We started by
Eight specialists across three practices. No account layer, no relay, no vendor pointing at another vendor.
The first jobs were rescues. Expired certificates, sites nobody could edit, backups that had never been restored, and no one accountable.
Doing that work for a few years changed how we build. A website is not a deliverable, it is a system somebody has to own on a Tuesday afternoon eighteen months from now.
So we built a studio that can design it, ship it, secure it and still be there afterwards. We stayed small deliberately: the person who designed your interface is the person who answers when it behaves oddly.
Accra, Ghana
In the work
Four rules we do not negotiate.
Structure before surface
A beautiful interface sitting on a bad content model survives until the first thing you did not anticipate — a product name that runs long, a category with one item in it, a page that needs a second author. We settle structure first because it is the part that is expensive to change later.
Say the cost out loud
The incentive in this industry is to quote the larger scope. We tell you when the cheaper path is the right one, including when that means a refresh instead of a rebuild, or no project at all this quarter. A smaller invoice we can stand behind is worth more than a larger one we cannot.
Nothing ships unmonitored
A launch without verified backups, a patching schedule and alerting that reaches a named person is not a delivery, it is a liability with a countdown on it. If you do not want that from us, we would rather you had it from someone.
Write it down
Every decision that costs money or time gets written down with its reasoning, and every system ships with a runbook. It is how nobody relitigates a choice in month three — and how you could replace us without anything breaking. Lock-in through undocumented work is a business model. It is not ours.
Eleven years, and the same argument the whole way through.
Every stage of this studio was a reaction to something breaking. That is why the practices are arranged the way they are.
2015 — the rescues
The first jobs were not builds. They were sites other people had abandoned: certificates expired on a Sunday, editors who had given up and emailed changes instead, backups that had run faithfully for two years and had never once been restored.
2018 — one team instead of three
We kept meeting the same failure. A designer, a developer and an IT provider, none of them accountable for the whole, each able to point at the others. We brought the three practices under one roof so there would be nobody left to blame.
2021 — security stopped being optional
A client was compromised through an unpatched plugin on a site we did not build. We had a decision to make: treat security as somebody else’s practice, or take responsibility for it. We hired for it instead.
Today — eight specialists
Three practices, one point of contact, and a rule that we say no to work we cannot be accountable for. Small on purpose, and intending to stay that way.
To give small and mid-sized businesses infrastructure they can rely on, from one team that stays accountable for it.
That a business in Accra should not have to choose between work done properly and work it can afford.
Four things we hold ourselves to.
The pillars every engagement is measured against, whether it is a five-page site or a cloud migration.
Efficiency
Every automated step is one that cannot be forgotten on a busy Friday. We look for the handoffs where work waits on somebody remembering, and remove those first — they cost more than the slow steps everyone complains about.
Affordability
Fixed price against a defined scope, and the figure quoted is the figure invoiced. Change requests are priced before they are started, never discovered at the end. If the budget cannot carry the project properly, we say so and propose a smaller first phase.
Modern technology
Current tooling, chosen for how long it will stay maintainable rather than how new it is. The test we apply: could another developer in Accra pick this up in a year without us in the room.
User experience
Interfaces that need no training, because the people using them are busy and were not consulted about the software. Legibility at arm’s length, states that explain themselves, and error messages that say what to do next.
No status theatre.
A shared board, a standing call and an environment you can look at whenever you like. Most clients stop asking for updates by week three.
One channel
A single shared channel with the whole team in it — not a project manager relaying questions.
Open environment
A staging URL from week one. You watch the thing get built instead of waiting for a reveal.
Decisions in writing
Anything that costs money or time is written down with the reasoning, so nobody relitigates it in month three.
Handover, not lock-in
Code, accounts and documentation are yours. If you leave, you leave with everything working.
Eight specialists.
Named where the person has approved publication, listed by role where they have not. We do not use stock photography of people.
Founder & CEO
Gli Richard
Founder & CEO
Founder & CEO
Mika Schmidt
Founder & CEO
Project leader
Jeni Jansen
Project leader
Product designer
Stef Lambert
Product designer
Marcomm manager
Emma Webb
Marcomm manager
Infrastructure, hosting, uptime
Systems engineer
Infrastructure, hosting, uptime
Assessments, hardening, partners
Security lead
Assessments, hardening, partners
Retainers, onboarding, first response
Support engineer
Retainers, onboarding, first response
Portraits to be supplied · three roles are listed pending the person’s approval to publish their name
Craft is a maintenance habit.
Anyone can make one screen beautiful. Keeping a system fast, indexed, patched and legible two years later is the part we are proud of.
Fridays are for the craft
Half a day every week on internal systems, learning, and the design system this site is built on.
Read the whole file
New work starts by reading everything that already exists. Opinions come after.
Accra as a base, not a limit
Clients in Ghana and abroad. Same standard, same published hours, GMT +0.
You talk to the people doing the work
No account layer relaying your question to an engineer and the answer back with the detail sanded off. Eight people means the person who designed your interface answers when it behaves oddly.
We tell you when the cheaper path is right
Including when that means a refresh instead of a rebuild, or no project at all this quarter. A smaller invoice we can stand behind is worth more than a larger one we cannot.
Nothing ships unmonitored
Backups verified, patching scheduled, alerting to a named person. If you do not want that from us, we would rather you had it from someone.
You could replace us on a Monday
Code, accounts and documentation are yours from the first commit. Lock-in through undocumented work is a business model, and it is not ours.
Working here.
We hire rarely and deliberately. When we do, the process is paid, the range is published, and you meet the people you would actually work with.
How we hire
A paid exercise resembling real work, reviewed by the people you would work with. No whiteboard puzzles, no unpaid spec work, and we tell you the salary range in the first conversation.
What we look for
Someone who reads the whole file before offering an opinion, writes things down without being asked, and can say “I do not know” in front of a client.
Currently
No open roles. We hire when a practice has more work than it can hold, not to hit a headcount. Send us something you have built and we will keep it on file honestly.
Friday afternoons are studio time — internal systems, learning, and the design system this site is built on. Some of that goes outward: we run occasional free sessions for Accra business owners on the two things that cost them most, which are backups and phishing. No pitch, no sign-up list.
Twelve guides written from real engagements, free and ungated. If a piece would only restate what is already on ten other sites, we do not publish it.
Questions people ask first.
Are you not too small for a serious project? +
For a large platform with a fixed date and five workstreams, yes — and we will say so. For most small and mid-sized businesses, eight specialists who talk to each other beats a larger team you meet once.
Do you work with clients outside Ghana? +
Yes. Our hours are GMT +0 and we publish them, so overlap is predictable rather than optimistic.
What if we already have a developer? +
We work alongside internal teams often — design and security review, or a defined slice of the build. Boundaries get written down first.
How do you charge? +
Fixed price for defined scope, monthly retainer for ongoing care. Rates come with the proposal; no figures are published here until they are current.