BuiltforBusinessesThatMeanBusiness.

GiGi's Ice Cream & Cafe sits on Main Street in Laurel, Maryland, serving two very different crowds under one roof — the morning coffee-and-breakfast crowd, and the ice cream and dessert crowd that shows up any time after that. Before this project, all of it lived on a single Squarespace page that wasn't yet telling those two stories. Online pickup wasn't an option either, not until this build — and instead of bolting on a third-party ordering app, pickup now runs directly through the same Square system GiGi's already uses in person.

THE STRATEGY

Rather than build one generic homepage, the site splits the experience the way the business actually runs. "Start your day right here" and "Treat yourself, you earned it" are treated as two distinct moments with their own visual tone, tied back together by a single hero and navigation. GiGi's real hours, address, and Google rating anchor the page instead of placeholder copy, so it reads as a working local business from the first scroll.

THE BUILD

The homepage runs on a real shop video, a tabbed menu split into Ice Cream, Breakfast, Drinks, and Specials, and a dedicated Specials tab built around GiGi's Dubai-inspired treats. The menu pulls live from Square through a custom integration, so pricing and availability stay in sync with what's actually in the case that day, and a cart and checkout let customers order ahead instead of calling in. A dedicated hiring page routes applications straight to GiGi.

THE RESULT

The site went live at gigisicecreamlaurel.com on August 20, replacing the shop's old Squarespace page as the way customers find the menu and order online.

Direct Flow Plumbing came to us with an outdated Duda site that wasn't doing the business justice — no clear service structure, no lead capture beyond a phone number, and a design that didn't reflect the quality of their work. The opportunity wasn't just a redesign. It was a chance to build a complete digital infrastructure that could compound over time.

The Strategy

Before a single line of code was written, we mapped the business. Direct Flow operates across five distinct service lines — Residential Plumbing, Commercial Plumbing, Bathroom Remodeling, Water Damage Restoration, and Emergency Services — each serving a different customer with a different urgency, intent, and decision-making process. The old site treated all of them as one. That's a conversion problem.

The strategic foundation was simple: give each service its own dedicated space, its own story, and its own path to contact. Every page needed to do one thing — turn a visitor into a lead.

The Build

We migrated the entire site off Duda onto a custom Next.js application deployed on Vercel, giving the client full ownership of their digital infrastructure with significantly faster load times and a scalable foundation.

Each of the five service lines got its own landing page — complete with a compressed video hero, service-specific copy, and a structured lead capture form tailored to the exact questions a plumber needs answered before showing up. Every form submission fires a formatted email directly to the business. No missed leads, no back-and-forth.

The visual direction was intentional. A dark, cinematic design system built around the brand's navy and cyan palette, the Ethnocentric typeface, animated gradient cards, a water ripple interaction effect, and a bento grid layout that organizes the homepage without overwhelming it. The goal was to make a local plumbing company feel premium and trustworthy — because they are.

The site was also built as a Progressive Web App (PWA) — meaning customers can install it directly to their phone's home screen from the browser, no App Store required. On mobile, the installed version runs with a native app experience: a bottom tab navigation bar (Home, Services, Emergency, Call), a dedicated splash screen, offline caching across all pages, and a custom branded app icon. A /download page with step-by-step instructions for iOS and Android was built so the client can share it directly with customers.

Additional integrations include an AI chat assistant trained on the company's full service catalog, FAQs, pricing context, and emergency protocols — available 24/7 to answer customer questions and route high-intent visitors toward a call or form. HouseCall Pro was wired in for direct online booking on commercial inquiries. Resend handles all transactional email delivery.

SEO & AEO — The Long Game

The build was architected with an ongoing local SEO and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) initiative in mind, targeting dominance across Southern Maryland, Prince George's County, Washington DC, and Alexandria VA.

Every service page carries unique metadata, structured headings, and location-specific copy — the foundational layer for local search. But the longer play is AEO: optimizing not just for Google, but for AI-powered search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude, which are increasingly how people find service providers. The on-site AI assistant is part of this strategy — a trained knowledge base that mirrors the kind of authoritative, specific answers AI engines reward when surfacing local business recommendations.

The initiative is ongoing. As content, reviews, and backlinks compound, the site is built to rise — not just in traditional search, but in the AI-first discovery layer that is rapidly becoming the new front page of the internet.

The Result

A fully custom, installable web application that functions as a 24/7 sales engine across five service categories — capturing leads, answering questions autonomously, booking appointments, and building the digital authority needed to own a market.

Stack: Next.js 16, Tailwind CSS, Vercel, Claude AI (Haiku), Resend, HouseCall Pro, PWA / Service Worker, GitHub

A full-scope website and client portal concept for Lumina Aesthetics, a fictional high-end medical spa brand. The project demonstrates what a custom-built digital presence looks like for a physician-led aesthetics clinic — moving away from generic medspa templates toward something polished, intentional, and conversion-focused. Built with Next.js 16, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, and Framer Motion, the site covers every layer of the client journey: discovery, education, membership conversion, and post-visit care through a private portal. The design system uses a warm off-white palette, editorial serif typography, and restrained motion to reflect the brand's positioning at the intersection of clinical trust and luxury hospitality.

Velocity Fleet Systems is a full-stack fleet management platform concept built with: Next.js, TypeScript, and Framer Motion; Features a motion-driven marketing site, a real-time operations dashboard connected to the Samsara Fleet API, and an interactive Mapbox map displaying live vehicle locations. Deployed on Vercel.

Custom marketing website for an AI automation specialist, built with Next.js and Tailwind CSS. Features scroll-triggered animations, a preloader, responsive hamburger menu, sticky shrinking navbar, and a live contact form that delivers inquiries directly to the client's Gmail. Deployed on Vercel with full client ownership.