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Chapter IV

The work

Three sites the studio built, still in use, still open to anyone who wants to check them.

04 / 04

What this chapter is

Three sites,in use right now.Not case studies.Addresses. Open oneand check this page.

A portfolio usually shows the best frame of something that no longer exists. Every site in this chapter is running at a public address, and the address is printed beside it.

The marks are the studio’s reading, not the client’s. Each one points at a decision visible in the capture it is struck on, checkable twice: against the plate, and then against the site.

Nothing here claims a number. No lift, no conversion, no award. The argument is the build itself, which is why the evidence is never retouched.

What is a portfolio worth once the work is live? If the site still loads, the case study is the address, and everything else is decoration.

How a site is read

Every mark in this chapter was struck the same way: open the live site, shoot it at a fixed frame, and write down only what is visible in the shot.

  1. 00

    The capture

    • Headless Chromium
    • 1440 × 900, at 2x
  2. 01

    The first screen

    • What loads before a scroll
  3. 02

    The two asks

    • What the business is for
    • Filled controls only
Victory with cornucopiaBronze · Roman · 40–68 CE
  1. 03

    The apparatus

    • Address, hours, phone
  2. 04

    The honest gap

    • What it declines to claim
  3. 05

    The check

    • Every link resolves

Restaurant01 / 03

Artifact I

Wayla NYC

home-style Thai cooking on the Lower East Side, with the table, the bar and private events on one path

www.waylanyc.com. Open the live site, opens in a new tab
The home page of Wayla NYC, captured from the live site.
  1. Booking never leaves the masthead

    Catering and a table are the two things a restaurant site is asked for, so both sit in the header on every page, at every depth. Nobody has to find their way back to a landing page to book.

  2. One room, shot once

    The hero is a single photograph of the dining room in an arched crop, not a carousel of stock plates. It is the room you will actually sit in, and it carries the whole first screen.

  3. Hours before the scroll

    Service times are set in the first screen rather than in a footer, because the question that sends someone to a restaurant site at 6pm is whether the kitchen is open.

A restaurant system where booking a table and reading the menu are never more than one move apart, at any depth.

www.waylanyc.comCaptured 18 September 2026Dionysos · bronze · Roman · 50 BCE–50 CE

Coffee Roaster02 / 03

Artifact II

Cafe Mandalay Hills

an organic coffee roaster’s site, from the slope the beans grow on to the cup

www.cafemandalayhills.com. Open the live site, opens in a new tab

What opens

  1. About Us
  2. Contact
  3. Our Mission
The home page of Cafe Mandalay Hills, captured from the live site.
  1. Made with Care
  2. Coffee for the Soul
  1. I

    A nav that names the argument

    Four sections, and one of them is Love for Earth. The sustainability case is given a place in the navigation rather than a paragraph at the bottom, because it is the reason to buy this coffee.

  2. II

    The roast, on the plant

    The first screen is coffee cherries on the branch, with the roast named over them. Origin and product are one image, which is the whole claim this roaster makes.

  3. III

    It does not pretend to sell

    The shop is not built yet, and the site says so where a basket would be. A storefront that takes no orders is worse than an honest one that is coming.

A roaster’s system that gives sourcing and sustainability the same weight as the product, and does not pretend to sell before it can.

www.cafemandalayhills.comCaptured 30 September 2026Demeter · terracotta · Athens · 400s BCE

Healthcare03 / 03

Artifact III

Bismillah Drugs Inc

a neighbourhood pharmacy that answers in five languages, with refills, delivery and care under one sign

www.bismillahdrugs.com. Open the live site, opens in a new tab
The home page of Bismillah Drugs Inc, captured from the live site.

A pharmacy set out as its own shopfront: the language, the refill and whether the door is open, before the first scroll.

  1. I

    The language is a control

    Five languages sit behind a switch in the masthead, beside the one filled button. The headline makes the promise in words, and the sign along the foot of the screen spells pharmacy in all five.

  2. II

    Open or closed, answered first

    The band under the masthead carries the address, a number to call and a line that changes with the hour: whether the shop is open now, and until when. Most visits are for that answer.

  3. III

    The shop, drawn as it stands

    The picture is the storefront on Broadway, drawn: the fascia sign, the window decals and a door sign that reads open or closed in step with the band above. The page is the shop’s sign, not a brochure.

www.bismillahdrugs.comCaptured 30 September 2026Kore-shaped unguent flask · terracotta · Greek · 525–500 BCE

dotlace

Talk to ahuman.

No forms with fifteen fields. Write two lines about what you’re building and a real person answers within a day.

Or write to us

Available for new projects · Creative Studio · New York