Web Design · 2024
A studio site that doesn't compete on adjectives.
Vanlig does quiet, premium work for clients who already know what good looks like. The site had to match; restraint as a loud statement.
Client
Vanlig Studio
Year
2024
Role
Design & build
Scope
Studio site, case archive
Context
Vanlig is a small, ambitious creative studio; the kind that cares about kerning on a Tuesday. Their old site looked like everyone else's: big hero image, three-column services grid, a carousel. Everything said "studio," nothing said Vanlig.
They didn't want a flashy site. They wanted a site that felt like their work; calm, confident, composed. Something a creative director could open on a bad Monday and still respect.
The challenge
The challenge
Restraint is the hardest thing to design for. You can hide behind effects, gradients and motion; or you can let the work carry the page and design the silence around it. I chose silence. Every spacing decision had to earn its room.
How I worked
Space as a design element.
Typography carries the brand
I built the entire tone on a single display face with a generous tracking scale and careful hierarchy. No decorative type, no rotating slogans. The studio name and the work speak first; everything else is furniture.
A case archive that refuses to shout
Most studio work pages are galleries competing for attention. I made the archive feel like a library; generous margins, muted previews, metadata as the navigation. You have to lean in. That's the point.
Motion as punctuation, not pyrotechnics
I removed almost every animation the old site had. What's left is barely there; a reveal on scroll, a subtle parallax on the hero, a hover that doesn't jolt. Motion earns attention only where the content benefits from a breath.
Contact as the close, not the wall
The contact page isn't a form fortress; it's a single sentence, an email, and a studio photo. If you want to work with Vanlig you write a real message. The friction is the filter.
Studio site
Composition in practice.
What I shipped
Deliverables
Outcome
A site that acts like a portfolio, not a pitch.
The redesign did what Vanlig asked for: it stopped competing for attention and started qualifying it. The contact form sees fewer tyre-kickers and more real briefs. The studio sounds like itself; which, for a creative practice, is the whole job.
Restraint, out loud.
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