Everything started in Instagram DMs. Daniel pinged me asking for a three‑page site with a shop and sent over three Word docs containing the exact copy he wanted on each page. I had just started taking artist clients and he was my third artist to work with, I was so excited to start. I normally insist on a quick design call to confirm visuals, but we kept volleying ideas by text and that was my misstep.

November 14 2024 – Contract Signed
We locked in scope and I dove straight into build mode, interpreting his copy as a springboard for a more dynamic experience. I crafted a site I loved: horizontal scrolls, subtle animations, interactive journal stacks.

“This Isn’t It.”
Cue Saturday breakfast with my partner. My phone lit up: Daniel was furious. The site looked nothing like his documents and he was ready to cancel. I asked for 48 hours to produce a pixel‑for‑pixel replica. Two coffee‑fuelled days later I delivered a stripped‑down version that honored every margin and line break. His reply: “Perfect, exactly what I pictured.”

February 7 2025 – Project Closed
We launched, permissions were handed over, and Daniel paid the final invoice the same day. Success, until a few months later.

The Mobile Ghost Bug
Daniel noticed on his uniquely‑sized Android that the home‑page photo overlapped the intro text. On my iPhone everything looked fine. I escalated to three different Wix developers and huddled with friends who code. After nearly a month of trial‑and‑error, the breakthrough was beautifully simple: I cut the hero image into its own tiny section, detached it from the text stack, and set device‑specific positions. Problem solved across every test phone we could find.

Lesson Learned
Schedule the discovery call. Always. Getting eyes on a client’s visual expectations upfront would have saved us both stress. And when mobile gremlins appear, isolating elements often beats over‑engineering.

My Clients