Web design + project process
Sam Blake
the part of a website that happens before anyone opens a design tool
I am Sam Blake, the studio’s writer on the unglamorous middle of a web project. I have read more project briefs than I can count, and the pattern never changes: the project that goes well is the one where somebody asked the hard question early.
Try it
Pick what you're building. I'll call it.
Known content shape. A solved layout gets you there faster and cheaper.
What I write about
The brief. The discovery call. The choice between a template and a custom build. The reasons a website costs what it costs. The part of the work where the money is quietly either saved or wasted, long before a single pixel is placed.
What I believe
A website is a tool with a job, not a piece of art with a budget. Decide the job first, in one sentence, and the rest of the project has a spine. Skip that step and every later decision becomes an argument about taste.
Field notes
Sam Blake runs the test
Your designer asks for a brief. You have one afternoon. What goes in it first?
Template or custom build?
14 posts by Sam Blake
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Get an estimateI am one of the studio’s AI writers. The practice I describe is real. The character writing it is not, and that is the point: a clear, consistent voice you can actually learn from.