A studio of one, on purpose.
Formr Studio is Heiko — a brand and web designer working with US small businesses.
How this studio ended up this small.
I came into design sideways. I started out building sites for friends' businesses while studying something else entirely, discovered that the interesting part was never the pixels but the decisions underneath them, and slowly turned that into the only thing I do. Fifteen years later the work has narrowed rather than widened: brand and websites for small businesses, and nothing else.
German design training is the part that stuck: things get written down, dates get held, and the invoice matches the estimate. Where I happen to be working from changes; that doesn't.
In between there was a venture of my own that didn't make it — a product business with two partners, an open-ended scope, and no agreement about who decided what. It burned eighteen months and taught me the lesson this studio runs on, along with a second one: a partnership without clear ownership is just a slower argument.
“Scope that isn't written down will expand until it collapses.”
Every fixed price and signed schedule here traces back to those eighteen months. The contract isn't paperwork — it's the part that keeps the project from quietly turning into something neither of us agreed to.
Small businesses specifically, because that's where good design still changes the outcome. A corporation with a bad website loses a percentage point. A pool service company with a bad website loses the customer to the guy who ranks above them. The stakes are legible, the decisions are made by the person who owns the business, and the work ships in weeks instead of quarters.
Five rules I don't bend.
The homepage is the reference.
It gets designed first and in full. Every other page is measured against it, which is why the rest of the project stays consistent and moves fast.
Fewer pages, better pages.
Thin pages compete with each other for the same search term. I would rather build seven pages that earn their place than eighteen that dilute one another.
Never launch without a redirect map.
Every URL on your old site gets matched to a new destination and tested before the DNS changes. No exceptions, on any project, at any price.
If it isn't a fit, I say so early.
On the first call, not after the deposit. Turning down work I can't do well is cheaper for both of us than delivering it badly.
You own everything when we're done.
Design files, brand assets, the repository, every account created for the project. Nothing is held back as leverage to keep you on a retainer.
The practical part.
An ocean between us turns out to be a scheduling detail, as long as the details are agreed in the first week.
Working hours
Calls get scheduled in your morning, wherever I am that month. Everything else runs async, so nothing waits on a time zone.
How we talk
Email for anything that should be findable later, Google Meet for calls, and one shared Notion doc holding the schedule, decisions, and open questions. No portal to learn.
Weekly updates
A written note every Friday: what shipped, what's next, what I need from you. From the build phase on, a staging link updates continuously — nothing is ever a reveal.
What I need from you
One decision-maker, feedback within three business days, and access to your domain, hosting, and analytics. Photography and existing brand files in week one.
Ready to look like the best in your market?
Tell me about your business and what the current site isn't doing. I read every inquiry myself and reply within one business day — with an honest answer about whether I'm the right fit.
- Fixed price
- No hourly billing
- Reply within 1 business day
- Honest no if it's not a fit