The design in front of the code
Web Design
Web design is everything a visitor sees and feels on your website: the layout, the color, the type, and the path that turns a stranger into a customer. I'm Chad, and I've been designing websites for 20 years. Bring me a brand and I'll design a site that earns trust on sight, or bring me the business alone and we'll find the look together. Once the design is settled, I develop it into a fast, working site myself, so nothing gets lost in a handoff.
Web design, at a glance
People size up a website in about a twentieth of a second, and what they're really sizing up is your business. Design decides what that first instant says.
Nothing here starts from a theme. Every site is designed around your business, so it can never look like the competitor who bought the same template.
The person who designs your site is the same person who builds it, so nothing gets lost between a designer's mockup and a developer's compromise.
I've been designing websites for 20 years, long enough to know which trends will still look right in five, and which ones are already aging.
Why web design actually matters
You're judged before you're read.
Visitors decide how much to trust your business before they read a single word, and the design is what they're deciding on. Drag the line across the browser below and watch the same business make two completely different first impressions.
Trust comes first. A visitor can't inspect your work from a search result, so the website stands in for it. A considered design reads as a business that sweats the details. A stale template reads as a business that doesn't, even when the work behind it is excellent.
Direction is the quiet job. Good design decides where the eye goes, what feels clickable, and which action the whole page leans toward. A site can be beautiful and still point nowhere, which is why I design the path to contact before I pick a single color.
Memory is the long game. You are almost never the only tab open. Template sites blur into each other the moment the visitor moves on, while a site designed around your business is the one they can still picture the next day.
And design never works alone. The code underneath has to keep those pages fast and findable, which is why I handle the development side too instead of handing the design off and hoping.
Try it yourself
Same business, two first impressions
Grab the divider and drag. Everything that changes is design.
The web design process
Step 1
I start with your business, not a moodboard
Before anything visual, I learn what the site has to win: who it speaks to, what they need to feel, and the action that pays you. Every design choice afterward has a job to do.
Step 2
Structure first, decoration second
The layout and hierarchy get designed before the styling: where the eye lands, what feels clickable, where a page sends the reader next. Weak structure is the one thing no amount of color can ever rescue.
Step 3
A design system, not a lucky page
Colors, type, and spacing get locked as one system, so every page matches and the pages you add next year still look like they belong. One good-looking homepage is easy. A site that holds together is design.
Step 4
Designed to be built
I develop what I design, so nothing dies in translation. Every idea in the mockup ships as fast, working code, instead of getting quietly simplified by whoever builds it.
Choose how it's built
Website design is the visual aspect of a website. This includes the UI (user interface), which includes colors, fonts, images and other media. It also covers UX (user experience), which is the way a visitor explores the website; the path they take, the links they click and where those links go, the forms they fill out and the buttons they push. UI and UX work together to make it easy for your visitors to find what they're looking for. The design is the aesthetic of that interface and experience. Without design, you'd be looking at indecipherable lines of code and spreadsheet-like data, and would not be able to find what you need. A design needs a build to live on. Same four routes as the development side. If you're not sure which fits, that's part of the conversation.
Proof, not promises
Whole pages designed for a single trade, like septic services and foundation repair, each with a look pulled from that industry's world instead of a generic business template.
Walk through the live builds in the immersive portfolio and judge the design work with your own eyes.
Click into the work
Four live builds, four different personalities, none of them started from a theme. Click anywhere on a shot to send a ripple through it.
What clients say
Chad went above and beyond and exceeded our expectations with the final product.
Mary Lynn Renner, AAC Event Catering (Lansdale, PA)
Chad is very professional, talented and skilled. He does not try to sell you on products or services that you don't need.
Kimberly Dolan, K.I.M. Keep It Moving (Philadelphia)
Who makes it
Hi, I'm Chad.
I've been designing websites for 20 years, since the Xanga and MySpace days, and every site that leaves here is custom built by me.
- I design it. (No template.)
- I code it. (No page builder.)
- I maintain it. (No ghosting.)
- No subcontractors.
- No offshore.
- No AI slop.
- No warehouse agency you'll never hear from after the invoice clears.
When you email, I answer. When something breaks at 11pm, I'm the one fixing it.
Chad Lewine
What it costs, plainly
Design is priced on what it's worth to your business, not on how fast a font can be picked. Projects start at a $3,200 floor, most land near $6,200 with the development included, and hourly work bills at $315. There are cheaper designers, plenty of them. The difference is that you're not buying a template with your logo dropped in. You're buying a design that belongs to your business alone, built by the same person who codes it.
Straight up: if the lowest number is the goal, we probably aren't a match, and I'd rather say so here than after you've spent the money. Real numbers come from a real conversation about scope, not a pricing table.
Get a straight answerIs this the right fit?
This is for you if
- You want a site that looks like your business, no one else's.
- You see design as the thing that wins customers, not a coat of paint at the end.
Probably not if
- You already bought a theme and want it filled in as-is.
- The lowest bid matters more than what the site wins you.
Web Design FAQs
The questions buyers actually ask about web design, answered the way I'd answer them on a call. If yours isn't here, ask me directly.
No. Every design is custom built around your business, which is the point of hiring a designer instead of buying a theme. The only time a theme enters the picture is when you deliberately choose the WordPress route for managing your own content, and even then I design on top of it until it doesn't read as one.
Design is what you see and feel. Development is the code that makes it real and keeps it fast. They're two halves of the same job, and I do both, so start on whichever word matches how you think about it. The result is the same site either way.
Sometimes, and I'll tell you honestly which case you are. If the bones are healthy, a redesign can ride on them. If the site is held together by page-builder duct tape, redesigning on top of it just paints over the problem, and you'd be paying twice. I look first, then recommend.
All of it, with guardrails. You see a real direction early and we steer it together, and you always hold the veto. The flip side is that if something you ask for would hurt the site, in usability or in search, I'll say something. That honesty is part of what you're paying for.
Less than you'd think. A sense of what the site has to accomplish, plus any photos and words you already have. Real photos of your work beat stock photography every time. Logo, colors, and the rest can be designed along the way if you don't have them yet.
Absolute transparency
- 01
The design files and the finished site are yours outright, down to the working files.
- 02
Every build includes two weeks of free fixes after launch.
- 03
A straight answer on fit before anyone spends a dollar.
- 04
No lock-in. Everything lives in your name, yours to take anywhere you go.
What happens after you reach out
- 1
You reach out
Tell me about your business through the contact form or a quick email. I usually reply within a day.
- 2
A straight answer
I'll tell you straight whether chadworks is the right fit, with a rough shape and cost, no pressure.
- 3
A scoped plan
If it's a fit, you get a clear written scope and timeline before any work or payment starts.
- 4
Direction, early
You see an actual design direction in days, not a surprise after weeks of silence, and we steer it together.
Have a vision, or only a hunch?
Either works. Tell me about your business and what you want people to feel the moment they land. I'll give you a straight answer on what the design needs before anyone commits.