We're serious about web design and it shows in the strength of our work and our attention to detail.

about us

Who we are

Whitespace Design started out as two-person partnership between Emily Heath and Christian "North" Kuras in 2004. In 2010 we were delighted to be joined by Kate Towsey. We work from offices in London and the home counties.

All our content strategy, information architecture, visual design, HTML & CSS coding, ExpressionEngine CMS development, search engine optimisation and project management work is done in-house. This means our clients are always able to talk directly with the person who is actually working on their project. This approach allows us to be cost efficient, and enables us to offer a more flexible, responsive service than some larger agencies.

History

Whitespace Design was founded in 2004 in order to meet a demand for affordable, standards compliant, HTML web design in the arts and cultural sector.

Coming from visual art backgrounds we initially came to the web as a place to show portfolios of art. This demands that the website function as a blank space within which the work can be foregrounded. We now work with a variety of clients and we have found that this approach is widely applicable and results in clean, easy-to-use sites, while allowing for minimal, sophisticated design.

Web Design Experience

We initially combined building up our own web design portfolio with part-time work for larger web design companies. Working as lead developers on a variety of projects, we gained invaluable experience working on large-scale websites for established charities and cultural organisations, as well as commercial clients.

Working for so many public organisations, we became well practiced in producing websites to strict accessibility requirements, and came to appreciate the benefits of adhering to web standards for even the smallest of web projects.

Since the summer of 2007 we have been working full-time on our own projects, but continue to provide HTML coding services for individual designers and design agencies.

Web standards and accessibility

Web standards are guidelines for web development which make for websites that are easy to access and understand by everyone. We strongly believe in adhering to web standards no matter what the size or type of project we take on.

Standards compliant websites have many advantages, all of which are ultimately cost effective:

  • Search engines can access and understand web pages better and so increase your visibility in web searches.
  • Web pages can be easily understood by people with disabilities, from people with partial sight or cognitive difficulties, through to visitors using browsers that read the web pages out loud to them.
  • Older browsers will be able to display the basic content of your website and future browsers will continue to understand the information you intend to convey.
  • The initial development of websites is quicker and easier.
  • When you choose to have your website redesigned, any developer worth his or her salt will be able to pick up the code and work with it.

Our Clients

We have designed and built websites for the diverse collection of individuals, organisations and companies listed below. The websites we developed with these clients are described in full on our portfolio page.

We have also provided a variety of XHTML / HTML and CSS coding services to the following. All links provided in this list will take you to specific websites we have coded.