Notes on shipping, pricing, and the craft.
Short essays. Posted when there’s something worth saying — not to a schedule. No pop-ups, no newsletter trap, no “subscribe to read more”.
Why a 7-day build beats a 12-week project — every time.
Constraint is the secret weapon of good work. Here’s what happens when you compress a project timeline by 90% — and why the output usually gets better, not worse.
Flat fees vs retainers — what they actually cost you.
Retainers look cheap until you tot up the year. Flat fees look expensive until you realise what you’re buying. A plain-English breakdown of both models.
What “properly built” actually means in 2026.
It’s not about the framework. It’s about ownership, speed, accessibility, and whether the thing you bought still works two years from now.
How much does a website cost in the UK? A 2026 price guide.
Real numbers — from £0 DIY to £50,000 agency. What each tier actually buys you, where the padding sits, and how to budget without getting quietly stitched up.
What is a bespoke website? A plain-English definition.
The word gets thrown at a lot of sites that aren’t. What bespoke actually means in 2026, what you get, what you give up, and when it’s worth it over a template.
Squarespace vs Wix vs bespoke — when each one wins.
The binary pitch is wrong. All three are legitimate products solving slightly different problems. Honest UK 2026 prices, Lighthouse numbers, and who each one is right for.
How to brief a web designer — the one-page brief.
A good brief is one page, not twenty. The six questions every brief should answer, an anonymised example, and the mistakes that waste two weeks of your project.
Landing page design that actually converts.
The seven elements every good landing page shares, two real UK before-and-after case studies with honest numbers, and the common mistakes that kill conversion.
Why I build small-business sites in Next.js.
A plain-English explanation for non-developers. What Next.js is, why I pick it over WordPress or Squarespace, and the honest trade-offs.
Short essays, posted when there’s something worth saying. No newsletter pop-ups.