New site for our very first client

The 2009 Squarespace version of Gary Hoyte’s website

Back in early 2001, we met HR consultant Gary Hoyte in interesting circumstances. Jellymould’s Jo Johnson was working for Arthritis Care, writing the content for their staff handbook and forthcoming intranet. The organisation hired Gary to help them implement a major restructuring and it was at this time that Jo opted to leave the organisation, taking voluntary redundancy.

So, having met Gary as a key instigator of Jo’s redundancy you might think their relationship would be strained? In fact, the opposite was true.

The Jellymould team executed a very impressive migration from my old host to the new Squarespace platform. Smooth and to plan. After an excellent training session, I can manage my content and get a lot more functionality at a lower cost.

Gary Hoyte
Director, Gary Hoyte Consulting Ltd

Gary handled the matter in a sensitive and professional way and the redundancy payment was the catalyst that enabled Jo to form a partnership with designer Emile Facey and set up Jellymould. Gary was incredibly supportive of this move and subsequently commissioned Jo and Emile to produce his first website which was launched later that year. This project was to be Jellymould’s first paid website development commission and we’ve worked with Gary ever since.

Eight years later, things have moved on in our field of work and Gary’s hard-coded website had inevitably become out of date. It was no longer practical or necessary for him to rely on us for updates. We therefore  recommended a platform called Squarespace, which we could use at relatively low cost, to recreate Gary’s site with an easy-to-use content management system.

By simply reiterating the existing design by modifying a Squarespace template and keeping the existing website structure, we could keep the whole project very simple and therefore very affordable.

Since early 2008, we have used Squarespace for seven website developments to date and we’re currently putting the finishing touches on the eighth Squarespace site. The system has proven to be a successful, swift and low-budget way to create good looking, contemporary sites with great content management features. 

There are a range of similar systems available, all of which allow us to swiftly produce high quality, feature rich websites at a far lower cost than a bespoke solution. Each has a different character and is suitable for different types of project.

Recently, we used Drupal to produce a social networking website. Drupal is an open-source system with a multitude of modules to choose from, each offering an additional piece of functionality that can be integrated into the core application. We’re looking forward to using it again in the near future.

When the budget is tight, using a system like Drupal or Squarespace drastically reduces the development costs meaning that the time and money available can be invested in usability, quality content and design - the things that make a website or application uniquely attractive and useful.

If you are interested in a similar project, get in touch.