A founder’s name wins more work than a company logo, as long as people can see how that founder thinks. Hampyo is Annette Rathbone’s personal site. We built it around the writing, then put a project form at the end for readers who like what they’ve read.
Most personal sites read like a CV, a list of roles and a row of logos. Visitors arrive from a talk or a post, already curious, and find nothing new to read. They leave. Nothing on the page gave them a reason to write.
Put a face and a credible story in the first screen. Keep visitors reading with featured articles and six recent posts. End with a form that asks for the service and the budget, so every enquiry arrives ready to discuss.
Founders, product leads and companies looking for a design partner or a speaker. They check the person behind the name, read a post or two, and get in touch once the thinking matches theirs.
This is a site people read, so soft grey and white keep long stretches of text easy on the eye. One royal blue does all the pointing. It frames the two portraits, marks the active link and fills the carousel arrows.
Lexend, a sans drawn for reading ease, suits a site that asks its visitors to read.
Have a Project Idea?
The headline over the project form.
Four decisions that turn a curious reader into someone with a project to discuss.
Annette Rathbone’s name fills the hero in large type beside a portrait framed by a royal blue block, with a pale blue panel running off the edge. The short bio names Panther, On Deck, Microsoft and the Motley Fool. One screen is enough to know who this is.
Featured articles run in a carousel with the category and reading time over each photo. Below, six recent posts sit in a grid with plain headlines. Reading one leads to the next, and every article is another reason to trust the person who wrote it.
Each recent post shows how long ago it went up. A personal site with stale posts looks abandoned, and an abandoned site suggests a person who is too busy or no longer around. Fresh dates say the opposite.
The closing form, under have a project idea, asks for the service and the project budget alongside name, email and company. Replies can be specific from the first message. Casual enquiries tend to sort themselves out.
Select a section to see it in the design and what it does for a reader.
A large name, a short bio naming well-known companies and one portrait framed by a royal blue block, with a pale blue panel running off the edge.
A second photo, offset on its own blue block, beside two short paragraphs and a read more link for visitors who want the longer version.
Three photo cards in a carousel with the category, title and reading time over a dark fade, and blue arrows to see more.
Six recent posts in a three-column grid, each with a photo, a category, a plain headline and how long ago it went up.
A bold Have a Project Idea? headline beside a form that asks for name, email, company, service, budget and project details.
The logo, a short line, social links and three columns of links on slate, so a visitor can always find a way back in.
Hero — Who this is
Want a personal site that brings you better enquiries?
Start a Project Like ThisFor your client or for your own business, the thinking is the same. The route in is different.
We design and build to your client’s brief and hand it over as your work. Your client never hears our name.
We map the questions your customers ask before they buy, then design and build a WordPress site that answers them in order.
We book a call to scope the work. You get a proposal to approve, and we begin.
