01 CASE STUDY

Wut The Fred: Building a Digital Front Door for an In-House Agency Model

Role

UX/UI Designer, Squarespace Developer, Content Strategist

Tools

Figma, Squarespace, (Fluid Engine), Apollo.io

Platform

Responsive website (desktop, tablet, mobile)

Timeline

6 months

02 OVERVIEW

Fred is an independent, employee-owned creative agency built on an in-house model, the idea that brands get better work and economics by embedding a flexible creative team rather than retaining a traditional bloated agency. My job was to design and build out the website that had to prove that positioning on first impression: fast, confident, unpretentious, and credible enough to sit front of B2B, B2C, and D2C marketing decision makers.

I owned the site end-to-end; UX strategy, IA, wireframes, visual design, and Squarespace development, plus the content and lead generation infrastructure that turns site visits into actual client conversations.

03 THE CHALLENGE

DIFFERENTIATE AN UNUSUAL MODEL

”In-house agency” is not a familiar category, and the site had to explain it without the jargon.

SPEAK TO A WIDE RANGE

From real estate developers to consumer product brands; without diluting the voice into generic agency-speak.

CONVERT, NOT JUST IMPRESS

The site need to route visitors toward actual contact, not just look good and stop there.

04 MY ROLE $ CONSTRAINTS

WHAT I OWNED

  • UX research and site strategy

  • Information architecture and sitemap

  • Wireframes and visual design (Figma)

  • Full Squarespace build and Fluid Engine implementation

  • Content strategy and copy direction

  • Post-launch lead gen infrastructure (Apollo.io, email authentication)

CONSTRAINTS I DESIGNED AROUND

  • Platform: Squarespace 7.1’s Fluid Engine, which handles breakpoints differently than traditional responsive CSS.

  • Team: Small in-house team, no dedicated dev resource beyond me, every design decision had to be buildable by one person on a deadline.

  • Brand: An agency site is a portfolio and a pitch, it had to hold up to the same scrutiny the agency applies to client work.

05 DISCOVERY & RESEARCH

I audited independent and boutique agency sites looking at how they balance credibility (client logos, results, case studies) with personality (voice, tone, visual identity). Most fell into two traps, overly corporate and forgettable, or overly “creative” and hard to trust with real budget (and navigate!)