An independent designer's notebook on brand systems and web craft.https://lildollydesigns.com/en-gbhttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/notes-from-a-quiet-week/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/notes-from-a-quiet-week/A few small things I noticed in the studio this week, written down before they stop being interesting.Sat, 02 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/why-im-still-on-a-static-site/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/why-im-still-on-a-static-site/I get asked, with mild concern, why I do not use a 'proper' platform. The answer is short.Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-hiring-slowly/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-hiring-slowly/The single thing the studio has done right, on the hiring axis, is to hire slowly.Wed, 22 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/quiet-typography-in-2026/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/quiet-typography-in-2026/Type is going quiet again, and the work is better for it.Wed, 08 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/when-type-is-doing-the-layout/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/when-type-is-doing-the-layout/On the smallest sites, typography is the layout. Treat it that way.Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/web-design-fundamentals/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/web-design-fundamentals/A short guide called Master the Basics of Web Design used to live on this site. The link still works. The contents do not. This is the rewrite.Sun, 08 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-forms-that-ask-too-much/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-forms-that-ask-too-much/Most forms ask for more than they need. The cure is to delete fields, not add validation.Thu, 26 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/quiet-redesigns/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/quiet-redesigns/The case for changing very little, very deliberately.Sat, 14 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-matching-things/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-matching-things/When a client asks for the website to 'match the brand', they mean one of two things. Almost never both.Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/what-i-read-in-2025/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/what-i-read-in-2025/The year-end reading list. Thirteen things, mostly not from the design press.Thu, 08 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/books-that-shaped-this-year-of-work/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/books-that-shaped-this-year-of-work/A short list of books that earned their place on the studio shelf this year.Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/sending-bad-work-back-to-yourself/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/sending-bad-work-back-to-yourself/The single most useful review process I have ever adopted.Tue, 11 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/ai-and-the-brand-designer/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/ai-and-the-brand-designer/What these tools currently help with, what they do not, and where I have settled.Sat, 11 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/picking-a-serif-in-2025/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/picking-a-serif-in-2025/A list of serifs I trust for client work, in roughly the order I reach for them.Tue, 02 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/stylesheets-that-age/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/stylesheets-that-age/The CSS in old projects ages worse than the rest of the codebase. A few habits that help.Tue, 19 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-copying/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-copying/The line between influence, homage, and theft is not as clear as the design press tends to suggest.Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/writing-the-first-page/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/writing-the-first-page/The first page is the page most clients spend the least time on and the page that does the most work.Mon, 30 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/designing-for-email/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/designing-for-email/Email is the worst medium I design for and one of the most important.Thu, 19 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/information-architecture-for-small-sites/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/information-architecture-for-small-sites/Most IA writing is about large sites. The small-site case has different rules.Sun, 25 May 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/personal-sites-not-on-substack/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/personal-sites-not-on-substack/A short defence of the personal site as a thing distinct from a newsletter platform.Thu, 08 May 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/when-the-client-asks-for-animation/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/when-the-client-asks-for-animation/Most animation requests are requests for the wrong thing. A short note on what to do about it.Tue, 29 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/the-italic-problem-in-display-type/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/the-italic-problem-in-display-type/Most display italics are too tight. A short typography post on why.Tue, 15 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/reading-spring-2025/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/reading-spring-2025/A short list of things worth reading right now.Wed, 26 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/when-a-brand-outgrows-its-system/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/when-a-brand-outgrows-its-system/Every brand I have worked on for more than two years eventually outgrows the system I designed for it.Tue, 04 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/colour-at-small-sizes/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/colour-at-small-sizes/The colour you specified is not the colour the user sees, when the colour is small enough.Fri, 21 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/first-container-queries/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/first-container-queries/I have been waiting for these since 2018. They have been in stable browsers for two years. Here is what changed.Sat, 08 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/figma-plugins-worth-keeping/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/figma-plugins-worth-keeping/Most Figma plugins are noise. The small set that has earned a permanent spot in the studio's library.Thu, 30 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-taking-the-new-year-quietly/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-taking-the-new-year-quietly/The first two weeks of January are the loudest and least useful weeks of the design year.Tue, 14 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/the-work-that-didnt-happen-this-year/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/the-work-that-didnt-happen-this-year/A short year-end note before the studio closes for two weeks.Sat, 21 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/why-i-send-something-printed/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/why-i-send-something-printed/Every project I finish, I send the client one printed thing in the post. This is why.Tue, 19 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-exporting-cleanly/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-exporting-cleanly/The handoff from design to engineering