ppp.unc.edu
UNC School of Law
Every elected prosecutor in the country, searchable by zip code
Every elected prosecutor in the country, searchable by zip code, and kept current by the research team from a spreadsheet.
Custom website design, and the redesign when you've outgrown one
Website design and development built around what you actually sell, on a CMS you update yourself, wired into a dashboard that tells you whether any of it is working. New build or a website redesign, depending on what you already have.
Website design and development built around the work you need people to find, on a CMS your team updates yourselves, wired into a dashboard that shows who's actually reading it.
23 years in the industryDurham, NC and remoteYou edit it yourself
Structure firstWireframes, then design
Start dateKnown before you commit
Scope and priceAgreed before anything starts
You editing itFrom launch day
Monthly minimumNone
The plan
How we get you there
Same three stages on every project.
Who this is forOwners and marketing leads who need the site to bring work in, not just exist. Usually replacing something built five or more years ago that nobody left in the building knows how to change.Centers, institutes, grant-funded programs who need their work found, read and cited. Usually a site serving several audiences at once, which has to be easily editable by a team.
Clarify
What you're actually saying, and who you're saying it to.
Beautifyyou're here
Every place you say it: the site, the mark, the print, the email.
Amplify
Systems that carry it to the people who need to hear it: search, email and outreach.
Why people call me
Three things I hear in almost every first call
None of them are about how the site looks.
01
I can't change my own website
A typo takes an email, a week, and an invoice. So the site slowly stops matching the business, and eventually nobody sends anyone to it.
02
It looks fine and nothing comes of it
The design usually isn't the problem. The site never settled what it was saying, or who it was saying it to, so every page hedges and no page asks for anything.
03
I have no idea if it's working
Analytics is installed and nobody opens it. There's no number anyone could point at to say the website earned its cost this year.
Scope
What you actually get
Written out, because most quotes for a website leave this part deliberately vague.
Messaging before pixels
What you say, who you're saying it to, and what each page is for. Settled first, in writing, because everything after it is downstream of this.
Custom design, not a template
Designed around your content and your audience, in your brand. Every page laid out on purpose rather than dropped into a theme and recolored.
A CMS you can actually use
Every headline, paragraph, image and page editable by you, in plain language fields. Plus a walkthrough recording and a written guide you keep.
Built to load fast
Next.js on Vercel, images compressed and sized properly, Core Web Vitals in the green on mobile. Speed is a ranking factor and a bounce factor at the same time.
Accessible by default
Real heading structure, keyboard navigation, color contrast that passes, alt text on every image. Required if you take federal money, and better for everyone regardless.
Built so search engines can read it
Clean URLs, semantic markup, and every redirect mapped from your old site so nothing that already ranks gets dropped. The search work itself, titles and schema and Search Console, is priced separately.
Analytics installed and recording properly
Traffic, inquiries and the sources that produced them, tracked correctly from the first day the site is live. The dashboard that puts all of it on one screen, with anything else in your business that has an API reporting into it, is priced separately.
Forms that reach you
Inquiries delivered to a real inbox with bot protection in front of them, so you're not losing leads to a spam folder or drowning in junk.
Handover that means something
You own the domain, the code, the content and the accounts. If you ever want to work with somebody else, nothing is held hostage.
The hosting underneath it
The boring part, done properly.
Your site runs on Vercel, which is the same infrastructure a lot of software companies use for their own products. You inherit all of it, and most of it you'll never think about again.
Ten second rollback
Two kinds of undo, and only one of them needs me. Words and images you changed, you put back yourself from the page's own version history. A change I shipped, I roll back in about ten seconds.
A preview link for every change
Anything I build gets its own private URL first. You see it, and your committee sees it, before a single visitor does.
The rest is what a host normally bills you for separately: pages served from whichever data center is closest to the reader, an SSL certificate that provisions and renews itself, traffic floods absorbed at the edge, and backups and security patching running underneath. All of it is in the one monthly fee further down this page, so there is no separate hosting invoice to chase and no surprise renewal from a registrar you forgot about.
The part that matters later
The site stays yours
A website that only I can change is a website that goes stale the month I finish it. Yours gets built so the person closest to the work can publish without asking anyone.
