Strategy & positioning
Brand identity
Words
Websites
We help growing businesses get clear on what they sell, who it's for and why anyone should pick them. Then we make the brand, the website and the words that prove it.
Usually the website is where the problem shows, not where it starts. The offer is fuzzy. It's pitched at anyone who might buy, which in practice means no one in particular. It says what the business does and never quite says why you'd pick it over the firm down the road. A new site on top of that is a better-looking version of the same problem.
So we start further back: what you sell, who it's really for, and why you're worth choosing. We write that down in one document and agree it with you. After that, most of the design decisions make themselves, and you've got something to judge the work against that isn't anyone's taste.
Strategy is the work. Design is the proof.
Three things we hold to
Before anything is designed, we find out what's holding the business back, who you're trying to reach, and what a good result looks like in enquiries and pounds.
If you come asking for a rebrand and the real problem is a muddled website, we'll say so and quote for that. Smaller job, honest answer.
Calls, enquiries, sales. We agree up front what we're trying to move, so we can both see whether the work did its job.
Sometimes that's all of it. Sometimes it's three pages rewritten and a better proposal template. You'll know which before we quote.
Where you sit in the market, who you're for and what you say about it. Written down in one document you can hand to anyone, from a new starter to your printer.
Conversations with you and your customers · Positioning document · Key messages · What to fix firstLogo, type, colour and voice, built on the positioning so every choice has a reason behind it. A system you can run yourselves, without ringing us every time you need a poster.
Identity system · Guidelines · TemplatesWebsite copy, sales pages, proposals, and a better answer to "so what do you do?". Written to sound like you on a good day.
Copy · Tone of voice · MessagingPlanned around the strategy, designed and built properly, and judged on the enquiries it brings in. More on web design in Lancashire.
Site plan · Design & build · SEO foundations · Enquiry trackingSales decks, signage, social templates, the brochure someone keeps asking for. Whatever the strategy says needs making, made to the same standard.
Launch assets · Print · Creative directionHere they are on a website, because a website is the easiest thing to show. The order doesn't change for a brand or a set of sales pages.
Conversations with you, your customers and your numbers. We write the brief, so you don't have to.
One document: where you sit, who you serve, what you say. Everything after it hangs from it.
Brand, words, website, launch assets. Made by the same people who wrote the strategy.
A system you can run yourselves. We stay close, but we don't stay forever.
Calder sits between a freelancer and a full agency. Founders come to us when they want someone to own the strategy, without the onboarding theatre.
We're a good fit if your business is good at what it does and finds it hard to say why. We're not a good fit if you need a logo by Friday, or you already know exactly what you want and just need someone to make it. Plenty of good people do that, and we're happy to point you to one.
Tell us in a sentence or two and we'll come back with what we'd look at first. If it turns out you don't need us, we'll say that too.
Or email hello@calderstudio.co.uk.
Just want a second opinion on your website? Get a free review.
We usually reply within a day or two. If it's urgent, email hello@calderstudio.co.uk.