SEP 27 2026

Welcome to The Bellwether

"Bellwether" was Merriam-Webster's word of the day on September 27, 2026, the date I started making this template. I was looking for a perfect title, and I wasn't sure if I had found it, but it sounded good enough for me to stop my obsessive search. The meaning: "one that takes the lead or initiative; a leader" or "an indicator of trends." Though, to be honest, I'm not sure the meaning of the word is as important as the way the name came about -- a process that felt more open to chance than deliberation. I guess that means it was "meant to be"? If you can believe in such things.

The Bellwether is a two-tone 11ty starter kit for a content-focused blog. It is ideal for long-form writing, though it can be used for all forms of content. It is a bare-bones kit: it has a blog, tags page, and an about page. Individual pages for tags are auto-generated whenever a new tag is added to a post. With a simple design, adding additional pages (such as a blogroll, for example) is easy and will not break the layout.

Who is it for?

This template was made with bloggers in mind. You may find The Bellwether to be a good choice if you:

• Write essay or long-form content
• Have a personal blog
• Write poetry or fiction
• Prefer static websites over large CMS platforms
• Appeciate minimalist design

On the other hand, it may not be the right choice for you if you prefer:

• Eye-popping visuals
• Extensive social features
• Heavy animations
• Complex panels, menus, and tooling
• A theme packed with integrations

Some excellent tools for those goals exist, but this project has a different focus.

Design Principles

Here are a few guideposts that I have implemented in The Bellwether.

Content First

At the end of the day, a website is just housing what you put inside of it. Layouts and decorative elements should be complementary, not overwhelming.

Optimize for Immersion

"Immersive" web design invites readers in to stay a while. The Bellwether allows you to focus on long-form creative content that is substantive.

Simplicity Ages Well

Minimalism is the trend that has remained trendy through the decades. There's a reason it is perhaps the dominant philosophy in web design. In any website, the content should be easy to locate and follow.

Personalization Matters

Your website is uniquely yours. As such, a starter kit is just that: a starting point. This is a boilerplate. It's expected that you will add your own extras and flourishes and adaptation. The Bellwether has been designed to be easily customizable.

About 11ty (and a confession)

11ty (currently rebranding as Build Awesome) is a static site generator (SSG) that allows you full control over your site's output. I like 11ty because it doesn't lock you into a single templating language or data format; everything can be configured, but it works with zero configuration out of the box.

My confession is this: this is my first ever static site starter kit. I've built static sites before, mostly based upon other templates. My blog is a Jekyll site that I built from the ground-up, with no starter.

11ty's flexibility, while overwhelming at first, was exactly what made it the perfect choice for this project. I could figure out how to get the look and feel I wanted, rather than to compromise based on what the underlying programming would allow.

With that said, using a starter kit is the perfect place to begin for anyone wanting to learn the ins and outs of how 11ty works without feeling in over their head.