Websites that
actually work–
built, not bolted together.
I’m Brandon, a website designer for small businesses based in Waterville, Ohio. I build custom websites that load fast, don’t break, and handle the boring back-end stuff for you, so you can stop fighting your own site and get back to running your business.
60+
Sites shipped
98/100
Avg. page speed
4wk
Typical turnaround
1:1
You talk to me, directly
A few things,
done properly.
Not a buffet. A handful of things I do well, priced flat, scoped honestly.
01
Custom
websites
Custom website design built from scratch around your actual business — not squeezed into a template. Fast, easy to update, and designed so your visitors get what they need without wading through junk. Most clients are small businesses doing $500k–$10M a year.
+ ~6 weeks + 5-12 pages + Editable in Elementor + From $12k
02
Behind-the-scenes
automation
The boring stuff: inquiries, follow-ups, bookings, data moving between the tools you already pay for. Quiet systems that handle themselves so you stop copy-pasting things at 10pm.
+ 2–4 weeks + Make / Zapier / n8n + Documented handover + From $4k
03
Custom
software
When the off-the-shelf stuff stops fitting your business. Internal tools, dashboards, small apps, custom plugins. Built lean, documented, and made to outlast whoever you hire next.
+ 4–12 weeks + Scoped in writing + Yours to keep + From $8k
04
Brand &
identity
Logos, type systems, and the bits of brand you actually need to put on a website, an invoice, and a sign. Not a 60-page guideline doc nobody reads.
+ 2–4 weeks + Logo + system + Editable files + From $3.5k
05
Smart
integrations
Your site, hooked up to the things that matter: payments, scheduling, email, reviews, inventory, whatever. One login, everything talks, nothing falls through.
+ 1–3 weeks + Stripe / HubSpot / Calendly + Custom APIs welcome + From $2.5k
06
Ongoing
care
Monthly plans for the stuff you shouldn’t have to think about: updates, backups, security, small tweaks. One person who already knows your site, one call a month, no surprise invoices.
+ Monthly + 2 hrs of edits included + One direct number + From $350/mo
Most agency sites are bolted together.
My custom website design work is built to last: properly set up,
properly maintained, no random plugins
duct-taped on top of each other.
/ 01 · No cookie-cutter templates
Every site gets designed around what your business actually does, not twisted to fit someone else’s theme.
/ 02 · No layers between us
You talk to the person doing the work. Decisions happen in one email, not bounced across account managers.
/ 03 · No rot in six months
I use tools that have been around forever and aren’t going anywhere, so your site still works years from now without a rebuild.
Recent work.
Click any project to
read more.
01 | Arctic Clam | WordPress | 2026
Arctic Clam needed a site that felt as loud as the stage.
Arctic Clam had the crowd, the reputation, and the bookings — but their old web presence didn’t reflect the experience people got on stage. We rebuilt the site around high-impact visuals, mobile-first performance, and faster booking inquiries, while organizing shows, media, and merch into one streamlined experience.
“Everything finally worked the way people expected it to.”
02 | Toledo Warehouse District | WordPress | 2026
A district modernized local discovery.
The Toledo Warehouse District Association needed a single hub for residents, business owners, and weekend visitors — events, the live-here pitch, the TWDARC board, and member sign-ups all running off one stack. The new site routes each audience to its own next step in two clicks.
“We finally have one place to point everyone — residents, business owners, people coming down for the weekend. It just works.”
03 | HAVEN Salon | WordPress · Bookings | 2026
Two locations. One booking flow that fits the brand.
Haven leases suites to independent stylists in Perrysburg and Waterville — each one running their own book. The new site keeps the editorial, black-and-white tone the brand earned, but routes guests straight into the right stylist’s booking calendar instead of a generic contact form.
“It looks like us. Black-and-white, no fluff. And every stylist can send a client straight to their own book — no middle step.”
