Websites that earn the homepage slot.
Most sites read like a brochure. We build the ones that carry weight — engineered marketing sites, design systems, and web apps for founders and operators who can't afford a mediocre first impression.
The bar every page must clear before we ship — and this site is the proof. Open Lighthouse on the page you're reading and check our math.
- Est. 2017 · Bothell, WA
- Lighthouse 100 · The shipping bar
- You own the repo · From day one
- Weekly demos · Every Friday
- A founder on every engagement
- Senior engineers · On every project
- Replies within one business day
- 1 production SaaS · Built & operated
Five disciplines, one team, one contract.
We don't hand you off. The same crew owns brand through deploy — the IA informs the design, the design informs the build, the build informs the performance. It's a feature, not an accident.
Brand
Naming, identity, voice. A recognizable mark and a system that scales.
- Identity audits + positioning workshops
- Logo, wordmark and symbol design
- Brand voice guidelines with copy examples
- Motion identity + social systems
Information architecture
Sitemaps, content models, user flows — before a pixel moves.
- Stakeholder + sales-team interviews
- Sitemap, taxonomy, and URL strategy
- Conversion path mapping + instrumentation plan
- CMS content modeling in Sanity/Contentful/Payload
Design
Art-directed page design with a real component system — not templates.
- Concept exploration across three directions
- Art direction, photography, illustration
- Figma design system with tokens + variants
- Accessibility review (WCAG 2.2 AA) baked in
Engineering
Next.js + TypeScript, built by senior engineers — not outsourced.
- Next.js App Router · TypeScript · Tailwind
- Headless CMS wiring (Sanity · Contentful · Payload)
- Bespoke interactions with GSAP / Framer Motion
- Deployed on Vercel · CI/CD · preview environments
Performance
Core Web Vitals in the green. Every build. We write it into the SOW.
- Lighthouse 100 — our shipping bar on every build
- Core Web Vitals budgets set per page
- Image pipeline, font strategy, and edge caching
- Real-user monitoring with weekly reports
Type your brand. Watch a system assemble.
A toy we built to show the idea. The real thing is a hundred decisions deeper — but the point is the same: every visual choice should answer to the brand, not the other way around.
A real engagement generates hundreds of design tokens, three concept directions, and a living Figma system — this is a preview of what the first 15 minutes feels like.
The new alder.
A brand is the sum of a thousand small decisions. Start with the right ones.
Palette · editorial
Typography
Mark
Drag the handle. See the difference.
Three studio concepts — fictional brands, real craft. Each pair shows a typical inherited site rebuilt to the standard we ship. Drag the slider and compare, warts and all.
- Home
- About Us
- Our Services
- Our Team
- Resources
- Contact Us
- Get Started »
- Firm
- Strategies
- Insights
- Team
Capital, composed.
A systematic fund manager built for the next cycle — where portfolio construction meets disciplined risk, and patience is still a virtue.
What's live, and what's a concept.
We label our work honestly. LIVE means we built it and operate it in production today. CONCEPT means a capability study — real craft on a fictional brand. No invented clients, no invented numbers.
Our own product — an AI website builder with auth, Stripe billing, Prisma/Postgres, S3 media, transactional email, community, and SEO reporting. Built and operated by this team.
The site you're reading. Designed and engineered in-house to the same bar we sell — open Lighthouse on this page and check our math.
The finance, D2C, and law-firm mockups on this page are studio concepts — fictional brands, real craft, engineered to the same bar as everything we ship.
Four phases. Ten weeks on average. Zero theatrics.
A rhythm we've refined since 2017. Every phase ends with a named deliverable and a go/no-go. You always know what's next and why it matters.
Diagnose
Before we touch a pixel, we learn your business cold. Stakeholder interviews, sales-call listening, competitive teardowns, and a site audit — so the creative work actually answers a problem.
Direct
Three art-direction routes, not template shopping. We pressure-test voice, typography, and imagery against the real sales motion before committing. Your team picks one. We refine.
Design & build
Design and engineering run in parallel — no lobbing files over a wall. Weekly Loom walkthroughs. Preview URLs on every commit. A living Figma system mirrored in production tokens.
Deploy
Launch is the first week, not the last. We stage, smoke-test, migrate, and measure. Then we hand off with a runbook — and if you keep us on retainer, we keep making it better.
We don't disappear after go-live.
Most agencies ship and vanish. We built three simple retainers so you can keep us around at the level that matches your team — from a light monthly cadence to embedded leadership.
Launch, runbook, training — and we're off. Great if your team can own it from here.
- Production launch + DNS
- CMS training sessions
- Runbook + Loom library
- 30-day bugfix warranty
Ongoing partnership for teams that want us in the room as they grow.
- Monthly page/feature drops
- Performance + CWV monitoring
- Quarterly design reviews
- Priority Slack channel
- SLA: 1-business-day response
We plug into your team as fractional design + engineering leadership.
- Dedicated senior designer + engineer
- Weekly planning + demo
- Roadmap co-ownership
- Hiring + interview support
- Full Figma + repo access
The things every founder asks on the first call.
If your question isn't here, ask it in the brief — we answer everything, including pricing, on our intro call. No gatekeeping.
What does a typical engagement cost?
Custom websites start in the low five figures for a focused marketing site and scale from there based on scope, CMS complexity, and custom engineering needs. We share exact numbers on our first call after we understand what you actually need — no mystery meat.
How long does it take to ship?
Ten weeks is our average, door-to-door. Focused marketing sites can land in six; deeper engagements with custom tooling, migrations, or multi-language support run twelve to sixteen. Every project gets a named end date before we start.
Do you work with our in-house team or do you own it all?
Both. Some clients hand us the keys; others pair us with their designer/engineer. We've done fully embedded work, co-design, and full handoff. What doesn't change: senior people on your account, not a pyramid.
Which CMS do you recommend?
For editorial-heavy sites we lean Sanity. For teams that want tight dev control we lean Payload. For enterprise we'll work in Contentful. We've built with all three — the right one depends on your content model and who owns it day-to-day.
Can you work with our existing brand?
Of course. Some engagements are design-only — extending an existing brand onto the web with proper art direction, type systems, and performance engineering. We can also do a brand refresh alongside the build if the current system is showing its age.
What if a build doesn't hit your performance bar?
Then it isn't done. Lighthouse 100 is our shipping bar and it's written into every contract — a page that doesn't clear it doesn't ship. The accountability lives in the contract, not the pitch deck.
Do you do ecommerce?
Yes — we build premium D2C on Shopify Hydrogen (headless) and custom checkout flows where needed, with the same performance bar as everything else we ship.
What happens if our needs change mid-project?
We plan for it. Every engagement has a named scope but a change-request process baked in. Small additions happen inside the existing SOW; larger pivots get a simple amendment. No surprise invoices.
Tell us what you're building.
Six quick steps, two minutes. A senior team member reads every brief — not a form auto-router — and replies within one business day.
Tell us about your company.
The basics — so we walk into the call already halfway up to speed.