I've been writing about websites since the late 2000s, when I got a job on one of Creative Bloq's forerunners, a web design title called net magazine. And believe me, in the two decades that have passed by since, I've visited a lot of creative agency websites.
If you look at a lot of anything, you tend to get snow blindness after a while. And so it's been with me. Through my tired and cynical eyes, most agency sites look like they've been built by the same person.
Looping showreel? Check? Big, bold type? Check. Meaningless waffle about how the studio is “building brands that matter” (barf). Check. An imposing contact form you sense no one human will ever be bothered to fill out? Check. I could go on, but you get the point.
That's why an email from Denver’s Bound Agency made me smile this morning. Its subject line described their new website, built by Denver studio Wunder Werkz, as "Messy, meaningful and made by humans". And it did not disappoint.
Tumblr feels
The logo is a handwritten scrawl. The navigation icons are wobbly doodles: a slice of cake, an arrow, a signpost, a camera. There are acres of white space (well, soft lilac space to be precise). And scrolling down the tiles feels like I'm flicking through a fanzine.
A collage of Dolly Parton and Tim Curry pictures, all big blonde hair and glam-rock make-up, overlaid with the words: “Pack your wigs, divas. We’re being called home.” A Juno Calypso photo of a woman in a pink heart-shaped bath, pinned with a paperclip. A Spotify playlist titled The Dregs of Summer. A Victorian paper-doll bust. If you spent any time on Tumblr in the late 2000s, it all feels very familiar.
While it's not a carbon copy of the era, many of the hallmarks are there. Found imagery, ironic captions, mixtapes, and a sense that someone’s personal taste is the whole point. Personally, I’m here for it.
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So why take this approach? Bound's founder Lauren “Lolo” Butts notes that in 13 years, their website has never won them a single client. “New business almost always comes from word of mouth,” she explains. “So this revamp wasn’t about lead-gen. It was about building a beautiful, fun place that feels like the person you were already told to talk to.”
I find this super-refreshing. It frees the site from having to do lots of boring jobs. There’s no “About us” page and no list of the services the agency offers. Instead, it’s a playground. You can pull a tarot card. You can rearrange a grid that keeps changing. You can build and share a cake. You can browse an estate sale guide called Let’s Go Hunting!
Handmade, for real
Almost a year ago I wrote about a tactile rebellion against slick, synthetic design, and turns out my article headline, "Messy, meaningful and made by humans", were the very words Bound used in their email to me. Flattery will get you everywhere, as they say; but I do genuinely feel this site lives up to that promise.
Every logo, doodle and arrow on the site is in Lauren's own handwriting. And even the eyeballs subtly signal an agency willing to look clients in the eye.
You can’t prompt your way to this kind of personality in Claude; it can only come from somewhere real. And for potential clients, this site is a handy vibe check. If it holds your attention, you’re probably the kind of client they want. If it doesn’t, you’ve both saved yourselves a meeting.
In short, it's a great example of a classic design maxim: why describe your message, your point of view, when you can just show it?
Tom May is an award-winning journalist specialising in art, design, photography and technology. He is the author of the books The 50 Greatest Designers (Arcturus) and Great TED Talks: Creativity (Pavilion). Tom was previously editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine.