Autumn — MMXXV · 5 min read

Modern tools in a web design studio.

The tools available to a small studio have changed a lot in the last few years. Used carefully, they remove friction from parts of the work that used to slow everything down.

I use modern tools — including AI, where it genuinely helps — to accelerate research, first drafts, and technical scaffolding. They are useful for the same reason a good text editor is useful: they let a person spend more time on the parts of the work that actually matter.

Design decisions, voice, editing, and the small judgments that make a site feel considered stay with a person. That is where craft lives, and that is what visitors actually feel.

The label on the tool is much less interesting than the standard of the work it helps produce.

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7TWENT1 is a small studio building premium websites for local businesses that want to grow. If you'd like to talk about your own project, you can write to me at 7twent1@gmail.com.