Services
From first sketch to live site
Four services that fit together: design, development, hosting and support. One partner, one stack, no handoff to a stranger halfway through.
Typically 5–20 pages. Small and medium businesses only.
Web Design
Structure before decoration
Most small sites fail for the same reason: everything is given equal weight. The opening hours sit next to the founder's history, the services blur into one list, and the enquiry button is somewhere near the bottom.
Design starts with the job. What does someone need to know, believe and do? The answer sets the sitemap. The sitemap sets the pages. Only then do type, colour and layout come in.
The visual direction follows the Wild Specimen system: one saturated field, oversized Right Grotesk headlines, Standard Medium for anything that needs to be read. It is a deliberate, poster-like look — not a template with the logo dropped in.
What that looks like
- A homepage that explains the offer in one screen.
- Service and pricing pages built around real decisions.
- Mobile layouts designed first, not squeezed afterwards.
- A small set of reusable components the site can grow on.
- Sitemap
- Wireframes
- Page design
- Design system
- Mobile layouts
- Copy direction
Development
Payload CMS + SvelteKit
The site is built on Payload CMS for content and SvelteKit for the front end. Payload is a code-first CMS: the content model lives in the codebase, typed and versioned, instead of being assembled from plugins and shortcodes.
That means the admin matches the business. A clinic gets treatments, practitioners and opening hours. A studio gets projects, credits and press. Nothing is bent into a generic “post” or “page” field that almost fits.
SvelteKit keeps the front end small and quick, with routing, forms and server logic in one place. When a project needs the React ecosystem, the same Payload backend runs behind Next.js instead — the content model does not change.
What that looks like
- Custom collections and fields, not plugin settings.
- Working enquiry forms with validation and spam protection.
- Content migration from the old site where it is worth keeping.
- A codebase you own, documented and ready for the next change.
- Payload CMS
- SvelteKit front end
- Next.js option
- Forms
- Integrations
- Content migration
Hosting
The boring parts, handled
A website is not finished when it launches. It needs a home, a certificate, a backup and someone watching when a certificate expires at the wrong moment.
Hosting is managed as part of the service: deployment, DNS, SSL, backups and uptime monitoring. Updates are applied on a schedule, and a staging environment lets changes be checked before they reach the live site.
You get the admin login and the content. The infrastructure stays with the person who built it, so there is one place to call when something is wrong.
What that looks like
- Managed hosting with SSL and DNS configured.
- Regular backups and a documented restore path.
- Uptime monitoring with alerts that reach a person.
- Scheduled CMS and dependency updates.
- Managed hosting
- SSL
- Backups
- Monitoring
- Staging
- Updates
Support
After launch, not afterthought
Websites change. A new service launches, a phone number moves, a page needs a rewrite. Support is for the work that does not justify reopening a project — and for the small improvements that keep a site earning its place.
Requests go to a real person. Small content edits are handled in the CMS or by the studio, depending on what you prefer. Larger changes get a scope and a price before any work starts.
Support plans are monthly and can be adjusted as the site's needs change. The site is built to be handed over, with the content model and deployment documented at the end.
What that looks like
- Content edits and new pages.
- Bug fixes and small interface changes.
- CMS training for the people who will use it.
- A monthly review of what needs attention next.
- Content edits
- Bug fixes
- Training
- Small improvements
- Monthly plan
Not a traditional CMS
The stack
A traditional CMS gives you an admin, a theme and a plugin directory. It works until the site needs something the plugins did not anticipate — then the content model, the front end and the updates all become a negotiation.
Payload CMS and SvelteKit split the job differently: content is modelled in code, the front end is built for the design, and the whole thing ships as one codebase you control.
SvelteKit is the default. Next.js is used when a project needs the React ecosystem or a client already runs it. The Payload content model and the admin stay the same either way.
Traditional CMS
Plugin-shaped content
- Content bent around what a plugin allows.
- Page-builder markup shipped to the browser.
- Updates that can break the theme.
- Front end tied to a prebuilt template.
- Performance decided by plugin weight.
- The roadmap belongs to the vendor.
Payload + SvelteKit
Content shaped like the business
- Collections and fields built around your services.
- Typed content, real relationships, no shortcode soup.
- Schema lives in Git, so changes are reviewed.
- Front end built for the design, not around it.
- Only the code the site needs is shipped.
- No proprietary platform between you and the site.
A code-first headless CMS with a clean admin. Collections, globals, access control and media, defined in the codebase.
A small front-end framework with routing, forms and server endpoints. The default for new sites.
The alternative when React is the right fit. Same Payload backend, same content model, same handover.
This is not a claim that one stack is faster than another in every case. It is a different way of owning the site: the content model, the front end and the deployment live together in one codebase, built for the business rather than assembled from plugins.
Small and medium, by design
Scope
The studio takes on sites that can be done properly by one person, with the client available to make decisions. Three common shapes:
Brochure + enquiries
Five to eight pages that explain the business and turn visitors into enquiries.
Content-led site
Ten to twenty pages with collections for projects, treatments, stock or articles.
Growing business
A multi-service site with integrations, migration and room for the next two years.
Next step