We Redesigned Our Own Site (And Yes, We Were Our Own Worst Client)

There's an old joke about the cobbler's kids going barefoot. For a while there, that was us.

We spend our days building brand systems for other people untangling messaging, tightening identity, making sure every touchpoint pulls in the same direction. Meanwhile, our own site sat there doing an okay job. Not a bad job. Just… okay. And "okay" is a word we don't let our clients settle for, so it felt strange letting ourselves off the hook.

So we stopped. And we did the thing we ask everyone else to do: we put ourselves through The Bluecap Experience®.

‍

What actually changed

The short version: bluecapstudio.com is rebuilt from the ground up.

The longer version is that this wasn't a paint job. We started with the same questions we ask on day one of any engagement — who are we talking to, what do they actually need from us, and what do we want them to do next? Turns out we had three very different conversations happening on one page, all talking over each other.

So we separated them:

• Start-ups — you need a foundation that won't need replacing in eighteen months.
• Small businesses — you need momentum without a full-time creative department.
• Enterprise — you need a system that scales without falling apart in the hands of twelve stakeholders.

Different problems. Different pages. Different starting points. Same methodology underneath.

‍

The part that mattered most

Here's what we kept coming back to: a website isn't a brochure. It's the first working demo of how you think.

If we claim to build systems, our own site had better be one that is structured, consistent, and built so the next person who touches it can figure out what we were up to. Every element in the right place for a reason. Nothing decorative pretending to be functional.

That's the whole idea behind our motto, and we mean it literally: We build the system. You get the results.

‍

Go poke around

Seriously, click on things. Break something if you can. Then tell us what you think, because we'd genuinely like to know.

And if you've been circling the idea of doing this for your own brand, we're easy to find. That's sort of the point now.

‍

Also, for more about us being our own worst clients, check out our latest Substack: Our New Site Is Live. Here’s What It Cost.