The part you'll use most
You'll learn things about your audience that neither of us knows today: which page they read, which phrase makes them call.
The dashboard tells you what to change. The CMS lets you change it that afternoon. Bigger changes, like a new landing page, come back to me.
I train whoever's doing it and leave a recording and a written guide. Most clients publish their own edits within a week of launch.
YOUR EYEBROW
Click this headline and type
No ticket, no developer, no waiting on me. Every headline, paragraph and image on your own site works exactly like this one.
Your link text
Go ahead, edit any of it. This is a demo, so nothing saves.
If it has an API, it can feed the dashboard
Your CRM, email platform, donor database, booking system, invoicing. Anything with an API reports into the same screen, instead of five exports you line up by hand.
A/B testing, once you've got the traffic for it
On a busier site I can run two versions of a page against each other and let your visitors settle it. Different headline, different offer, different layout. You keep whichever moves the number you care about.
Process
How a build actually goes
Structure before styling, and your sign-off at every step. You're never left wondering what I've been doing, and you're never surprised at the end.
01
We talk
Twenty-five minutes. What you sell, who buys it, what's in your way, and when I could realistically start. I'll tell you if I'm booked out.
02
Messaging and plan
What you say, who you're saying it to, and what each page is for. A page-by-page plan you approve before anything is drawn.
03
Wireframes
Every page laid out in gray. No color, no typefaces, nothing to be distracted by. You argue with the structure while it still costs nothing to change.
04
Design
Only once the wireframes are signed off. By this point we already agree what every page is doing, so the conversation is about how it looks, not what it says.
05
Build and content
The pages, the CMS behind them, and your content moved across. You review in a live staging link, not a PDF.
06
Redirects, training, live
Every old URL that earns traffic mapped to its new home. You get trained on the CMS. Then it goes live and the dashboard starts collecting.
Proof
Websites I've built
cancerimpsci.org
Consortium for Cancer Implementation Science
Fifty-three research tools, found in one search
Fifty-three cancer research tools, searchable as you type and kept current by the consortium itself.
gillings-projects.unc.edu
UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health
A print magazine that reads just as well on a phone
Two issues a year for five years, designed for print and built for the web in the same pass, with an archive of 242 articles behind them.
definian.com
Definian
Forty years of data work, told in about two minutes
Forty years of enterprise data work, told in about two minutes, across 325 pages.
environsupply.com
Environmental Supply Company
380 products, found by the regulation you have to meet
A 380-product catalog a source-testing engineer can search by the EPA method they have been handed.
cliffcottage.com
Cliff Cottage Inn
The booking happens here, not on Expedia
A seven-suite inn in Eureka Springs, built to win the direct booking back from the travel platforms it is listed on.
Investment
How pricing works
Phased, fixed per phase, and you see the number before the phase starts. Stop after any phase and you keep everything built up to that point.
ClarifyPhase 01
Messaging and plan
What you say, who to, and the page-by-page plan. The document is yours either way.
Fixed price Agreed before anything starts
BeautifyPhase 02
Design and build
Design, build, CMS, content, redirects and training, quoted against that plan.
One number Quoted against the plan from phase one
AmplifyPhase 03
Keep it moving
New pages, a campaign, a conference push. Call twice a year or most months.
Hourly or per project No commitment either way
After it ships
Two things that are true of every site I build, and neither of them is an upsell.
One small monthly fee, and no work quota
Hosting, backups, security patching, CMS upgrades, support when you need it, and running your dashboard if you have one. One fee, all of it, for as long as you want me running it. Not a block of hours you have to go find work for.
No monthly work minimumFree fixes forever
If I built it and it breaks, I fix it.
No time limit and no fine print. Four years from now, if a form I built stops sending or a page I made starts throwing an error, you send me a note and I fix it. It is not a support plan you have to buy and it is not a bucket of hours you have to spend. It is just what I think building something for somebody means.
Grant-funded work. I quote against your budget lines and invoice per deliverable. I've been through enough university purchase orders and RFPs to know what the paperwork wants before it asks.