04 | Mr. Emblem | WordPress · Product Builder | 2026
A legacy embroidery shop modernized ordering.
mrEmblem had built a name doing screen printing and embroidery for ProMedica, Toledo Walleye, JLG and hundreds of local clients — but every quote still ran through a phone call. The new site adds an online design studio for self-serve mockups while keeping a one-click path to a real human for the complicated jobs.
“The studio cut our quote turnaround in half and the phone still rings for the jobs that actually need it. Exactly what we asked for.”
What clients
actually say.
Happy to put you
in touch.
“We came to Brandon with a feature list a mile long. He said no to most of it. What he built instead actually serves our families.”
Nicole Khoury · Founder, Project iAM
“I’ve built websites for fifteen years. I didn’t want to build this one. Brandon shipped it cleaner than I would have and on a tighter timeline.”
Meredith Soleau · Owner, 424 Degrees
“We’d been through two agencies and a freelancer before Brandon. Site’s been live nine months and I haven’t had to log in once.”
Kate Schwartz · Exec. Director, ASNO
Four weeks,
start to live.
Fixed price, fixed timeline.
No endless “discovery”.
Figure it out
One call, one shared doc. We nail down what the site actually needs to do, and, more importantly, what it doesn’t.
Design it
Real designs with your real words, straight in a browser. No messy PDFs, no 14 rounds of revisions.
Build it
Built in Elementor and wired into whatever tools you already use. You get a working preview link by the end of the week.
Ship & hand-off
Go live, quick video walkthrough, and a month of small tweaks included. No “support ticket” nonsense.
Boring tools,
on purpose.
Stuff that’s been around
forever and isn’t going
anywhere.
WordPress
The one nearly half the internet runs on.
Elementor Pro
Built properly, so you can edit it yourself later.
HubSpot · Pipedrive
Hooked up properly, not fighting you.
WP Engine · Cloudways
Sized for your traffic, not someone 10× bigger.
Trusted AI tools
Where they actually help. Not for the sake of it.
Make · Zapier
Whichever plays nicer with your setup.
One person.
Actual expertise.
M Design Works is run by Brandon, a web designer in Waterville, OH who has been quietly building websites and back-office systems for small businesses for over a decade, and who genuinely cares whether the thing keeps working after launch day.
I spent years at bigger agencies watching good projects get crushed under timesheets, account managers, and the economics of templated work.
So I left. Now it’s just me. Which means you get the person who actually builds the thing, from first email to go-live and beyond.
Questions
I get a lot.
01 | Why wordpress and not something trendier?
Because it runs almost half the web, editing it is something your team can actually do without me, and if I ever get hit by a bus (please don’t wish that), someone else can pick up where I left off. Boring is a feature.
02 | What does a project cost?
Most projects land between $12k and $40k. The average cost of website design for a small business in 2026 is anywhere from $3k for a Squarespace job to $80k+ at a big agency — I sit in the middle of that, with the work and the longevity of a bigger shop, minus the account managers and the markup.
Everything’s a flat fee, written down before we start. No hourly stopwatch, no “scope creep” line items, no surprise invoices at the end. If something genuinely changes mid-project, we talk about it before any work happens.
Smaller pieces — automation builds, brand work, a single integration — start lower. Full custom sites for service businesses doing real revenue are where the $12–40k range lives.
03 | Can you work with my in-house team?
Yep. I regularly slot in alongside marketing folks or existing devs for a specific build or piece of automation. I just don’t do open-ended “extra pair of hands” work. Everything’s scoped.
04 | What do you not do?
Phone apps, huge enterprise platforms, SEO content, and ad buying. I’ll happily point you to someone good for any of those.
05 | What happens after the site launches?
You can take it and run (nothing’s locked down), or sign up for a monthly care plan and I’ll keep it fast, updated, and quietly improving. Your call.
Booking Q2 ’26 · Waterville, OH
Got a site that's
driving you mad ?
Probably a fit if you’re looking for a website designer for small business work in the $500k–$10M revenue range, you’ve outgrown a Squarespace, and you want one person on the other end of the email.