This summary covers Nathan Wrigley’s conversation with Johanne Courtright about her work moving agencies onto the block editor and building Groundworx, a toolkit of enhancements and blocks that fill agency needs Gutenberg does not yet cover.
Background and journey
Johanne started using WordPress in 2011 at a marketing agency, migrating from Dreamweaver and static HTML to dynamic sites. Early projects relied on Advanced Custom Fields, custom post types, and integrations with CRMs and APIs. When Gutenberg arrived she learned React to accelerate building editor experiences and gradually shifted from ACF-heavy patterns to a block-first approach, embracing the Interactivity API and minimizing jQuery.
Why Groundworx
Agencies require pixel-accurate control: branded color systems, breakpoint-aware spacing and typography, and efficient editor UX for non-technical content editors. Core Gutenberg addresses many basics but lacks fine-grained features agencies expect, such as per-breakpoint controls, reusable branded palettes, advanced navigation behaviors, and templates. Groundworx began as Johanne’s solution to extend core blocks, add a few targeted blocks, and provide templates that solve recurring agency problems without overwhelming content editors.
Philosophy: extend, don’t replace
Rather than replacing core blocks, Groundworx enhances them. The goal is to add practical capabilities — flexible layout controls, breakpoint-aware settings, color palettes, and templates — while remaining lightweight and compatible with core behavior if those features land in WordPress core later. Groundworx favors agency-ready defaults and a theme.json foundation so themes can stay thin and clients can switch themes without breaking content.
Themes, plugins, and separation of concerns
From the classic era many teams bundled functionality into themes. With theme.json and block-based patterns, Johanne prefers minimal themes that set colors, fonts, and labels, while placing behavior and reusable pieces in plugins. This prevents locking clients into a theme for functionality, makes theme swaps straightforward, and keeps CSS and JS minimal. Sensible theme.json keys also make swapping palettes and fonts a matter of changing values rather than rebuilding structure.
Adoption and the learning curve
Full Site Editing and block themes have not yet fully replaced classic approaches. Agencies and clients can be cautious because the mental model is different. Johanne notes the learning curve is steep for developers who must reverse-engineer how Gutenberg composes blocks, but once mastered the approach has clear advantages. For many non-developers, Gutenberg is actually simpler than traditional page builders after a short onboarding, yet habits and existing tooling slow adoption.
What Groundworx adds
Groundworx offers two main categories:
– Custom blocks for patterns core lacks, such as tabs, accordions, card reveals, and media-split sections.
– Extensions to core blocks that add practical features: reversing stack order, breakpoint-based settings for spacing and typography, full-height sticky groups, column count controls, responsive settings for any block, and video block performance improvements.
Notable features
– Tabs/Accordion hybrid: A tabs block that can automatically convert to an accordion at a chosen breakpoint, keeping behavior consistent across devices without duplicating content.
– Navigation system: Groundworx stores menus via a custom post type and exposes them as reusable blocks, preserving a single HTML structure that adapts between desktop and mobile. It uses the Interactivity API for behaviors like vertical or full-height menus and breakpoint-driven presentation without duplicating menus for different viewports.
Design for flexibility
Johanne designs blocks with flexible HTML and CSS, favoring grid-based layouts and minimal, semantic markup. That lets content be rearranged and styled by themes without brittle, block-specific overrides. The emphasis is on adaptable markup and small style hooks that let developers tune behavior rather than rebuild UI for each project.
Theme.json wishlist
A key limitation Johanne highlights is theme.jsons variable and color handling. She wants the ability to define custom keys and variables in theme.json so blocks and components can reference named values without injecting CSS. More flexible variables would reduce custom CSS, simplify branded variants, and let blocks consume the same design tokens defined by themes.
Business landscape for block-based products
Johanne built Groundworx primarily to solve her agency needs and then to share it. She cautions that block-based products are not an instant business goldmine; discoverability and ecosystem maturity are still developing. Commercial success will require better visibility and clearer channels for users to find block-first solutions.
Directory, discovery, and curation
Johanne criticizes the WordPress.org plugin and theme directories for weak discovery and limited ways to surface high-quality block-based offerings. She recommends better categorization and metadata such as support for the Interactivity API, no-jQuery implementations, and block-first design. Curated showcases or featured sections could help new block projects get traction similar to app store discovery.
Why not rely on third-party page builders
Page builders like Elementor and Divi solve many layout problems but add heavy markup, styling bloat, and a different theming paradigm that can be hard to override. Johanne prefers core-first solutions because Gutenberg tends to produce lighter HTML and easier override patterns. For clients willing to learn Gutenberg, the editor often delivers a cleaner, more maintainable experience.
Practical recommendations for agencies
– Use a lightweight theme.json to provide branded starting points for colors and fonts.
– Move reusable components and behaviors into plugins so themes can be swapped freely.
– Offer pre-made templates and patterns to reduce support needs and speed client edits.
– Use responsive techniques like clamp and fluid type to reduce the need for excessive per-breakpoint controls.
Groundworx and where to find it
Groundworx bundles the core extensions, navigation suite, and custom blocks at groundworx.dev. The navigation system is free; the broader suite mixes free and commercial components aimed at agency workflows. Johanne is active on social platforms and welcomes community feedback.
Closing thoughts
Groundworx is a pragmatic, agency-focused toolkit that fills practical gaps in Gutenberg: fine-grained responsive controls, branded palettes, flexible navigation, and a small set of commonly reused blocks. Johanne emphasizes lightweight themes, plugin-driven behavior, and adopting Gutenberg patterns rather than resisting them. She also calls for improved discovery in the WordPress ecosystem so commercial block authors can reach potential users more easily.