Website design and development, Evanston, Illinois
Websites cut to what makes people choose you.
We design and develop websites of every kind, on any platform, with WordPress as our specialty. We handle the strategy, the design, the words, the code, the speed and the hosting ourselves, so the site you launch is the site you planned.
First, the cuts
We decide what your site leaves out.
Most business websites try to say everything, so visitors leave without knowing what to do next. We start by deciding what your site has to get a visitor to do (call, book, buy or ask for a quote), and then we cut every page, section and sentence that doesn’t help them get there.
Then, the split
People arrive scattered, and a good site gives each one somewhere to go.
Some come from Google, some from an ad and some from a friend’s text, and most are only half sure what they want. Your site has three jobs at once: help them understand what you do, give them a reason to choose you, and make sure the next person can find you. We design for all three, and after launch we check each one in the analytics we set up.
Look underneath
Turn off the effects and the page still works.
Everything you’re reading is real text in the page’s code, so Google, ChatGPT and a screen reader get the same words you do. We add the 3D as a layer after the page has loaded. Press the switch to take this page apart into its layers and outline every element on it.
The numbers are readings from your visit. Largest paint and layout shift are two of the Core Web Vitals, Google’s measurements of how fast and steady a page feels on a real phone. This page also loads a 3D scene that most business sites leave out, so a site built for you would have less to load. Send us your current site and we’ll take the same readings on it before we talk.
- First paint
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- Largest paint
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- Layout shift
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- Transferred
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- Characters of text
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- Elements
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Measured in your browser when this part of the page comes into view.
How it’s made
Design
We design the whole site, starting with what it has to sell.
Design starts before anything is drawn. We work out who the site is for, what they need to hear and in what order, and we write the words with you. Then we design every screen for a phone first, set the type, colour and motion, and build out your brand if it needs it.
- Strategy
- Site structure
- Copywriting
- UX and interface
- Brand
- Motion and 3D
Build
We build on any platform, and WordPress is our specialty.
On WordPress we write a custom theme for your site instead of stacking a page builder and a pile of plugins, so it loads fast and there’s less to break. We build on other platforms too, or from scratch, when that suits the business better. We also do all of e-commerce, from the catalogue and checkout to taxes, shipping, subscriptions and the connections to the systems you already run.
- WordPress
- E-commerce
- Custom builds
- Integrations
- Migrations
- Multilingual sites
Run
Then we keep it fast, easy to find and running.
We build every page to pass Core Web Vitals, and we set up the search groundwork that our search service builds on: page titles, structured data, sitemaps and redirects. We build to accessibility standards so everyone can use the site. After launch we can host it, update it, back it up and fix it when something breaks. If you want us to look after it, that cost is written into your plan alongside the build.
Platforms
WordPress
Custom theme / Labelled fields / Online stores / Multilingual / Migrations
WordPress is where we go deepest, from a five-page site to a store or a member portal. If you’re on something else, or you’re not sure what you’re on, we’ll look at it with you and tell you whether to stay, move or rebuild.
Also Sites we’ve built connect to Chambermaster, Printful, payment, tax and shipping services, and mobile apps.
After launch
You change your own words without calling us.
When we build on WordPress, every heading, paragraph, price and photo has its own labelled field in the editor, so you change the words and the design holds. Nobody on your team has to learn a page builder or touch a layout.
Type here to change the line beside it. Nothing is saved.
Websites cut to what makes people choose you.
Moving to a new site
A rebuild shouldn’t cost you your Google rankings.
Rebuilds often lose rankings because old addresses stop working. Before we launch, we list every page Google and your customers know, send each one to its new home with a permanent redirect, and carry over the titles and descriptions that were already working. After launch we watch Google Search Console for errors and fix them.
/web-design/permanently redirects to/web-design-development//chicago-seo-company/permanently redirects to/seo-aeo-geo//marketing/permanently redirects to/marketing-advertising//contactus/permanently redirects to/contact/
Earlier work
What earlier clients needed their websites to do
These sites come from before the agency was re-founded.
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01Website
Tsukasa of Tokyo
A restaurant site with motion-reactive slideshows and parallax scrolling, and a large menu that unfolds from big buttons so it’s easy to use on a phone.
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02E-commerce, mobile app
Eye Meets Color
An international store for colored contact lenses, with automated ordering, tax and shipping, and a mobile app for sales figures, orders and customer inquiries.
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03Community platform, e-commerce
Neon Dystopia
A cyberpunk publisher and social network in one, with profiles, forums, private messages, searchable databases of books and films, and a Printful store that turns an image into merchandise.
Also built
- Website, mediaChristian Worship CenterA custom WordPress site with live streaming, every sermon recorded and on the site, an interactive calendar, donations and parking-permit requests.
- Website, integrationPerdido Key Chamber of CommerceA hub for the whole community, with Chambermaster fully integrated, a portal where members manage their own listings and events, and hundreds of local businesses searchable by category.
- E-commerce, mobile appWonderland GardensCBD e-commerce on WordPress, designed around the legal limits of the category, with tax, shipping and labels calculated automatically and a mobile app for sales and shipping.
How a project runs
What happens after you get in touch
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01
We talk.
In a 30-minute conversation about the business and what the site has to do, you get our honest view, even if it’s that your current site only needs fixing.
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02
We plan and price it.
You get a written plan with the pages, the platform, what we’ll write, what it connects to, the timeline and a fixed price.
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03
We design and build it.
You see the designs on your phone early, then a working site on a private link, and you sign off before anything goes live.
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04
We launch and stay.
On launch day we put the redirects, tracking and speed checks in place, and after that we host, update and change the site for as long as you want us to.
Answers
- What does it cost?
- It depends on the number of pages, what the site connects to and how much custom design and motion it needs. The first call is free, and afterwards you get a written plan with the price in it, so you know the cost before you agree to anything. That price is fixed for the scope in the plan, and if you ask for something new along the way, we quote it in writing before we do it. If a $40-a-month website builder is all you need, we’ll tell you which one.
- How long does it take?
- It depends on the size of the site and what it connects to, and the written plan puts a date on every stage before you agree to anything.
| Kind of site | What’s included |
|---|---|
| Marketing site | Strategy, the words, design for phone and desktop, a custom WordPress theme, speed and search groundwork, and redirects from your old site |
| Online store | Everything in a marketing site, plus the catalogue, checkout, taxes, shipping and the connections to the systems you already run |
| Portal or web app | Accounts and member areas, custom features and integrations, built on WordPress or from scratch, whichever suits the business |
- Who owns it?
- You do. The domain, the hosting account, the code and the content are in your name from the first day. If you stop working with us, you give us 30 days’ notice and we hand over every login, key and document you need to run the site without us.
- What if something breaks after launch?
- You reach the people who built it, and they fix it.
- Can you work with the site I have?
- Yes. We can fix it, speed it up or extend it, and we’ll tell you plainly if a rebuild would cost you less over time.
Start a conversation
What should your website be doing that it isn’t?
Tell us what you’re working on, whether it’s a new site, a rebuild, a store or a page that has to be live by a date, and we’ll reply with what we’d do first.
A person who builds here reads every message, and we reply within one business day. Or email us through the contact page.