Every project begins with a blank file.
We do not carry components forward from one client to the next. We do not maintain a template library that gets reskinned. What we carry forward is judgment.
The things we actively refuse.
The easiest way to build a web design studio in 2026 is to build six or eight template skeletons — one for each industry — and reskin them per client. Change the colors. Swap the hero photo. Replace the copy. Charge $3,000 for four hours of work.
We don't do that. We don't do it for three reasons, in order of importance:
We don't use templates.
Every site starts from an empty project. The Google Business Profile for a solo lawyer, the new-patient intake funnel for a dental practice, and the portfolio architecture for a custom woodworker are not the same problem. Templates pretend they are.
We don't maintain a cross-client component library.
Components within a single site are obviously reused — a button is a button. What we don't do is carry a “dental hero section” or a “legal services grid” from last month’s project into next month’s. Every structural decision is made for the specific practice.
We don't start from another client's site.
Looking at a previous client's work for inspiration is fair. Opening a previous client's project file and saving a copy is not.
Five business days from everything being in to the finished site.
Five business days from purchase to the finished result when the details we need from you arrive within the 72-business-hour window (three business days); otherwise providing them is your responsibility, and ours is delivery within five business days of everything we need being in, in full - with a daily reminder throughout that window.
Intake — the 72-business-hour window (three business days).
A thirty-minute call is there if you want one. The one thing we need from you is each page's words, which you add in your client portal (below); we remind you daily within the 72-business-hour window (three business days) until they are in.
Intake is asynchronous. In your client portal you give us the words for each page of your site — we lay them out; we do not put words in your mouth — and the build starts once every page has its copy and a person at the studio has approved your details.
The five business days.
Day 1 — Structure and direction.
We make the real decisions: information architecture, which pages, which voice, which imagery direction, which standard patterns we're deliberately ignoring.
Day 2 — First-pass build.
By the end of day two, there is a working draft of every page. Not final, but working — every section has real copy, real structure, and real layout.
Day 3 — Refinement.
We tighten copy, swap imagery, refine typography, check mobile behavior on every page.
Day 4 — Revisions.
We check the site against the words you gave us. Once you see the preview, Request changes in your portal sends us anything you want changed, and we fix it before you approve; nothing more is charged.
Day 5 — Ship.
The finished site goes up on a private preview address, hidden from search engines, and you are told it is ready. When you approve it in your client portal and pay the other half, it moves to your own domain — we send you the DNS record to add, or add it ourselves when your domain is managed in our account — and the monthly retainer starts the day that payment clears.
Five business days is not a corner-cutting promise. It's what becomes possible when you stop treating production speed and quality as a tradeoff.
The parts that can't be accelerated — the structural decisions, the voice calibration, the revision judgment — get more of our attention, not less. The clock starts once we have everything we need, so those parts get the time they need.
The month and year that follow.
Every Friday after launch we check that your site is up, that its certificate is valid, and how fast it loads.
Small edits — new staff bios, updated photos, a changed service list — are handled within forty-eight hours of request. Larger changes — a new service page, a significant structural change — are scoped and billed separately.
Code and design are licensed; the domain, Google Business Profile, analytics, content, reviews and lead data are the client's and always were; buyout at total estimated contract value; at term end the site and code are theirs, or month-to-month with no contract, or twelve months for the price of ten. The contract value is two build fees plus twelve months of retainer (ten months with the annual prepay, which covers all twelve). The term is one twelve-month period starting the first full month of retainer after delivery; before it completes, the buyout is one build fee plus the retainer for each month not yet covered, and when it completes the code and deliverables are the client's, free, with the retainer optional for upkeep (month-to-month, or twelve months for the price of ten). Lead data means the leads captured during the engagement. If the client stops paying the retainer and has not bought out ownership, the product is taken down.