Achieve a modern look and feel

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Hello all,

I am new to WordPress and just got my first freelance WordPress project to build a blog. I am a developer and I am not good at design yet. I could tell what looks good and what doesn’t but I can’t pinpoint why or know how to fix it. The customer is not fully satisfied with the aesthetics and user experience yet. He says that it is not very harmonious and intuitive to use. I used a theme called Brite which works with the Colibri Page Builder. It feels very clumsy for customization and it doesn’t look like taking the paid version would be any better.

My question is this: Can I achieve a decent look without using a paid theme or hiring a designer?

The customer suggested this site as inspiration for what he wants, not to clone it, just inspiration: [https://www.gty.org/])

I know that the above site is developed by a whole team with a hefty budget so I am not trying to achieve the exact same, just something harmonious with a modern look and feel. The initial budget was very low, which is why I wanted to avoid involving a designer if possible. I also thought about doing the front end in React as I am familiar with it but it feels like overkill just to display some articles. I often use JavaScript for most things and the last time I used PHP was 7 years ago so I am not sure how long it would take me to try and create a custom theme from scratch.

The customer has already decided to contact a designer for the site’s logo because those I tried to create with Canva were not good enough. I wanted to make sure there is no other solution before suggesting spending more on design as there are other expenses coming up.

It is someone I personally know so I have a particular involvement in the project, I have more boundaries in usual freelance dealings though.

Here is what I have done so far: [https://loinensemble.com/])

Of course, any other advice or observation of yours are welcome.

Thanks in advance for your reply and for the time you dedicated to reading this.

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