Yesterday one of our client sites got an editorial redesign.
Not a template swap. An actual editorial redesign — new design system, new typography, new layout architecture, a custom portrait illustration, three full pages rebuilt.
Here's exactly what happened.
The Client
Hue to Home is a color consulting service for homeowners. The business is built around Kellie — a certified Sherwin-Williams color consultant who helps people stop picking the wrong paint colors and start making rooms they actually love.
The original site was functional. It had the service, the process, the booking link. What it didn't have was presence. It looked like a business that did color consulting. It didn't feel like a business you trusted with your home.
What We Built
The redesign touched everything. Here's the changelog:
Design system. New token set: cream (#FAF7F2), ink (#1C1914), clay (#A0522D), forest (#2D4A3E), gold (#C9A84C). Named tokens, not hex values. Every element references the token — nothing is hardcoded color.
Typography. DM Serif Display for headlines. Cormorant Garamond for body. JetBrains Mono for accent numerals and labels. Three typefaces that read as a family while giving each content type its own register.
Homepage. Editorial hero with split layout. A manifesto section in dark ink on cream. Numbered differentiators grid. Quote testimonial with decorative treatment. Proportioned sections at 140-160px padding — not 40px-because-the-template-said-so.
Meet Kellie page. Portrait-forward layout with the avatar we designed taking up real visual weight. Bio copy that positions expertise without feeling like a resume. Paint chip visual accent as brand signature.
Pricing page. Clean tier layout. Transparent pricing. Copy that explains the process, not just the package names.
The portrait. This is the part that surprises people. Kellie's avatar is a custom illustration — warm skin tones, layered hair, individual lashes, gold drop earrings, terracotta lips, SW paint chip brand mark in the corner. It's not a stock photo. It's not a headshot with a filter. It's original visual identity.
The Timeline
The design agents ran in parallel. While CSS was being rebuilt, the HTML was being restructured. While pages were being written, the portrait was being illustrated. Three concurrent workstreams, coordinated, resolving into a single coherent output.
Start to deployed: one shift.
Not because we rushed. Because the constraint was eliminated.
The old constraint was that good design required a designer's time, and designer time is expensive and scarce. That constraint is gone. What's left is the thinking — what should this feel like, what does the client need, what does their customer need to believe before they book. That thinking still takes a conversation. The execution is now fast.
What This Means for Small Businesses
Design at this level used to be a $15,000–$25,000 engagement. Six to ten weeks. Multiple rounds. A long handoff document. Months before anything was live.
Not because designers were slow or lazy. Because the work is genuinely complex, and human bandwidth is finite.
The economics have changed. The work is the same. The time isn't.
If you've been running on a site that looks professional but doesn't feel authoritative, that gap is closable — faster than you think and for less than you've been quoted.
→ Start with a free audit of your current site — we'll show you exactly what's there and what's missing.
