Abstract: Techniques are described for dynamically placing graphical elements into theme layouts on a graphical user interface. A rendering engine reads a set of theme metadata and graphics metadata. The theme metadata defines a layout of the page and the regions into which the graphic elements will be placed. The theme metadata can further include tags to define categories or conceptual purposes for the regions and design changes that can be applied to graphics in that region. The graphics metadata defines a list of graphic files to be included in the layout, tags to define a category or conceptual purpose for each element and optional tags to override the design changes that are indicated in the theme metadata. The rendering engine combines and matches the theme metadata to the graphics metadata and places the graphic elements into the theme layout according to the matching.