About
Independent web design, based on Magnetic Island.
Magnetic Island Web Design is one person, not an agency. I design the site, write the code, set up the hosting and answer the phone. If you work with me, you work with me.
Archie Collinson
Design & build · Magnetic Island, QLD
Who you'd work with
One person, start to finish.
The person who answers your first email is the person who designs the site, writes the code, sets up the hosting and fixes it if something breaks. Nothing gets handed to a team you've never spoken to.
I started this because a lot of very good small businesses here are being let down by their online presence. Not because the owners have done anything wrong. Running a cafe or a tour operation is a full-time job on its own, and a website is easy to put off and hard to judge the quality of. So people end up with something dated, something slow, or a Facebook page doing a job it was never designed for.
My approach is simple. I tell you what's worth doing and what isn't, quote a clear price for it, and build something that works properly on the phone your customers are actually holding. If part of what you want won't help your business, I'll say so before you pay for it. That occasionally costs me work, and I'd rather that than sell someone a website they didn't need.
I do enjoy the technical side: the performance work, the accessibility, the privacy engineering. None of it is the point on its own. The point is whether your phone rings more.
How I work
Four things I try to get right.
Say what something is, plainly
No jargon in quotes, no jargon in meetings, and no pretending a simple job is complicated to justify a bigger invoice.
Build what the business needs
A three-page site that brings in enquiries beats a twelve-page site nobody finishes reading. Scope follows the business, not the other way round.
Take the technical side off your plate
Domains, hosting, certificates, search setup, email delivery. You shouldn't need to learn any of it to have a good website.
Be findable afterwards
One of the most common complaints about web designers is that they disappear. Being on the island makes that harder to do.
Real project experience
Things I've actually built.
I'd rather show you two real projects than claim a decade of experience you can't verify. Both of these are live, both are mine, and both say plainly what they are.
Travel & adventure
Kyrgyzstan Expeditions Co.
A live travel business I built from the ground up. My own project, not a client engagement.
This website
Magnetic Island Web Design
The site you're reading now. Designed, built, tested and deployed by me.
The standard
What you get, whatever the budget.
A smaller project is a smaller scope, not a lower standard. These four things are in every site I build.
Design
A site that looks current and considered, because for a lot of customers it is the first impression your business makes.
Engineering
Built by hand rather than assembled from a page builder, so it stays fast and can be changed later without starting again.
Accessibility
Keyboard navigation, real labels, readable contrast. It widens who can use your site, and search engines reward it too.
Privacy
No tracking by default, and a privacy policy that describes what your site actually does rather than generic boilerplate.
Where
On the island, and across the water.
Based on Magnetic Island and working with businesses here, around Townsville and across North Queensland. Meeting in person is genuinely useful for a first conversation, and it's easy to arrange if you're nearby.
Distance isn't a problem for the work itself. Everything can be done remotely and reviewed on a private link. But if you'd rather sit down with the person building your website and point at things on a screen, that option exists here in a way it usually doesn't.
