Web design
Websites with style, substance and a life after launch
I design and build websites for independent businesses, venues, studios and makers. Sites that look like the business behind them, say something worth reading, and keep working once the launch is over.
Station South, Levenshulme. Photograph by Jody Hartley
Style
A site that looks like you and not like a template three other businesses in town are also using.
Substance
Clear structure, honest writing, and the quiet technical groundwork that helps the right people find you.
A life after launch
Someone to keep it current, so it does not go quietly out of date the month after it goes live.
Why this is different
More than a website builder
Anyone can assemble a website now. The tools are cheap and the templates are competent. The harder thing is making something that actually looks and sounds like the business it belongs to.
I have worked as a designer and artist since 2007. Identity and print, repeating pattern, installations and public artwork, work hung in bars and hotels, exhibitions, posters, and the events themselves. That is why I come at a website the way I do. I am thinking about typography, composition, colour and atmosphere before I think about page templates, because those are the things that make a place feel like itself.
It also means the parts do not arrive from three different suppliers. The mark on your window, the photographs on your homepage, the way you describe what you do and the posts that follow it should all feel like the same business. When one person has thought about all of it, they usually do.
The two halves
Style and substance
These are not opposites. A site that looks good and says nothing wastes the visit. A site full of useful information that looks like everyone else’s gets skimmed and forgotten. Each one props the other up.
Style
- A recognisable character. Something a regular would know at a glance, on a phone, without the logo.
- Typography that does work. Type sets the tone before a word is read. It is not decoration.
- Composition and space. What sits next to what, and how much room it gets to breathe.
- Photography, chosen and directed. Real pictures of the real place, edited down hard. No stock.
- Colour that belongs to you. Drawn from the room, the products, the printed things you already have.
- Atmosphere. The site should feel like walking in. That is the part templates cannot do.
Substance
- A structure people can hold. Pages in an order that matches how someone actually decides.
- Writing that says something. Persuasive because it is specific, not because it is loud.
- Services explained plainly. What you do, who it suits, what happens next.
- Case studies worth reading. The reason people trust you before they call.
- Search foundations, local and organic. Headings, titles, structured data and a Google Business Profile that agree with each other.
- Accessible and easy to enquire from. Readable contrast, keyboard access, and an obvious way to get in touch.
The work
How a project runs
One joined-up piece of work rather than a list of things bought separately. Each stage is here because skipping it costs you later.
A conversation
What the business does, what is not working, and what you have not got time for. No charge and no pitch deck.
Most weak websites are not badly built. They were started before anyone decided what the thing was for.
Direction and structure
An honest look at what is already there, then a page structure and a plan built to the budget rather than to a template. Who it is for, what it has to achieve, what it is known for locally.
This is where the money is either well spent or quietly wasted.
Content and design
Writing or editing the copy, choosing and directing the photography, organising past projects, and drawing a visual system out of your own material.
The part people dread and put off. It is also the part that decides whether anyone gets in touch.
A working website
Built directly in WordPress on a staging address you can watch, with no page builder and no stack of plugins holding it together.
A light build stays fast, stays yours, and does not break the first time something updates itself.
Review and launch
Testing across devices, redirects from the old site, forms, metadata, structured content, search and analytics set up, then a handover that leaves you able to run it.
Launch day is where rankings and enquiries are quietly lost. Redirects alone are worth the care.
After launch, if you want it
Updates and maintenance, new case studies and Journal entries, reporting that says something useful, and content going out to the places your customers already are. Or not. Plenty of people take the keys and get on with it.
A site that stopped a year ago tells people something about the business, whether or not it is true.
After launch
The website at the centre
Most small businesses end up writing the same thing four times, badly, on four platforms, or giving up. It works better when the website is the source and everything else is drawn from it.
Something happens
A job finishes, a night gets booked, a product lands.
It goes on the site
A case study or a Journal entry, written once and written properly.
It is adapted out
Google, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and email, each getting something that suits it.
You see what moved
Visits, enquiries, and which pieces actually did the work.
It stays useful
Good older work resurfaces at a sensible moment instead of sinking.
You make or approve the core thing once. I organise, adapt, schedule and reuse it. Every channel gets something that suits it rather than the same paragraph pasted five times, because a Google post, an Instagram caption and a LinkedIn note are not the same piece of writing.
I use AI in this the way I use any other tool in the studio. It helps with drafting and reshaping, and it is quick at finding the older project worth bringing back. It does not decide what is worth saying, and nothing goes out in your name without a person reading it first. If a tool ever starts making your business sound like everyone else, it has failed at the only job that mattered.
Working together
Two ways to work together
Start with a website. Carry on with the rest if you want to, and not if you do not.
Website design and build
For a business that needs a new site, or a rebuild of one that has stopped doing its job.
- Discovery and creative direction
- Site structure and page planning
- Copywriting and editing
- Photography selection and art direction
- Visual design drawn from your own material
- WordPress build, fast and accessible
- Search, analytics and redirect foundations
- Launch, testing and handover
You end up with a finished website you own outright and can run yourself. Nothing is held back to make you buy the next thing.
Ongoing digital partner
For a business with no time and no marketing person, that still wants to look like it is paying attention.
- Managed, maintained and backed-up website
- Content updates as things change
- New case studies and Journal entries
- Analytics and reporting in plain language
- Google Business Profile and local listings
- Content adapted for social and email
- Scheduling and approval workflow
- Reviews and testimonials put to use
- Older work resurfaced rather than lost
- A regular conversation about what is next
The point is continuity. One person who already knows the business, so nothing has to be explained from scratch every time.
