Brine is More Than Fine! Why it’s the Best Squarespace Template.
Cats versus dogs.
Mac versus PC.
Favorite flavor of ice cream.
Some topics have been the subject of debate for such a long time that it seems there will never be a common consensus.
(My answers in order: dogs, Mac, and chocolate)
But there IS widespread agreement on at least one question that most people can agree upon.
When it comes to choosing a template on Squarespace, one is the clear favorite that towers above all of the rest.
I’m talking about the Brine family of templates!
Simply put, Brine templates have far more design features and settings than any other family of templates on Squarespace. This makes them way more flexible than the alternatives, allowing for much more customization possibilities when designing a website. In fact, I use Brine almost exclusively for the customization benefit.
For anyone who doesn’t already know, a template family is basically just a number of templates that all have the same underlying code.
And having the same underlying code means that all of these templates share the same functionality and features.
This is important because different template families function in different ways. The templates not only look different, but they are capable of doing different things.
So what is it about the functionality and features of the templates specifically in the Brine family that makes them so much better than all the rest?
And what are the circumstances under which it would be better to use a different family of templates?
Let’s get into it.
For starters, let me list the members of this big happy Brine family.
They are: Aria, Basil, Blend, Burke, Cacao, Clay, Ethan, Fairfield, Feed, Foster, Greenwich, Hatch, Heights, Hunter, Hyde, Impact, Jaunt, Juke, Keene, Kin, Maple, Margot, Marta, Mentor, Mercer, Miller, Mojave, Moksha, Motto, Nueva, Pedro, Polaris, Pursuit, Rally, Rover, Royce, Sofia, Sonny, Sonora, Stella, Thorne, Vow, Wav, and West.
Whew, that’s a quite the number. Try saying all of that three times fast!
As you can see, that’s a lot to choose from. This is done so that you can get a good sense of the various ways that a Brine template can be used.
A lot of people don’t want to have to mess around with a template too much. They just want to look at a few demo templates, find something that has content similar to the style that they like, and go with that one.
So Squarespace made it possible to pick a template based on its appearance without having to worry about trying to work out all of the features on your own.
By doing things this way, Squarespace is able to showcase the various demo content, vibes, and styles to new users.
But although they may look different, you can pick any one of the templates I listed and each of them will ultimately have the exact same functions, features, and style settings as any other one. Hence, the whole “family” concept.
Think of it kind of like twins who are wearing different clothes and making different facial expressions.
And just to be clear, the templates I will be talking about here all pertain to Squarespace version 7.0. This is mostly because I prefer using version 7.0 myself.
“Ok, so what are these awesome features that Brine has exactly?”
Let’s break it down in detail and make a list.
There are quite a few things I’d like to talk about.
For instance, custom CSS coding can be a real chore sometimes. Wouldn’t it be nice to have more style options built right into the template?
If you said yes, then you’ll appreciate Brine’s…
Style editor options
Brine has a TON of options in its style editor! I’m talking, above and beyond the other templates.
Colors, spacing, site border, site width, padding, banner overlay colors, scroll indicators, search icon styles, and much more.
If you need it, there’s a pretty good chance Brine’s got it.
This means less CSS coding for the average user and more options readily available right off the bat.
And speaking of options, Brine is one of the only templates to offer a…
2. Slideshow banner
There’s only one other template family that even offers this, but it doesn’t give you nearly as many other options as Brine does.
Brine also gives you the ability to…
3. Add any blocks on top of the banner and index sections
Now THIS is an area where Brine really stands out from the rest!
With this feature, you can place any block on top of a banner image or index page section.
Brine templates are the ONLY ones that allow these blocks to be placed anywhere you want on top of the banner.
It’s such a basic concept and yet it’s not available within other template families!
Another feature that few other templates offer is…
4. Parallax scrolling
This is a BIG benefit of Brine and only a few other kinds of templates offer it.
Parallax scrolling is basically a scrolling technique that is used in computer graphics in which some background images move slower than other images in the foreground. The end result is the perceived illusion of depth and immersion.
