Website design & development for Start - a growing Manchester marketing consultancy

Start is a Manchester-based B2B marketing consultancy built around a simple idea: good work starts with the right people.

‍

Having worked with Start as part of their trusted freelance network, I was brought in to design and build a new website as the business went through a wider rebrand.

‍

The brief

‍

Start had evolved considerably since its original website was created. What had once been a predominantly founder-led consultancy had grown into a senior team working alongside a wider network of trusted freelancers, independent agencies and specialist partners - their Curated Creatives.

‍

The website needed to catch up.

‍

The aim was to create something that felt much more representative of Start today: modern, established and representative of their studio-sized agency model, while retaining the personal approach that sits at the heart of the business.

‍

It also needed to bring their new visual identity to life online, make their growing range of services easier to understand and give the team a much better platform for sharing their work and expertise.

‍

The approach

‍

The project had already had a strong start. Start had previously worked with another partner on the initial scoping, including developing the website structure and exploring content hierarchy.

‍

I was brought in to take that groundwork forward, developing the visual direction and turning the plans into a fully designed and functioning website.

‍

I designed the site in Figma, using Start’s new brand identity to create a clean, modern look that felt more representative of the business they had become. From there, I built the site in Webflow, creating a responsive experience across desktop, tablet and mobile.

‍

As I already knew the Start team as part of their trusted expert network - and had had the chance to get to know them in person - I also had a good understanding of how the business operates, their personality and the collaborative model they wanted the new website to communicate.

‍

Start also wanted the freedom to keep the website updated without needing a developer every time something changed. Using Webflow’s CMS, I created dedicated collections for content including testimonials, case studies, insights and team bios, making it easy for the team to add and update content themselves while keeping everything consistent with the wider site design.

‍

‍

‍

The result

‍

The finished website is a much stronger reflection of who Start is today: a growing B2B marketing consultancy with an experienced core team and wider network of trusted creative partners.

‍

The new site brings their refreshed brand to life while making it much easier to understand what the consultancy offers and how their collaborative model works. There’s also much more space to showcase their people, partners ,client work and expertise as the business continues to grow.

‍

Behind the scenes, the flexible Webflow build means the team can keep the website evolving too, adding new case studies, insights, testimonials and team members without having to rethink the site each time.

‍

For me, it was also a particularly nice project to work on as someone within Start’s own freelance network - helping to create a website that represents a way of working I’m part of myself.

‍

‍

“Working with Chloe to see this project through to completion has been fantastic. Chloe really understood what we wanted the new website to achieve and our vision for a digital platform that feels much more like Start today. She brought our new brand to life beautifully, while also making sure the site was practical, easy for us to manage and built to grow with as our business scales. As someone we already work closely with - as part of our trusted freelance network - Chloe totally gets who we are and how we operate, and was able to translate that understanding into a site that tells our story and showcases our services brilliantly. Working with her meant the process was easy, straightforward and gave us exactly the results we were looking for.”‍

‍- Rachel Chesters, Managing Director at Start.

‍

‍