Who this suits
Who this is for
Venues, bars and cafés, studios, makers, artists, galleries, promoters, shops, community organisations and small established firms. Independent businesses that care how they come across and have run out of hours to do anything about it.
The common thread is not the trade. It is that the business has a reputation worth representing properly, and nobody inside it has the time, the team or the inclination to manage the whole digital side.
I work from Buxton, in the Peak District, and across Derbyshire, Manchester, Cheshire and the North West. A good deal of it happens over a call and a shared document, so distance is rarely the deciding factor. Being able to come and look at the room, meet the people and take the photographs myself usually is.
Evidence
Work that shows the thinking
Not all of these are websites. They are here because they show the judgment a website needs: identity, atmosphere, and staying involved with a place long enough to be useful to it.
2017 to 2022
Station South
A disused Victorian station in Levenshulme, reopened as a cycle cafe and social hub. Identity, signage and artwork across the building over five years. The long relationship is the point.
See the project →
2023
Wine & Wallop
A brand identity for three bars, built as a roundel, monogram and wordmark so it holds on a window, a menu, a pump clip or a sign. The same discipline a website needs.
See the project →
2025
Pugh Jermyn
One mark worked up into an invite, a banner and a whole website. A small, complete example of print and web coming out of the same idea.
See the project →
2022
Moderate Studio, 2022
The studio’s own site, designed and built around the repeating-pattern work so that sound, visual art and the shop sat in one place. Being the client teaches you things.
See the project →
2021
Haunt, Manchester
A commission for a Peter Street bar, made to hold a room at a distance and reward a closer look. Atmosphere is a design decision, on a wall or on a screen.
See the project →case study in progress
In progress
This website
The rebuild you are reading, and the publishing system behind it, written up properly once there is something real to report.
In progress
Tested here first
I am building this on my own site before I sell it to anyone.
The Work archive, the Journal, the service pages and the social channels are being organised into one connected publishing system, so that a new entry can become the right post for the right platform without being retyped five times, and so older work can be brought back at a sensible moment instead of sinking.
Parts of it work now. Parts of it are half built. I am running it here first because I would rather find the awkward bits on my own website than on someone else’s, and because a service like this is worth very little without evidence.
When there is enough of a record to be worth reading, the numbers and the workflow go in a full case study, including the parts that did not work.
Status: in development. No results published yet.
Questions
Questions
Who do you build websites for?
Independent businesses, venues, bars and cafés, studios, makers, artists, promoters, community organisations and small established firms. Mostly people who care how they come across and have run out of time to do anything about it.
Do I need to provide all the copy?
No. Most people arrive with fragments and a rough idea. I write or edit the copy as part of the work, using your words as the starting point so it still sounds like you rather than like me.
Can you help decide how the business should look?
Yes, and that is often the most useful part. Identity, typography, colour and photography are what I have spent the longest doing. A website is one of the places that work shows up.
Can you work with an identity we already have?
Yes. If there is a logo and a palette that people already recognise, the job is to extend it properly rather than replace it. If it is genuinely holding the business back, I will say so and explain why.
Do you build in WordPress?
Yes. Built directly in WordPress with its own editor, no page builder and no pile of plugins. It stays fast, it stays yours, and there is less to go wrong when something updates itself.
Can I update the website myself?
Yes. That is the default. You get a site you can edit and a handover that covers how, without needing to call anyone.
Can you manage it for me instead?
Yes. Some people would rather never open the admin screen. Managed cover includes updates, backups, changes as they come up and new content added for you.
What does ongoing content support include?
New case studies and Journal entries written up, content adapted for Google, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and email where it suits, scheduling with your approval, and older work brought back when it is relevant again.
Will everything be posted automatically?
No. Drafting and adapting can be quick, but nothing goes out in your name without a person reading it. Automation that posts without judgment produces exactly the bland stuff you are trying to avoid.
How do you keep it sounding like us?
By writing from your material rather than from a prompt, keeping a note of the words you use and the ones you would never use, and running things past you. Accuracy matters more than volume, so anything I am unsure of gets asked rather than guessed.
Do you do SEO?
I do the foundations properly: structure, headings, page titles and descriptions, structured data, fast pages, internal links and the local listings that matter. I do not guarantee rankings, and I would be wary of anyone who does.
Can you improve an existing website?
Often, yes. Sometimes a clear-out, better structure and proper writing get you most of the way. Sometimes the foundations are the problem and a rebuild is cheaper than the repairs. The first conversation usually tells us which.
How long does a project take?
A small site is usually a few weeks. A larger one with a lot of content takes longer, and the content is nearly always what sets the pace rather than the build.
What happens after launch?
You own the site and can run it yourself. If you want me to stay involved, that becomes the ongoing arrangement. If not, you are not locked into anything.
How much does a website cost?
It depends on the number of pages, how much writing and photography is needed, and whether you want ongoing cover. I quote for the actual job after the first conversation rather than publishing a package price that would be wrong for most people.
Get in touch
Tell me about the business
Thank you. That has come through to me and I will reply properly, usually within a day or two.
Something went wrong sending that. Email jermyn@moderate.studio instead and it will reach me.
Six boxes. Only your name and a reply address are needed, the rest is whatever you feel like telling me.