And then there are….
5. Customizable navigation menus
Now let’s talk about some things that Brine excels at. Sure, some other templates may have these features, but Brine does it better.
One such area where Brine is particularly great is the level of customization with the navigation menus.
Brine has hands down more navigation options than the alternatives.
The Brine templates have options for the main menu, a secondary menu, and a footer menu. There’s both a secondary navigation in the footer, as well as a 2 level header navigation.
All of them can be customized to be in different positions, different colors, sizes, effects, different logo placement.
This means that it’s possible to create almost any menu layout you want!
For example, you can set each one of your logos, social icons, shopping cart, navigation links, and the search bar to be aligned to the right, aligned to the left, or centered. You can set everything to be bright colors or dark colors. You can make things big or small.
This is truly something that Brine templates are capable of doing well.
And you know what else Brine does well?
6. Index pages
Brine is great for making long scrolling pages!
You can stack pages, banner images, and galleries on top of one another.
You can even make a long page of interesting visual elements, and clear sections to separate ideas, or products, or topics.
The end result looks very stylish and modern.
And speaking of modern, one thing that often gets overlooked is…
7. Editing options for mobile
When it comes to mobile design, Squarespace tends to handle everything automatically.
This is one of the reasons why I love Squarespace, but it also means some things get overlooked when people get complacent and assume they don’t need to do anything.
This is not true and I recommend putting a little bit of extra effort to make sure everything looks as great on a cell phone as it does on a full size computer monitor.
There are lots of little style settings that Brine lets you customize in order to achieve this.
By having extra control over what your mobile site looks like, you can be extra sure everything looks exactly how you want it to.
Brine even has something called “sticky nav” that allows for navigation to be fixed in place, or “sticky”, when viewing the site on a mobile device.
“Wow! Brine sounds great, but are there times when it is not the best choice?”
Yes, there are.
As much as I love Brine templates, I do have to mention some situations in which it would be better to pick something else.
For example, I just got done talking about the “sticky navigation” feature on mobile devices. However, when it comes to the same feature for desktop, it’s actually NOT programmed into Brine templates.
Kind of weird, right?
One would think that would be something that’s included considering how popular it is, but it’s not. That’s just how the cookie crumbles.
Fortunately, if that’s is something you absolutely need, it can be added in through custom CSS code.
Same thing goes if you want a sidebar, which can be a really big deal for some people. It’s not included either (again, kind of weird for such a popular feature), but there DO exist some plugins that you can use if it’s an absolutely critical feature for your website.
There are also a few other features that aren’t included in Brine, such as vertical navigation, author profiles, infinite scrolling, pre-footers, page animations, and auto-populated related posts.
A lot of these are especially popular among bloggers, so if that’s not your biggest concern then it shouldn’t be a huge problem.
On a side note, don’t let this stop you from blogging on Squarespace! There seems to be a misconception out there that Squarespace is somehow worse for blogging than the other alternatives. That’s simply not true and I’ve written an entire separate blog talking all about that. You can read it by clicking here.
But if you do end up going with templates that are not part of Brine family specifically for their blogging features, be aware that those other templates will not have many of the features Brine does. So there’s a tradeoff.
Often times though, there may exist a workaround within Brine in the form of a plugin or summary block, so don’t despair regardless!
Just do some research and see if there’s an alternative solution if it’s a feature you really need.
In conclusion
While Brine templates may not be a perfect fit for everyone and everything, they are by far my favorite choice for a starting point when designing a website.
No other template family even comes close!
They are the cream of the crop, the top dog, the chocolate ice cream among desserts, the… well, you get the idea :)
My point is that I really love Brine templates and hope that this blog entry has shown you the reasons why.
And if you’re ever in need of a Brine expert, don’t hesitate to contact me about helping you set up a sleek and professional Squarespace website of your own.
I’d be happy to show you why Brine is more than just fine.
I’ll show you that Brine is indeed AWESOME!
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