Brian Gardner
@bgardner
✴︎ Designer. Believer in simplicity. ✴︎ Head of Community at @WPEngine. ✴︎ Building https://powder.design. 🪄
I’m excited to share that I’ve moved into a new role: Head of Community at @WPEngine. I’ll work alongside our customers, agency partners, and the greater WordPress community—leading strategic initiatives, supporting industry events, and pursuing sponsorship opportunities. ⬇️
One potential aspect of the WordPress 6.9 release is "Evolving the Site Editor," which includes "Simplified site editing"—a possible enhancement that may introduce a toggle between content editing and site editing. 💡
You found the perfect brand name—and the .com is available. But the handle is unavailable on X and Instagram. Should it matter?
Would you use a 'fade-in-up' animation style for Group blocks in your WordPress theme?
WordPress: The core Gallery block lacks built-in functionality for displaying images as an interactive slideshow or carousel. 🤷♂️ ChatGPT: Hold my beer. 🍺
Something we rarely acknowledge: One of the biggest gifts of WordPress being open source is that AI can see it all. I’ve been able to build things faster and with more confidence because of this.
Not gonna lie—the results don’t surprise me.
As a designer/developer, how are you currently feeling about WordPress?
As a designer/developer, how are you currently feeling about WordPress?
Version 1.6 of Powder is here—a feature-rich update with theme settings, curated color palettes, new block styles, and a cleaner structure. 😊 Read what’s new ➡️ powder.design/powder-1-6/
Harnessing the power of AI, I’ve just added a live character counter to my Simple SEO plugin’s meta description field. No more guesswork, just real-time as I write. ⚡️
ICYMI last night... 😊
Thrilled to share that Indio—the theme I use on my personal site—has been approved and is now live in the WordPress theme directory! A minimal block theme, built with intention. Link in the reply ↓
If you were interested in building websites with a WordPress block theme with an extensive pattern library, which of the following would you prefer? 1) Patterns in theme, w/ option to disable by category 2) Patterns in plugin
The beauty of open source is that you can steal code. Rumor has it attribution is appreciated, so a massive shoutout to @mikemcalister for the snippet I just lifted to register a Sidebar template part for Powder. 👊
WordPress developers: When building a theme, do you prefer a single functions.php file or breaking things out into separate files in an /inc/ directory?
Just hooked up an email opt-in to @kit using the WordPress Form block—no plugin needed. Just dropped in the Form Action + Name fields. If this lands in core, it’s going to be huge. 🤯