What to prepare before you commission a website

The second step of our collaboration is called Materials — and it's the step where website projects most often get stuck. Not on our side, on the client's. This article is the checklist that prevents it.

What we'll need

1. Copy. What you do, for whom, what makes you different, how to reach you. It doesn't have to be polished — bullet points are enough. Tidying it up is our job.
2. Photos. Your own photos always beat stock. Your premises, products, you at work — phone photos are fine, as long as they're sharp and well lit.
3. Logo. Ideally as a vector (SVG, PDF, AI). If all you have is a JPG from an email your designer sent in 2015, send that — we'll manage, or redraw the logo if needed.
4. Access. To your domain, and to any existing hosting or website. Without it, a site can't be launched or taken over.
5. References and reviews. Happy customers sell better than anything you write about yourself. Two or three sentences from real people are enough.

What if you're missing half of it?

That's fine — and above all, don't postpone your inquiry because of it. At the start of the collaboration you'll get a precise checklist from us, and we'll help with the copy. The build doesn't stop in the meantime: we work directly on the live site and slot materials in as they arrive.

One tip above all

Before you write to us, save links to two or three websites you like — even from a completely different industry. Nothing says more about your taste, and nothing saves us more time. With a clear direction we land the first version far more accurately, and the revision rounds then deal with details, not fundamentals.

Got your materials at hand — or at least some of them? Get in touch and we'll sort out the rest together.