Swiss is a bold Jekyll theme inspired by Swiss design and the works of Massimo Vignelli, designed specifically for blogs and sites heavy on written content.
What is Swiss?
Swiss is a Jekyll theme distributed as a Ruby gem (jekyll-swiss) and usable on GitHub Pages via the remote_theme: broccolini/swiss setting. It takes standard Jekyll posts and pages written in Markdown or HTML and renders them as a static site with strong typographic hierarchy. The theme is maintained by broccolini and released under the MIT License. The repository has 547 stars.
Key Features
- Mobile-first design — Prioritizes mobile performance and scales to desktop.
- Bold typography — Includes homepage summaries and previous/next post navigation snippets.
- Eight color variations — Switch via theme_color config: black (default), red, white, gray, blue, magenta, orange, yellow.
- Wide element and Markdown support — Handles a wide range of HTML elements and Markdown syntax.
- Reusable flexible styles — Styles are designed for reuse without adding additional CSS.
- Dynamic navigation links — Navigation links are generated dynamically; documentation explains how to add pages with specific post category for-loops.
Who is it for?
- Bloggers — Publish long-form writing with a clean, Swiss-inspired layout.
- Jekyll developers — Stand up a tailored site quickly by forking or using the remote theme.
- Design-focused writers — Appreciate a bold, minimal aesthetic rooted in Swiss design principles and Massimo Vignelli's work.
What can you do with Swiss?
- Launch a personal blog — Use the homepage summaries and previous/next snippets to guide readers through articles.
- Build a documentation site — Rely on the wide HTML and Markdown support to structure technical content.
- Change the entire look instantly — Edit one theme_color value to switch among eight built-in color schemes.
How does Swiss work?
Add remote_theme: broccolini/swiss to your Jekyll site's _config.yml (or add gem "jekyll-swiss" to your Gemfile), then run bundle and bundle exec jekyll serve. The theme includes _layouts, _includes, and _sass directories that Jekyll processes to generate a static site. When the theme is released, only those tracked files are included.
