Web design & development

Web design, from brief to live site.

What you get, how a project runs, what moves the price and what to do first. Everything a prospective client needs before sending an email.

What you get

A finished website, and the keys to it.

Every project ends with a live site you own and can run. The pieces below are what that means in practice; anything not needed is simply not quoted.

Structure and content plan

A page list and a plan for what each page must say and do, agreed before any design starts, so nothing is built twice. Clients with content already written skip ahead; those without get a structure to write into.

Design for every screen

Layout, type, colour and visual direction, designed on real content and checked on phones first. Reviewed with you at wireframe and at visual stage, not presented once at the end.

A built, tested site

Hand-written code, built to load fast, to work without JavaScript and to be usable with a keyboard or a screen reader, then tested in several browsers and screen sizes before launch.

Search and sharing basics

Titles, descriptions, a sitemap and social preview images on every page, so search engines and people find the new pages and links look right when shared.

Hosting and launch

Set up on fast static hosting in an account in your name, with your domain, HTTPS, security headers and redirects from any old site in place on day one.

Ownership and handover

The code, the content and every account are yours, with a written guide to the site and how to change it, and a Lighthouse and accessibility report from the live site. Nothing is locked to the studio: any developer can pick the site up.

How it works

Five steps, one person throughout.

Every stage is handled by the person you emailed. Here is what happens between the first message and launch; step one costs nothing but a few lines.

A short conversation
You send a few lines. If it looks like a fit, the reply proposes a short call to talk through purpose, audience, current site, timing and budget. No brief needed.
A fixed written quote
After the call you get a written scope with a fixed price, itemised so parts can be dropped or deferred. Nothing starts until you have agreed it.
Structure, then design
The page list and content plan come first and are signed off. If writing or photography is needed, it is agreed here, not discovered later. Design follows on real content.
Build and test
The site is built in code, tested for speed, accessibility and security, and shown to you on a private preview as it comes together.
Launch and handover
The site goes live on your domain with redirects and search basics in place. You get the code, the accounts and a guide to making changes.

Who it is for

A good fit for some, not for all.

The studio works best with people who know what their business does and need a website that explains it clearly and makes the next step easy.

Small businesses

A shop, a practice, a trade or a service that needs a site people can find, understand and act on: call, book or ask.

Independent creators

Writers, artists, musicians, makers and small studios who need a home for their work that loads fast, looks like them and does not need a developer for every update.

New ideas

A product, service or project that needs a first site to explain itself and collect interest, built small so it can change as the idea does.

The studio is not the right fit for a large online shop with hundreds of products, a system with many stakeholders, or a deadline that needs several people working at once. If you are unsure, ask: a short reply saying so is quicker for both sides.

How the studio builds

Fast, usable by everyone, yours.

Four habits, each with a plain reason behind it. The case study below shows what they produced when measured.

Fast, so people stay

A page that appears quickly keeps visitors who would otherwise leave. Sites are designed so the first thing on screen is your words, not a spinner or a slow-loading picture, with as little script as the page can get away with.

Works for everyone

Built so that people using a screen reader, a keyboard or a small phone can use the site, and designed to be checked by automated accessibility tests while it is built rather than audited once at the end. That is more customers, not fewer.

Nothing fragile

Plain, static pages with the security settings set once and carried by every page, and no framework running in the browser. Less to break, less to patch, less to pay for.

Yours to keep

Standard code on hosting in your name, with the notes and tests handed over. If you ever want someone else to work on it, they can.

Case study

This website, measured.

The only web project the studio can show is its own site, so here it is, with numbers rather than adjectives. If a number has not been measured, it is not stated.

mantastudios.comManta Studios2026

The studio's own website, designed and built by Raymond Saliba in 2026, with the content model, tests and documentation written alongside the pages. Shown because it is the one project whose results can be measured and quoted exactly, and because a client site would get the same approach.

Google Lighthouse score (mobile preset): Performance 100, Accessibility 100, Best Practices 100, SEO 100 on all ten audited routes
Content jumping while loading: None. Cumulative Layout Shift is 0 on every route.
Main content on screen: Largest Contentful Paint about 1.1 seconds, in lab conditions
JavaScript on the homepage: About 7.6 KB before compression and under 3.5 KB compressed
Web-font requests and hero images: Zero of each. The first paint is text.

What was done

Built as static output from Astro, with TypeScript and hand-written CSS on design tokens, hosted on Cloudflare Pages. The only server code is one small contact function.
Built to WCAG 2.2 AA and verified with axe-core in Chromium, Firefox, WebKit and mobile emulations, with a further run of the whole site with JavaScript disabled.
Shipped a strict Content-Security-Policy with no inline scripts, HSTS and the other modern security headers.

Built withAstro (static output) · TypeScript · Hand-written CSS on design tokens · Cloudflare Pages · Playwright and axe-core

This is the studio's own website and the first entry in its portfolio, which is why the evidence here is measurements rather than testimonials.

What it costs

A fixed quote, itemised.

There is no price list, because two websites with the same page count rarely cost the same. Instead: a short conversation about what the site must do, then a written quote with a fixed price for a defined scope, so the number you agree to is the number you pay.

The quote is itemised. If a part is not worth the money to you, drop it and the price drops with it. The price holds as long as the scope does; if something new comes up during the project, it is quoted separately before any work on it starts, so the invoice matches the paperwork.

The next step is to send a few lines about the site, with a rough budget if you have one. Saying the budget early is useful: it decides what is worth proposing and saves both sides a round of guessing.

Questions

Questions people ask first.

How much does a website cost?

It depends on pages, content readiness and what the site must connect to, so there is no list price. After a short conversation you get a fixed, itemised quote for a defined scope, and parts can be removed to meet a budget.

How long does a project take?

Timing is agreed in writing with the quote and depends on scope and on how quickly content and feedback arrive. If content arrives late, the launch date moves with it.

Do I need my content ready before we start?

No, but it changes the price and the timeline. Structure is planned first either way; if you have no content yet you get a page-by-page outline to write into, and copywriting can be quoted as a separate item.

Can I edit the site myself?

Yes, if that is in the scope. Options range from a small content editor for the pages you change often, to sending changes to the studio and having them made at a rate stated in writing. The right choice depends on how often the content moves.

Who owns the website?

You do. The code, the content, the domain and every account are in your name at handover, so nothing about the site depends on the studio staying involved.

Where is the site hosted, and what about maintenance?

Sites are built as static pages and hosted on a modern hosting platform in an account in your name, with any hosting fees paid to the host rather than to the studio. A static site has no server to patch and no plugins to update; changes and new pages are quoted as needed or on an agreed regular basis.

Is relying on one person a risk?

The site is built so it does not depend on one person: plain code, documented, tested and in an account in your name, so any competent developer could continue it. Availability during the project is agreed in writing in the quote.