Steven Design Services LLC
A designer you can hire for one project.
Websites, design systems, identity packages and editorial design for small teams and local businesses. One person from the first call to the final file. The thing that ships is the thing we agreed upon.
Four things done properly.
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A site that says the right thing in the first ten seconds.
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Components your team can build with, not a folder of screens.
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A mark, the rules that protect it, and the files to use it.
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Long-form that holds together, page after page.
Four Jesse H. Neal Awards, one for Best Website.
Selected work.
A magazine that had to become a platform, a brand that had to hold two businesses at once, and a supplier who needed a site that does what he does on the phone.
How it works
No surprises, in either direction.
We talk
Twenty minutes on what you need, what it has to do, and when. If I am not the right person for it, I will say so and point you somewhere better.
I write it down
Scope, what you get, what it costs, and the dates. One page, in plain language. Nothing starts until you have read it and agreed to it.
You see real work early
Not a mood board three weeks in. Real design on real content, early enough that changing direction is cheap.
You get the files
Everything, in the formats you can use, plus whatever documentation the work needs so the next person can pick it up.
On the record.
From colleagues and clients across my career, not from this company's two clients. They are about how I work, which is the part that carries over.
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A rare “doer,” someone who can help you not only build the plan but then execute on it.
Publisher, Plate -
As Creative Director, he led design across everything from magazines and websites to branding and digital campaigns, always with a sharp eye and a clear point of view.
Content Strategist, MTG Media Group -
He has been easy to work with and proactive in bringing ideas forward to help the business grow for all of our media brands.
Executive Vice President and Publisher, Meatingplace -
He has impressive organizational skills, maintains focus on the deadlines, and has a talent for ensuring progress without ever compromising on quality.
Creative Director -
Early on, he found, learned and implemented responsive design for all our web-based products. This saved an incredible amount of time and money.
President and Owner, MTG Media Group -
In a fast one-week sprint cadence, Steve delivered target-state prototypes and decks with speed, clarity, and polish.
Principal Product Designer, PayPal
Tell me what you are trying to build.
A few questions on the form, and I will come back with whether I am the right person for it and what it would take.
Website design
A site that says the right thing in the first ten seconds.
Most small sites lose the visitor on a phone, in the first few seconds, because nothing on the screen says what the business does or how to reach it. I design the whole thing: the order of the page, your words in place rather than lorem, the photography you need to take, and a build that loads fast.
You get the site and the files, and you own both. It is handed over to run on your own host and your own domain, so there is no subscription to me and no platform you cannot leave. Keeping it current afterwards is a separate arrangement rather than something you are signed up to.
What is included
- Page structure, and a plan for what sits on each one
- Designed for phone screens first, then desktop
- Accessible markup, checked against WCAG 2.2 AA with automated tools and a keyboard pass
- Built and handed over to run on your own host and your own domain
- Search and social setup, so the basics are in place
- You write the words. I place them, and I will tell you where they are not working
Who it is for: Small teams and local businesses who want one good site rather than a monthly bill.
Design systems
Components your team can build with, not a folder of screens.
A design system is only real when the design and the code agree. I start with the token layer, the colors, spacing, type and elevation that everything else refers to, then build the components on top of it so a change lands in one place instead of forty.
It ships documented, so a developer who has never met me has what they need to use it correctly, and your team has what it needs to keep it going after I am gone.
What is included
- Design tokens, in Figma and in Storybook
- Component library with real states, not just defaults
- Usage documentation and the rules behind it
- Accessibility checked on every component and every theme, with automated tools and a keyboard pass
- Documentation written for the next person to pick it up, not for me
Who it is for: Product teams whose interface has drifted, and anyone about to start a second product.
Identity packages
A mark, the rules that protect it, and the files to use it.
An identity is not one logo file. It is a mark that holds at the size of a business card and at the size of a street flag, a palette and type someone else can apply without you in the room, and rules written down, so two printers are working from the same instructions.
That last part is the part most packages skip, and it is what a brand needs to stay consistent once it leaves your hands.
What is included
- Wordmark and monogram, in the colorways you will actually use
- Color and type, with the reasoning written down
- Lockups, clear space, and misuse rules
- An asset index with the files
Who it is for: New businesses, and established ones whose files no longer agree with each other.
Editorial design
Long-form that holds together, page after page.
Editorial is where I started. Magazines, features, and the kind of long piece that falls apart without a typographic system holding it together. The same thinking works on an annual report, a guide, or a site with a lot to say.
What is included
- Magazine and feature layout
- Typographic systems
- Report and guide design
- Print production files
- Content-heavy web layout
Who it is for: Publishers, and any business with a report or guide that deserves better than a template.
Creative director, MTG Media Group
Plate
A print magazine that became a platform.
Plate’s website was a recipe database. The brand was a magazine with daily news, trends and features, and almost none of that lived online in a structure anyone could use.
I led the work that grew it into one responsive site carrying the whole brand, organized into recipes, trends, food news and magazine content, built on a pattern library that is still browsable today. It won the 2017 Jesse H. Neal Award for best website, the top honor in business publishing, and reached 42,000 readers and 56,000 monthly pageviews.
Steven Design Services client, in progress
The Artistic Eye
A brand for a gallery that sells glasses.
An art gallery and an optical shop sharing one room in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. The brief in one sentence: it should feel like a gallery, not a clinic. The brand had to hold original artwork and designer frames at the same time, on a 3.5 inch business card and on an 11.2 foot street flag.
I built the wordmark, a stacked monogram documented in six colorways, the palette and type, and the written rules: lockups, clear space, eight misuse rules, and an asset index for the printers and sign shops who produce work in the brand’s name without me in the room. The work is still going.
Steven Design Services client
C.B. Clarke Co.
A manufacturers rep, online properly.
C.B. Clarke Co. has spent more than thirty years putting OEMs together with the right foundry, powder metallurgy shop or gasket fabricator. The site had to do what Chuck does on the phone: understand the part, and point it at the shop that can make it.
I designed and built the whole site around the three things they supply, with the foundry floor as the visual, and shipped it live. It runs on their existing host, with no platform fee and nothing for them to maintain.