Like a seed to a tree,
watch your site grow organically,
from your original concept to your finished vision.

What is Organic Web Design?

From concept to site: organic web design vs. conventional web design

Organic

Conventional

Start

Start

Start with a concept (yours).
Start with a template (others’).

Goal

Goal

To create a fully custom website that is an organic expression of your brand’s unique identity and value (from concept to site).
To adapt another person’s site—a template—to your needs (from site to concept).

Content

Content

Organically developed from your concept to serve your visitor’s goals.
Artificially developed by replacing dummy content in a template.

Design

Design

Form follows function. Design elements are added organically to develop your concept and increase the clarity of its presentation.
Form follows convention. Cliché design patterns and gratuitous design elements are adapted from a template.

Pricing

Pricing

Hourly fee. Cost is determined organically by the nature of the project and the resulting scope of its parts, tailored to your budget.

Fees

Flat fees. Cost is determined arbitrarily by cookie-cutter “Silver,” “Gold,” and “Platinum” packages. Creates an artificial budget.

Fees

After completion, hourly fees for additional work are added organically, only as needed. Your real expenses are now behind you.
After completion, monthly flat fees for “maintenance” and SEO are charged indefinitely. This is where your real expenses begin and never end.

Who am I?

A Certified Webflow Expert with a big-picture intelligence & background

Look and you’ll find thousands of young web designers and developers fresh out of school, with extremely similar credentials and portfolio sites to compare. What makes me different?

I understand business

Because I’m an entrepreneur who has developed successful businesses of my own—and websites to represent them—over the course of three decades, I can offer you big-picture guidance at every stage of our project. See my sites:

I understand graphic design and video/audio production

Because I’m a multimedia graphic designer with three decades of experience in print, presentation and web, working for major companies throughout New York City, I also offer professional skills in video, audio, photo, illustration, animation, and copywriting to support the content of your website. See:

I understand web design/development and SEO

Because I’m a Certified Webflow Expert with over two decades of experience in web design and development, versed in all of the latest web design trends and standards, and expert in search engine optimization, I can ensure that your website will be state-of-the-art. See:

my services

Digital marketing

Three pillars of digital marketing are essential to achieving your goals. Creating a brand gives form to the unique value that you can offer others. Website design and development creates an online presence that conveys your brand’s value to your target audience and converts them into customers. Optimizing your website for search engine visibility ensures that the value you offer reaches every person who is seeking and could benefit from it. Together we will create a website that both reaches and converts potential clients.

Branding

If you have already established a brand, we can create a website that is fully consistent with it. If you do not already have a brand, I can help you choose a name and URL, design your logo, and establish your brand’s color palette and design conventions.

Web design and development

As a Certified Webflow Expert, I can help you navigate the otherwise daunting subcomponents of the web design and development process, including business strategy, IA (information architecture), copywriting and editing, typography, color theory, graphic design, UX (user experience), animation, usability testing, and hosting.

Search Engine Optimization

For the past two decades I’ve been immersed in SEO, during which time I’ve ranked several sites above-the-fold of page one. For an example, see one of my own sites dominating page one of Google in paid results, organic results, maps, and the Knowledge Panel.

My Methods

Alternatives tailored to your needs and budget

While my unique skill is designing organically from a blank slate, I also offer conventional web design, albeit in state-of-the-art form. During our initial meeting we can determine which approach will work best for you.

Organic Web Design

Together we translate your brand into the ideal form of your website starting from a blank slate. Recommended when you require a unique website that fully reflects your vision and you have a flexible schedule and budget.

NEW (and astonishing!): Custom AI-Assisted Web Design

You describe your brand, the number of pages, and the features you want on your website and AI does the rest, combing the web and generating a sitemap, wireframes of the structure of each page, and preliminary text, which we then fully customize. Recommended when you want to jumpstart the creation of a custom website utilizing industry best practices. Accommodates all budgets while lowering your overall cost significantly.

Modified Template Web Design

We modify the content and design of a beautiful Webflow template or an existing website to reflect your brand. Recommended for clients with limited budgets who nevertheless need a sophisticated Webflow website.

My portfolio

A bandleader’s site

branding
logo
copywriting
IA
UX
design
development
SEO

The concept

To market jazz bands in New York via search engine discovery

The site

  • Ranks top of page one in organic results, paid ads, map listings, knowledge panels, and 3rd-party directories. See proof.
  • Segments customers by submarket on the opening screen for improved conversion rates
  • Makes all essential information instantly accessible on submarket landing pages
  • From Dani Beaumont, Principal Product Manager, Adobe Digital Imaging: “Congratulations on being showcased in this week’s Adobe Muse Site of the Day page—we love your site!”

