Our Design Philosophy

Nothing about our design matters more than the outcomes. If it’s beautiful and functional and fails to do its job, we have failed to do our jobs. Sometimes its job is abstract, perhaps too abstract to measure. We accept and embrace this ambiguity, but attempt to honor this principle regardless.

We never betray the functional spec in order to improve the aesthetics of a site, but we also never give up on aesthetics because the spec is satisfied. We value beauty, in the abstract, because beautiful things just tend to work better. Many studios can create gorgeous, cinematic sites that are a pain to use, and the message is lost. We will never fall into that mistake.

There is no such thing as “good design.“ Even something ugly can be right in some circumstances. We believe the level of quality of a given site design comes from the nature of the brand we are presenting. A beautiful site that does not match its brand is doomed to fail.

We don’t use two lines when one would work just as well. We don’t use three fonts when we could get away with two. Simplicity makes websites more approachable, faster to build, and easier to maintain. It makes a huge difference for our clients.

Digital Hospitality means creating opportunities for anyone to use and enjoy our work. We focus on creating gorgeous design that is also accessible to people with visual or physical impairments. This also leads us to try and keep things simple.

We don’t build a “site“ per se, we build a system. We then use the system to construct a site. But consequently, our sites are easy to change and grow over time. Our development approach emphasizes modularity of code, and our design work should anticipate this and tailor our sites to this style of implementation.

We don’t believe in design dogma (wait, is that a dogma?). Early in our career we used to fight with clients over the “right“ way to do things. Over time we have learned that not only is that incredibly hard to pin down, but ultimately, it’s their website. We take unique amounts of responsibility and ownership, but it’s their job on the line if it doesn’t work out, not ours. We let them make mistakes if they want. We tell them it‘s a mistake and move on.

We believe in the little things. Our obsessive eyes for detail are famous among our clients. One pixel matters. One shade of a color matters. We try our hardest to get it all right.

You can’t do great design work if your life is not in balance. Design work is uniquely susceptible to emotional ups and downs. Managers must be cognizant of the emotional tone of design work and should seek to create the optimal environment for designers to do their best. Designers must be conscious of their mental and emotional states and take due care to keep their work sharp.