About George
Digital designer and developer. Brighton native. Firmly of the view that a website should never make anyone want to throw their laptop out of a window.
The approach is simple: understand what you need, build it properly, and resist over-complicating things to show off.
The person
Brighton born, 35, and within walking distance of both the sea and the South Downs. Ten minutes one way is the beach. Twenty minutes the other way is proper countryside. Restless people need options.
Fifteen years of tinkering with websites and code, driven by a mild obsession with finding the most efficient way to do absolutely everything. Cricket is the religion. Gaming is the therapy. Focus arrives in bursts: a twelve-hour hyperfocus one day, a sudden urge to learn pottery the next.
Brighton suits that temperament. County cricket, fish and chips, then a gig in a converted church, all in one day. A city that celebrates everyone being a bit odd turns out to be a good home for someone who gets genuinely excited about a client's workflow problems.
The household
Stephanie, my wife, keeps things grounded and runs the most valuable quality-assurance process in the business: the Wife Test. Every finished site gets handed over and used with completely fresh eyes. She reliably spots what weeks of staring have made invisible.
Lucie, four, provides the second round of testing. If she can navigate a tablet without instruction, there is no excuse for a confusing interface. Her feedback ("Daddy, that's boring") carries more weight than most design reviews.
Phoebe the cockapoo and Benny the cat handle workplace morale, and serve as regular reminders that there is life beyond screens.
The business
Verdant Digital became official after years of fixing friends' broken websites for free. Charging for something already being done anyway seemed the logical next step.
The name stuck because it captures the point: growth, but the sustainable kind. Not the Silicon Valley "move fast and break things" approach. Build something solid that lasts.
The environmental angle is real, too. For every website added to the internet, trees get planted to offset it.
Clients are wherever they happen to be. Brighton is where the desk sits, not a service area.
Your website either brings in leads or it doesn't
Here is the reality most web designers avoid saying out loud: there is no middle ground.
If 500 people visit your site each month and two get in touch, that is a 0.4% conversion rate. Industry standard for service businesses is 2 to 5%. Somewhere between 8 and 20 potential clients are quietly walking away every month.
That is not a design problem. That is a strategy problem.
Most designers focus on making things look professional. The focus here is on making things work:
- Clear messaging that names the problem you solve, without the corporate fog.
- Conversion paths that guide people to act, rather than browse and leave.
- Ongoing optimisation, because no website works forever unattended.
The difference shows in your numbers within 30 days. Either more people get in touch, or things get adjusted until they do.
That is what you are paying for. Not just a pretty site.
No disappearing for three months. No design jargon.
Discovery & deep dive
A proper discovery call, then a detailed onboarding questionnaire covering your business, audience and goals. This is where what you need gets separated from what you think you need.
Design & first draft
The first version arrives with clear reasoning behind every decision. No mystery reveals. You see exactly what is being thought and why.
Feedback & iteration
You say what works and what doesn't. The design gets refined together until you are genuinely happy, not just worn down.
Pre-launch approval
Two final check-ins: one week before launch, and a few days before go-live. Nothing launches without your explicit sign-off. No "hope you like it" emails.
Launch & ongoing support
The site goes live and the support carries on. Day-to-day changes, fixes and questions are part of every package, because websites are not "set it and forget it" things.
Let's work together
Tell me what's broken, or what's missing. You'll get a straight answer on whether it's worth fixing and roughly what it would take. No pitch deck, no follow-up sequence.
Forms not your thing? Email George directly. It lands in the same place.