From a fresh WordPress install to a polished business site: the theme, the Studio Core plugin, your pages, the Customizer options, and your first projects and services.
Download the theme and upload it under Appearance → Themes → Add New → Upload Theme, then click Activate. The site immediately switches to the Studio design with sensible defaults. (Once it's live on WordPress.org you'll be able to install it straight from the theme browser.)
The dashboard will suggest the free Demfilz Studio Core plugin - it adds the Portfolio and Services post types, the contact form engine and the [dstudio_button] shortcode. Install it from the official directory under Plugins → Add New (search "Demfilz Studio Core", or see the listing), activate it, then open Settings → Permalinks and click Save Changes once so the new /portfolio/ and /services/ URLs work. The theme runs fine without the plugin if you only need the design, blog and gallery.
Under Settings → Reading choose A static page, set Home as the front page and Journal as the posts page. (Prefer a classic blog homepage? Choose "Your latest posts" instead - the theme respects it and shows the blog.)
Under Appearance → Menus create a menu - Home, Services, Portfolio, Gallery, Journal, About, Contact works well - and assign it to the Primary location. Assign a menu to the Footer location too, or the footer lists your pages automatically. Two-level dropdowns are supported in the classic and centered headers.
Open Appearance → Customize → Theme Options. Everything lives here:
| Section | What you control |
|---|---|
| Colours and Buttons | Accent colour; button shape - rounded, pill or square. One change re-themes every button, link, chip and icon. |
| Header and Navigation | Layout (classic, centered, minimal overlay), sticky header, transparent-over-hero, and the header call to action button text and link. |
| Front Page Hero | Eyebrow, heading, supporting text, both hero buttons, an optional hero image (or keep the built-in art panel), and the three statistics. |
| Front Page Sections | Show or hide Services, Portfolio and Latest Posts; titles, intros and how many items each shows. |
| Call to Action Band | The dark full-width band: heading, text, button label and link. |
| Contact Page | Recipient email (never shown publicly), success message, street address, phone and opening hours. |
| Footer & Social | About text, copyright line, and social profile URLs - icons appear only for the ones you fill in. |
Under Services → Add Service, write a short excerpt (it becomes the card text) and pick an icon in the Service Icon box - or leave it on Automatic and the theme cycles through a tasteful set. Order services with the Page Attributes order field.
Under Portfolio → Add Project, set a featured image (this is the card), assign Project Categories (they become the filter buttons), and fill the Project Details box - client, year and project URL - which renders as the details panel on the project page.
Visit your Contact page and send yourself a test message. It should arrive at the recipient address from Theme Options and appear under Form Entries in the dashboard, with the sender as Reply-To. The form silently drops bots with a honeypot, a minimum fill time and a per-IP rate limit - there is nothing to configure.
Tip - the [dstudio_button] shortcode. Drop a styled call to action into any post or page: [dstudio_button text="Get a Quote" url="/contact/" style="solid" size="large" icon="arrow-right"]. Styles: solid, ghost, dark, light.
We install, brand and launch Demfilz Studio sites - or build custom sections around it. Fixed quotes, fast turnaround.