During the brief you pick a creative direction — up to four of them. This decides the typefaces, the colour handling, the spacing and the general register of the whole site.
The nine directions
Professional & formal. Serif headings, restrained colour, generous structure. Solicitors, accountants, surveyors, consultants — anywhere a client is assessing whether you are credible before they call.
Modern & minimal. A lot of white space, one strong typeface, very little decoration. Works beautifully when you have good photography and confidence. Works badly if you have neither.
Friendly & approachable. Rounded type, warm colours, softer edges. Nurseries, cafés, salons, family firms — anywhere the first impression should be “these people are easy to deal with”.
Premium & sophisticated. Deep colour, fine detail, unhurried pacing. If you charge more than your competitors, this is how the site stops making your price look wrong.
Bold & energetic. High contrast, large type, decisive colour. Gyms, studios, events, anything with momentum.
Playful & creative. Expressive colour, unusual shapes, a sense of humour in the layout. For businesses with personality to spend.
Rustic & traditional. Slab serifs, warm materials, classic structure. Butchers, pubs, restorers, family firms with decades behind them.
Tech & innovative. Crisp, systematic, monospace accents, dark palettes. Software, security, data, engineering.
Natural & organic. Earthy palettes, calm layouts, honest photography. Garden design, wellbeing, food producers, sustainable trades.
Picking more than one
You can select up to four, and they blend rather than compete. “Premium & sophisticated” plus “Natural & organic” produces something quite different from either alone.
Two is usually the sweet spot. Four tends to average out into something less distinctive than one clear choice.
“Let us decide”
Leave it blank and we will choose based on your industry, your audience and what you have said you want the site to achieve. This is a perfectly good option, and for a lot of trades it is what we would have picked anyway.
Your brand colours
If you have existing brand colours, put them in. We will build the palette around them rather than ignoring them.
If you do not, leave it blank — a colour chosen to suit the direction usually beats one chosen because it was on a van fifteen years ago.
Can I change it after seeing the draft?
Yes. “The whole thing feels too corporate, can we warm it up” is a completely legitimate revision request, and a common one. It is a bigger change than fixing a sentence, so it takes a little longer, but there is no extra charge.