Mike Herchel Launches Dripyard, a New Theme Company for Drupal

Mike Herchel, co-creator of Drupal’s Olivero theme, has launched Dripyard, a company building modern, accessible, component-based themes for Drupal. Co-founded with Andy Giles, Dripyard will debut its first two themes during a live webinar on Sept. 30 at 11 a.m. ET (5 p.m. CET / 8:30 p.m. IST). The announcement positions Dripyard as a response to years of limited, hard-to-maintain off-the-shelf themes in the Drupal ecosystem.

Herchel says Dripyard’s themes are built around Single Directory Components (SDC) to ship reusable, self-contained UI parts that scale across layouts without rigid page-builder lock-in. The themes target WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility, require no dependencies beyond Drupal core, and include installable recipes for fast setup. They are tested with Drupal CMS and the forthcoming Drupal Canvas builder, while remaining compatible with traditional Drupal and Paragraphs-based sites.

Why now?

Earlier commercial themes often bundled opinionated modules to enforce markup, limiting flexibility and complicating maintenance. With SDC, modern CSS, and Drupal’s renewed mid-market focus, Herchel argues that high-quality, affordable themes are now possible. “By changing color schemes, design tokens and components, you can create radically different websites from the same base theme,” he wrote.

Challenges in building Dripyard

The road to launch proved more complex than expected. Key hurdles included finding the right designer, creating a scalable component architecture, stress-testing components in unpredictable placements, and ensuring compatibility with Drupal’s fast-moving initiatives like Canvas/XB/DrupalCMS while still supporting core.

Personal sacrifices were also part of the journey. “Supporting myself and my family while I had zero income was the hardest part,” Herchel admitted, noting that he relied on a line of credit to sustain the project.

Looking ahead

Dripyard’s website is already live, though its e-commerce system and business registration are still being finalized. Marketing efforts have begun through email, social media, and community channels. With a robust component library and design system now in place, the team expects to release additional themes at a faster pace.

Herchel closed his announcement by thanking the Drupal community for its encouragement throughout the process. The first two Dripyard themes will launch officially on Sept. 30 in a live webinar.

For more details, theme previews, and webinar registration, visit herchel.com or dripyard.com.