is mostly an export problem. A few habits that make it less of a problem.Mon, 04 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/designing-a-small-commerce-site/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/designing-a-small-commerce-site/Most small commerce sites do not need Shopify. They need a clearer answer to four questions.Wed, 30 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-running-out-of-grids/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-running-out-of-grids/Something quietly excellent has happened to CSS layout in the last three years and I am not sure most of us have caught up to it yet.Sat, 12 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/small-studios-and-the-deck-problem/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/small-studios-and-the-deck-problem/Most pitching is done in decks. Most decks make the pitching worse. A short note on what to do instead.Wed, 25 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/pricing-for-small-studios/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/pricing-for-small-studios/A short answer to a question I keep being asked, and an argument against day rates.Wed, 04 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/photography-for-small-brands-without-a-budget/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/photography-for-small-brands-without-a-budget/When commissioned photography is not an option, the studio falls back on a small set of practices that produce surprisingly competent results.Sun, 25 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/variable-fonts-in-production-four-months-in/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/variable-fonts-in-production-four-months-in/An update on the variable-fonts-only experiment, with what worked, what did not, and a few patterns that surprised me.Thu, 08 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/variable-fonts-finally/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/variable-fonts-finally/They shipped in 2016. I started using them seriously in 2023. A short post about why.Tue, 30 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/the-case-against-hover/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/the-case-against-hover/Hover-only interactions have been the wrong default for over a decade. Most sites still ship them.Fri, 12 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-reading-old-internet-writing/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-reading-old-internet-writing/The internet writing from 2005 to 2015 is, on average, better than the internet writing from 2015 to now. A short note on why.Sun, 30 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/the-case-for-fewer-materials/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/the-case-for-fewer-materials/Most of the brand systems I am asked to fix have the same problem: too many things in the kit.Tue, 18 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/restarting-a-notebook/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/restarting-a-notebook/The site has been quiet for a long time. This is the rewrite.Wed, 22 May 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/going-quiet-for-a-while/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/going-quiet-for-a-while/A short note before the writing here pauses.Mon, 18 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/three-pages-i-keep-redesigning/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/three-pages-i-keep-redesigning/On every site, three pages are harder to get right than the rest. They are not the ones you might expect.Mon, 04 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/type-at-small-sizes/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/type-at-small-sizes/Most typography decisions are made at large sizes and applied to small ones, where they fall apart.Mon, 21 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-invoicing-earlier/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-invoicing-earlier/The single highest-leverage cashflow change a small studio can make.Mon, 28 Feb 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/redesign-vs-rewrite/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/redesign-vs-rewrite/Half the redesign briefs that land in the inbox are actually positioning briefs in disguise.Mon, 14 Feb 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-taking-less-work-this-year/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-taking-less-work-this-year/The studio is going to work on fewer projects in 2022. A short note on why.Tue, 18 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/year-end-notes-2021/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/year-end-notes-2021/A short list of things that worked, things that did not, and things to carry into next year.Mon, 20 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-working-with-photographers/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-working-with-photographers/The single highest-leverage external collaboration the studio runs is with the photographer.Tue, 23 Nov 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/what-fast-means-now/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/what-fast-means-now/The performance bar for a small-business website has moved. Most small-business websites have not.Tue, 02 Nov 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-working-with-copywriters/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-working-with-copywriters/The single highest-leverage thing a small studio can do is bring a copywriter onto the project at the same time as the designer.Mon, 25 Oct 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/writing-for-the-client-to-read-aloud/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/writing-for-the-client-to-read-aloud/Most marketing copy fails the simplest test. Read it aloud, and listen to whether it sounds like a person.Tue, 12 Oct 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/three-colour-pickers-and-the-wrong-one/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/three-colour-pickers-and-the-wrong-one/Most colour decisions are made in the wrong colour space. A short note on which to use.Tue, 28 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/mostly-inter/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/mostly-inter/Why I keep defaulting to Inter, and the small list of cases where I do not.Mon, 13 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/site-architecture-is-not-navigation/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/site-architecture-is-not-navigation/Most small businesses confuse the two and ship sites where the navigation is doing a job the architecture should have done.Tue, 31 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-reading-the-manual/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-reading-the-manual/The CSS specification is a more useful read than most CSS articles.Tue, 10 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/what-i-want-from-a-design-system/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/what-i-want-from-a-design-system/Most small studios do not need a 'design system'. They need a kit.Wed, 21 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/dark-mode-without-dark-mode/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/dark-mode-without-dark-mode/Most sites do not need a dark mode. They need a less aggressive light mode.Wed, 02 Jun 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/case-studies-that-age-well/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/case-studies-that-age-well/Most agency case studies are written for the pitch and read badly two years later.Tue, 04 May 