins, so they must stay active. The map requires a Google API key. And if you need several languages, the theme is compatible with WPML, which is installed separately.

Building the site step by step

The About, Portfolio and Services plugins are the main dependency, and the Google key is needed only if you want a map. After activating the theme:

1. Install and activate the theme's plugins.
2. Import the sample content to start from the demo structure.
3. Replace the slides with your own selection of images.
4. Adjust the transition and interval, and assign custom backgrounds to the pages that need them.
5. Configure the contact form, including the sender of the emails.
6. Create your portfolio categories and upload your first work.

Portfolios with WebGL or Elementor

Rhye also uses AJAX transitions, and combines them with Elementor and WebGL. Harington, by ClaPat, offers five showcases, a WebGL slider and AJAX transitions.

If you prefer a personal portfolio with Elementor, Tokyo takes projects with images, Vimeo, YouTube or SoundCloud, and has a dark mode.

Questions when choosing Nostalgia

Is it for a company or only for one person?

Both: it is planned for personal or corporate sites.

Can I use a different background on each page?

Yes, background images can be assigned to specific pages.

Does the portfolio take videos?

Yes, it plays YouTube and Vimeo videos, as well as images in a lightbox.

Is there a page limit?

No, you can add unlimited pages inside the scrolling menu.

Can it be translated into several languages?

Yes, it is compatible with WPML.

Why is my map not showing?

Check the Google API key, which the maps component needs in order to work.