A working prototype for Friday
NOW
So this is that. A small custom site, and underneath it, a Notion room you can edit.
Both are rough on purpose.
It isn’t a proposal, a service menu, or a contract. It’s a prototype you can argue with.
Where things stand: we’ve talked about working together a few times. There’s one real project we could try it on now, a second real one coming up in November, and one experiment I mentioned in my email. Everything else is open.
HOW WE’D WORK
Here’s how I understand where each of us already stands. Correct me.
STRATEGY + TECHNICAL IMPLEMENTATION
Your site talks about how a client’s real-life business runs, and how the website could actually make their life easier. That question is a big part of why I wanted to do this.
CREATIVE DIRECTION + CUSTOM MAKING
STRATEGY
The edges between these should blur. That’s why they’re next to each other.
You already ask how a client’s business actually runs, and you build and support the Squarespace side of it.
I’ve been building more custom things lately: static sites, publishing tools, structured information, displays, some odd physical/digital objects.
What if, when the website or existing software isn’t quite enough, we can make the missing piece?
EXISTING TOOLS → CUSTOM / STRUCTURED LAYER → DESIGNED OUTPUTS
Notion is one prototype of the middle layer. It isn’t the product. It’s just the easiest one to show you.
SYSTEMS LAB — A SMALL STUDIO, MADE UP (opens in new tab)Same information, different view. Now imagine this feeding the website or display instead of somebody typing it again.A made-up studio with invented classes and prices. One list, four views: website, newsletter, lobby screen, print. Nothing here is connected to anything. It’s a small, fake version of the question in Experiment 03.PRICING LAB
You price your work. I price mine. The part neither of us has priced is the overlap.
The three examples below each ask a different pricing question:
And the general questions underneath all of it:
I’d rather find the shape first. Pilot 01 is a test, not a precedent.
PILOTS + EXPERIMENT
Three examples, on purpose at different stages. One we’re about to test, one we could choose to do, one we’re just curious about.
A real client, a small site, new photography. The client relationship sits with Lemon Juice. You’d be part of the conversation, and paid for your part.
Kept anonymous here. A pilot, not a pricing precedent.
My greeting card project, planned for November 2026. It lives on Squarespace, and it’s staying there.
I lead the concept, the artwork, the creative direction, the visual system, and the overall site. The part I need help with is the shop. I haven’t built the commerce side of a Squarespace site before, and I’d rather do it properly with someone who has.
This isn’t a someday idea anymore. It’s real, it’s coming up, and I want to figure out Friday whether there’s a useful part of it for you to take on.
The shop, not the whole business around it.
Is this a project you’d want to take on with me? If so, which part would you want to own, what would you need from me, and how would you normally scope and price it?
Compensation: Open. Let’s start from how you’d normally price it.
Restaurant menu + e-paper publishing
The idea from my email. It’s the most experimental of the three, and not an offer.
A restaurant changes the same things over and over: menu items, prices, specials, what’s sold out, hours, events. Right now that often means changing them in several places, one at a time.
The question: could there be one simple place to keep that information, and could it produce the different things the restaurant actually needs?
ONE SOURCE OF INFORMATION
↓
Website · Phone / QR · Print · E-paper display · Specials + announcements
None of these are connected today. Part of the experiment is finding out which connections would actually help, and which would just be one more thing to maintain.
It’s your question, really: how does this business actually run, and what would make it easier? Just pointed at one small, recurring headache. It’s also a way to find out whether there’s more between us than you doing Squarespace and me doing design.
Where have you seen clients keeping the same information in several places? Would a small structured layer actually make their lives easier, or just give them another thing to update?
FRIDAY
Where have you had client software almost work — where you wished you could add one custom piece instead of moving the client somewhere else?
We won’t get deep on all five. If something comes to mind, we’ll add it to the room while we’re talking.
We don’t need to decide what this becomes on Friday. We need to decide what’s worth trying next.
OPEN THE LAYER UNDERNEATH (opens in new tab)Opens the shared working room in Notion.