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/a-spring-reading-list/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/a-spring-reading-list/A few things worth reading right now, mostly not from the design press.Mon, 19 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/designing-without-a-homepage/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/designing-without-a-homepage/Some sites do not need a homepage. The studio has shipped three this year that do not have one.Mon, 29 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/when-a-logotype-is-enough/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/when-a-logotype-is-enough/Most small businesses do not need a logo. They need a logotype.Mon, 08 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/three-things-i-changed-about-the-studios-process/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/three-things-i-changed-about-the-studios-process/Quiet operational changes from the last six months that are worth writing down.Mon, 22 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-not-redesigning-everything-in-january/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-not-redesigning-everything-in-january/January is the worst month to start a redesign. Most of the work that happens this month gets undone in March.Mon, 25 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/closing-notes-for-a-strange-year/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/closing-notes-for-a-strange-year/A short year-end post before the studio shuts for the holidays.Sat, 19 Dec 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/reading-late-2020/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/reading-late-2020/A short list of things worth reading at the end of a long year.Wed, 02 Dec 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/the-year-of-small-print-runs/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/the-year-of-small-print-runs/Print did not die. It got smaller, more considered, and more frequent.Sun, 22 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/what-the-studio-buys-from-klim/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/what-the-studio-buys-from-klim/The single foundry the studio licenses from most. A short note on why.Tue, 13 Oct 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-rapid-pivots-and-small-brands/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-rapid-pivots-and-small-brands/Most small businesses going through a pivot do not need a redesign. They need a reduction.Wed, 09 Sep 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-ordering-small-batches-of-paper/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-ordering-small-batches-of-paper/A short note on where to source paper for small studio work, when the project does not justify a full mill order.Wed, 26 Aug 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/print-at-home-stop-apologising/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/print-at-home-stop-apologising/Most design work that gets printed at home would be worse if it had been sent to a professional printer.Tue, 04 Aug 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/the-necessary-work-of-accessibility/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/the-necessary-work-of-accessibility/An accessible site is a sign of a designer who has finished the job.Sat, 18 Jul 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/the-hidden-cost-of-plugins/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/the-hidden-cost-of-plugins/Every plugin is a piece of software the studio is responsible for, even if it did not write any of it.Tue, 30 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/when-the-brand-was-wrong-from-the-start/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/when-the-brand-was-wrong-from-the-start/Some brand systems were never going to work. Recognising it is half the studio's job.Tue, 23 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/when-the-brief-keeps-changing/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/when-the-brief-keeps-changing/Half my projects this quarter have been re-scoped mid-engagement. A few rules I have found useful.Sat, 30 May 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-naming-things/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-naming-things/Naming is the design problem most designers do not realise they have.Wed, 13 May 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/when-clients-send-their-own-colours/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/when-clients-send-their-own-colours/The client's preferred colours are almost always wrong. A short post on what to do about it.Wed, 29 Apr 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/designing-for-a-studio-gone-remote/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/designing-for-a-studio-gone-remote/Three weeks into running a design practice without an office. A few notes from the middle of the change.Sun, 12 Apr 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/hand-coding-in-a-figma-world/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/hand-coding-in-a-figma-world/A short defence of the designer who still writes the front-end code.Sun, 22 Mar 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/a-404-page-that-does-something/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/a-404-page-that-does-something/Most 404 pages are wasted real estate. A short post on what to do with them instead.Wed, 04 Mar 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-briefs-that-arrive-in-pdf/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-briefs-that-arrive-in-pdf/If the brief arrives as a 30-page PDF, the brief is not yet a brief.Wed, 19 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/notes-on-starting-the-year-slowly/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/notes-on-starting-the-year-slowly/January is two days old. Here is the only resolution worth keeping.Thu, 30 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/year-end-notes-2019/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/year-end-notes-2019/A short year-end note on what worked, what did not, and what to carry into 2020.Fri, 20 Dec 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-not-having-a-portfolio/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-not-having-a-portfolio/A small number of design studios have stopped putting their work on their website. They are doing better than the ones that have not.Mon, 18 Nov 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/reading-late-2019/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/reading-late-2019/A short list of things worth reading at the end of the year.Tue, 29 Oct 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/what-i-want-from-a-cms-in-2019/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/what-i-want-from-a-cms-in-2019/WordPress is no longer the default. A short tour of what the studio is actually using.Sun, 22 Sep 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/browser-support-is-no-longer-the-conversation/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/browser-support-is-no-longer-the-conversation/We spent a decade arguing about IE. The argument has moved.Thu, 15 Aug 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-the-small-print-of-small-studios/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/on-the-small-print-of-small-studios/The contract is the second-most important document in any studio's business. Most small studios do not have one.Mon, 08 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://lildollydesigns.com/articles/first-post/https://lildollydesigns.com/articles/first-post/A short note about the new site and what is going to happen on it.Wed, 12 Jun 2019 00:00:00 GMT