How your website's look is chosen
When I build your first website I choose two things for you — the shape of the page, and the colors and typefaces on it — so you get something finished and on-brand without a pile of design decisions before you have a customer.
The shape of your home page
Your site isn't poured into one standard template. I work from a small library of genuinely different page shapes and pick the one that suits what you actually do:
- One built around your own story and portrait, for a business people buy because of the person behind it.
- One that opens straight into your services, for a trade where people already know what they need.
- One carried by photographs, for work that sells on how it looks.
- One that leads with credentials and proof, for the kind of work someone won't hire you for until they trust you.
- One built around a single "book now" or "order now", for a business where there's really only one thing to do.
So a photographer's site opens with the work, a dentist's leads with credentials, a takeaway's with the order button. Two businesses starting the same day get genuinely different sites, not the same page in different paint.
Your colors and typefaces
I pick those the same way, from what you've told me about your business — what you sell, who buys it, what makes you different. A trades business gets something earthy; a wellness practice something calm; an accountant something composed and credible; a bakery something warm.
They come as a coordinated set, so headings, body text, buttons and backgrounds all work together and every combination stays readable. If your site has a hero photo I tune the accent color toward it, so the page reads as one piece rather than a photo dropped onto an unrelated palette.
Your photos are chosen to fit their spot
Each layout wants a particular picture in a particular place — a tall portrait beside your headline, a headshot next to your bio, every gallery tile the same shape. I only place a photo where it fits without cutting the important part out of it. If nothing suitable turns up I leave that spot photo-free and design it to look right that way: an intentional gap beats a hero with someone's head cut off. Send me your own photos any time — they beat stock every time.
Filling in your business profile makes both choices better
Both picks are only as good as what I know about you. With very little to go on I still choose a complete, distinctive look — just without that context. Filling in more of your Business Identity before your first build is the best thing you can do to get a fit you like first try.
It stays put — until you change it on purpose
Your site's shape and its colors are both decided once, on your first build, and then they stay put. Every later change — a new section, a blog post, a copy tweak — keeps them, so your blog can't quietly ship in a different palette, and your home page can't quietly reorder itself, between one change and the next. You can change either one on purpose, any time — see the next section.
If you don't like it
Both the colors and the shape: just ask me. Tell me you want a new look and I'll offer a short list of curated color themes and homepage layouts that fit your business — pick one, confirm, and I rebuild your homepage to match, in the same step. See "Changing your site's look".
Colors and typefaces: you can also just tell me. Say what feels wrong — "too playful for what we do", "I want something warmer" — and I'll change it, no hex code or font name needed, through the same build-and-publish path as any other change. If you already have brand colors, tell me once your site is up and I'll match them.
I can rebuild the page itself on its current shape, too. If the homepage just isn't right but the shape and colors are fine, ask me to rebuild it and I'll redo the whole page from the ground up instead of nudging one section. See "Rebuilding your website". Short of that I can rewrite any section, swap the photos, add a section or a page, change what your buttons say, and take things down.
What I won't do
I won't make your site look like ZenBusiness, and I won't give two businesses the same site on purpose — not the same colors, and not the same page shape either. Your site should look like your business, not like the platform that built it.