I think you should find another design. The wp-svbtle design doesn't feel like it's building on the svbtle theme. It feels like it's copying it as closely as possible - it's difficult to distinguish between the two at first glance. Hence the very reason for your post.

Personally, I don't think the Svbtle design is that noteworthy. There are plenty of other clean, wordpress templates.

Here's a not too dissimilar one (free too) http://devpress.com/demo/good/

I found that from the following article: http://www.smashingapps.com/2012/08/07/less-is-more-40-free-minimal-and-clean-wordpress-themes.html