My portfolio

A book site

branding
logo
graphics
copywriting
IA
UX
design
development
SEO
animation

The concept

To promote a book that presents a challenging new theory of rhythm and drumming technique

The site

  • Makes intelligible a highly abstract theory
  • Persuasively markets a book presenting this theory
  • Integrates custom e-commerce features that enable the purchase of the book and/or PDF chapter downloads
  • Provides useful information and link-bait-worthy free material in a custom-designed blog for improved search engine visibility

My portfolio

A musician’s site

branding
copywriting
IA
design
development

The concept

To showcase a musician’s bands, biography, and credentials to concert promoters and fans

The site

  • Designed for simplicity and clarity
  • Minimalist home page introduces visitors to the subsections
  • Subsections are designed as mini-sites with consistent design and navigation

My portfolio

A child therapist’s site

branding
copywriting
IA
design
development

The concept

The preciousness of children and the need for a child therapist to gain the trust of the child’s parents

The site

  • Creates a brand that conveys innocence by means of color, typeface, and photos
  • Opening photo and text convey the preciousness and vulnerability of children
  • Following photos and text convey the gentleness and expertise of the therapist

My portfolio

A designer’s site

branding
logo
copywriting
IA
UI
design
development
SEO

The concept

To market a designer’s skill in creating and combining multimedia components into web, print and presentation designs

The site

  • Displays an animated logo and navigation that visualizes the integration of multimedia pieces into design wholes
  • Separates distinct skillsets onto dedicated pages with clear, consistent layouts
  • Surfaces information, endorsements, and linked examples “above the fold” on each page for improved SEO

My portfolio

A retirement community site

IA
UI
design
development
SEO

The concept

To provide in-depth information about a retirement community and its location

The site

  • While this site dates from 2012 and so is not representative of a modern design or a responsive site, it is still a good example of organic design
  • The primary challenges concerned information architecture (IA) and user interface design (UI): the need to organize and display a massive amount of information compactly and clearly.
  • A semi-transparent background that scrolls over a stationary background of sand acts as a reminder of the desirable oceanside location of the condominiums

Our Process

Mutual Collaboration

“I’ve had the pleasure of working together with Chuck over the past several years. He designed my most recent website and improved the SEO for my previously existing website. By working with Chuck—and yes, you can actually sit with him and collaborate—you can get material that really speaks to your market and appeals to your eye. This one-on-one collaboration allows you to communicate what is special about your product or venue in a way that you never could with an agency that would surely have a superior know-it-all attitude.”
—Rochelle Levy, Owner, Newbury New England LLC

Beginning our partnership

To plan a website that will be an organic representation of the unique value that your personal and professional brand offers, we will begin with a one-on-one meeting of flexible length so that I can learn all about you and your vision for your site and your future.

Iterative design

I prefer to work with you than for you. Rather than offering you a set number of arbitrary designs to choose from and a set number of revisions arbitrarily tied to specific dates, I prefer to develop your website collaboratively and iteratively together with you. During this process, the shape of your website will take place organically as you teach me about your goals, preferences, and the unique identity of your business, and I teach you about branding, design, copywriting, usability, and search engine optimization.

Your cost

Honest work that you will own

Conventional web design is based on flat fees that create an incentive for the designer to increase profit by reducing work hours; your interests and the designer’s interests are at odds.

Organic web design is based on hourly fees that create an incentive for the designer to work—and bill—no more or less than needed; your interests and the designer’s interests are aligned.

Throughout the process, you will own the design and code and will always have the freedom to switch to a different Webflow designer/developer should you choose to do so.

Straightforward rates and billing

My fee is based on the time I invest in a project. Currently, my rate is $120 per hour for non-rush projects. New projects begin with a deposit; subsequent invoices are sent periodically and are due upon receipt. I consider it an essential part of my job to keep the total hours billed as low as possible for any given project. My goal is that you will receive the greatest possible value at the lowest possible expenditure.

Aligning scope, budget and cost, organically

The cost of a website can vary widely depending on many optional variables, including whether we design from a blank slate or do a make-over of your (or another) site’s existing design, the quantity and quality of your site’s assets (photos, videos, illustrations, copy), whether you provide these assets or we develop them together, and whether your site requires a database, eCommerce features, or animations. Together we will choose the best approach to prioritize the scope of these component parts to best achieve your vision within the budget you define.

Get started by getting in touch

Want to begin? Contact me at chuck@organicweb.design and we can arrange a time to discuss your goals and how to achieve them.

Get In Touch
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