Durham, NC
Working with a web designer who's actually around
I've been designing and building websites from my home in the Triangle since 2003, which is long enough to have watched most of downtown get rebuilt and a fair number of the businesses in it change hands. I work with people in Durham, Chapel Hill and across the Triangle, and I'm happy to sit in your office if that's how you'd rather do it.
A lot of my work is with UNC, so if you're at Gillings or one of the institutes, I already know what your procurement process wants and roughly how long it takes.
Most projects run remotely, and always have. Being local is a convenience more than a reason to hire me. If you're three time zones away and the fit is right, the process works exactly the same.
Based inDurham, NC
In the industry since2003
Meet in personAcross the Triangle
Remote clientsAlways have been
Who you work withMe, start to finish
Questions
What people ask before they hire me
How much does a custom website cost in Durham, NC?
A marketing site runs $10,000 to $30,000, a catalog or store $25,000 to $60,000, and a web app $30,000 to $90,000. Those ranges are on the how it works page, and a website pricing calculator prices yours line by line. Past that, every quote is specific: planning is priced on its own and costs a fraction of the build, and you see the exact number for each phase before it starts. Get on a call and you'll have a real number.
How long does a new website take?
A typical marketing site runs eight to fourteen weeks from kickoff to launch. Scope and where you land in my schedule move that, and the cost calculator shows a timeline for each kind and size of site. What usually stretches a timeline is content and approvals on your side, and I'll say so at the start, not at the end.
Will I be able to update the website myself?
Yes. Every headline, paragraph, image and page is editable by you through a CMS, in plain language fields, no code. You get a recorded walkthrough and a written guide. Most clients are publishing their own changes within a week of launch.
What do you build websites with?
Next.js for the site and a headless CMS for the content, hosted on Vercel. That combination gives you a site that loads fast, ranks well and stays editable without touching code. If your team already knows a platform and would rather stay on it, tell me early and I'll build to that instead.
Can you redesign my site without losing my Google rankings?
Yes, and it's the part most redesigns get wrong. Before anything changes I pull your Search Console data, find which URLs actually earn impressions, and map every one to its new address with a 301 redirect. Pages carrying real ranking equity keep their URL. Nothing that ranks gets deleted.
Do you work with clients outside Durham?
Most of my work is remote and always has been. I'm in Durham and glad to meet anywhere in the Triangle, and there are clients I've worked with for years without ever being in a room together. The process runs either way, so location isn't what decides whether this is a fit.
Do you use AI to build the websites?
Where it earns its place: drafting, iterating on directions, research, and the repetitive middle of a build. Not for your voice, your positioning, or anything a customer will read as a promise. 23 years of doing this without it is exactly what tells me where that line sits.
Can the dashboard connect to our other systems?
If it has an API, yes. Your CRM, email platform, booking system, invoicing, inventory, donor database, whatever you already run. They report into the same screen, so you stop keeping five logins and a stack of exports lined up by hand. Tell me what you use on the first call and I'll tell you what connects cleanly and what takes more work.
Can you A/B test different versions of a page?
On a site with enough traffic for the math to hold up, yes. Two versions of a page run against each other and your visitors settle it: different headline, different offer, different layout. You keep whichever moves the number you care about. On a lower-traffic site a test takes too long to conclude, and I'll say so before selling you one.
What happens after launch?
Hosting, backups, security patching, CMS support and your dashboard are covered by one small recurring fee. Past that there's no retainer and no monthly hour quota you have to find work for. Some clients call twice a year, some call most months, and both are fine.
The rest of the system
A website on its own is one piece
It works better when the things pointing at it were built by the same person.
Strategic messagingWhat you say and who you say it to. This one comes first whether you buy it separately or not.Read more Logo and brandingThe identity the site is built in. Cheaper to do alongside the website than to retrofit afterwards.Read more SEO and AEOBeing found by search engines, and quoted by the AI answers that increasingly sit above them.Read more Email and outreachWhat happens after somebody lands on the site and isn't ready to call you yet.Read more
Adrial is my go-to designer for anything my business needs … which is why I have used him for three different companies over the last 20+ years.
Craig WoodCEO, Definian
Start with a conversation, not a contract
Twenty-five minutes. Tell me what you sell and what's in your way, and I'll tell you what I'd build and roughly what it costs. If I'm not the right call, I'll say so and point you somewhere better.