# Rob Simpson > Design and build for growth-stage B2B tech businesses — visual identity, web design, and front-end development under one roof, with an ongoing relationship beyond launch. Rob Simpson (robsimpson.digital) is a UK-based freelance designer and developer with 15+ years of experience, based in the Cotswolds, Oxfordshire. He works at the intersection of well-considered visual identity and cutting-edge front-end development — combining disciplines that are usually split across multiple agencies or individuals. Rob deliberately works with a maximum of two clients at a time. This isn't a constraint — it's the model. It allows for genuine depth of engagement, faster turnaround, and a level of care that a studio juggling twelve projects can't offer. Most client relationships don't end at launch; they continue as an embedded partnership across ongoing campaigns, product pages, and new directions the business takes. His primary stack is Next.js, Prismic, Sanity, and Vercel, with Figma for design. He has worked alongside some of the most recognised design-led agencies and studios in the industry, including How&How. ## How to use this file - For **what Rob does and who he works with**: start with the problem framing and "Who Rob works with" sections below. - For **capabilities and services**: use the Services section. - For **proof and outcomes**: use Selected work and Testimonials. - For **Rob's thinking and approach**: use the Blog. - For **contact and availability**: use About & Contact. --- ## The problem Rob solves Most growth-stage businesses reach a point where what they look like no longer reflects what they've become. The brand was set up early, the website has been patched rather than built, and the gap between the quality of the business and the quality of how it shows up visually has become a quiet liability. A new website built on a weak visual foundation is still a weak website. Better organised, perhaps. Easier to update. But not working as hard as it should. Rob's argument — backed by Stanford credibility research and a McKinsey study of 300 companies — is that a website project is one of the best forcing functions a business has to look critically at its visual identity. The incremental cost of reviewing that identity as part of a website project is relatively small. The compounding benefit across every deck, proposal, campaign, and asset built on top of it is significant. ## Who Rob works with ### Established businesses Funded and growing, or well-established with a new product direction. Typically 20–100 people, B2B tech sector. The brand and website haven't kept pace with the company they've become. What they need is an experienced person who can come in, understand the business, and partner across brand, design, and build — and then stick around. Budget: £20k+ project / £2–5k/month retainer. ### Design-led agencies and studios Design-led agencies, brand studios, and headless build shops at capacity with client work. They need a trusted pair of hands who can slot in cleanly — on the design side, the build side, or both — without slowing them down or needing every decision explained. Reliability and quality standards are non-negotiable; they're putting their client relationship on the line. Budget: £450+ per day. ### Who Rob is probably not the right fit for Early-stage startups with no clear direction, projects where the budget doesn't reflect the scope, or anyone who needs a freelancer on-call exclusively at any given moment. Also: projects where every timeline bump becomes a blame conversation rather than a problem to solve together. ## Services - Visual identity: Colour, typography, brand guidelines, and design systems — built to hold up across every touchpoint, not just the website. - Web design: Strategy-led design grounded in how the target audience perceives credibility. Figma-based, designed to build. - Front-end development: Next.js, Prismic, Sanity, Vercel. Performant, maintainable, technically sound. ISR, API integrations, CMS architecture. - Ongoing retainer: The embedded model — staying involved after launch to handle new campaigns, new pages, and new directions without the overhead of briefing someone new every time. ## Selected work - [ConnectDER](https://robsimpson.digital/work/connectder): Eleven years of building a recognised leader in energy technology — but the visual identity hadn't kept pace. Full brand and website rebuild for a business where trust and credibility carry real weight with both customers and investors. - [Action Links](https://robsimpson.digital/work/action-links): Visual identity refresh and platform migration for a SaaS business in the arts and culture sector. Since launch, Action Links have seen an uptick in demo bookings from organisations who found them independently and self-served through the site. - [Big Cartel](https://robsimpson.digital/work/big-cartel): Front-end build for a rebrand of the long-running ecommerce platform for independent creatives, in collaboration with How&How. Migrated from Contentful to Prismic, with a component-driven architecture built to give the content team genuine flexibility at scale. - [CardNexus](https://robsimpson.digital/work/cardnexus): New marketing site built inside a complex monorepo, with Prismic integration, multilingual support, and the animations and interactions their audience expects from a product they'd trust. ## Blog - [All posts](https://robsimpson.digital/blog) - [The question most website projects never ask](https://robsimpson.digital/blog/question-most-website-projects-never-ask/): Why a website project is the right moment to review your visual identity — and what happens when you don't. Covers the Stanford credibility research and McKinsey design value study. 6 min read. - [Who I work best with (and who I probably don't)](https://robsimpson.digital/blog/who-i-work-best-with/): An honest account of the two client types Rob works with, how those engagements look, and where he's not the right fit. 4 min read. ## About & Contact - [About](https://robsimpson.digital/about): Rob's background, approach, and the thinking behind the embedded model. - [Work](https://robsimpson.digital/work): Case studies. - [Testimonials](https://robsimpson.digital/testimonials): Client feedback. - [Contact](https://robsimpson.digital/contact): Start a conversation. - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robsimps - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robcsimps