Working as a web designer in Islington and Hackney
I've lived in this part of London for 25 years. Seven years in Hackney first, then across the border into Islington where I've been for the last 18 – close enough to Newington Green that I can walk to most of the places I'd want to be. Before working from home I had a desk at the Greenhouse on Green Lanes, a small creative co-working space just next to the Green that I was genuinely fond of. It didn't survive Covid, which was a shame. A lot of things didn't.
Working as a web designer in Islington and Hackney for most of that time has given me something I didn't entirely anticipate when I started: a genuine connection to the businesses I work with, and to the neighbourhood they're part of. I meet most new clients at Jolene or Belle Epoque on Newington Green – both good enough that the coffee justifies the meeting regardless of whether anything comes of it. There's something about sitting across from someone in a place you both know and talking about their business that's different from a video call. You understand each other faster. You pick up things you wouldn't otherwise.
My kids went to schools in Stoke Newington, which over the years has turned into an unexpected source of work – word of mouth moving through school gates and local connections in the way it does in neighbourhoods where people actually know each other. I'm not sure that's something you can plan for. It just happens when you've been somewhere long enough.
The clients
This part of London attracts a particular kind of business. I've worked with architects, musicians, fashion designers, artists, film directors and a handful of people doing things I couldn't easily categorise. But also restaurants, yoga studios, local charities, small retailers. The mix is what makes it interesting – one week I'm building a portfolio site for someone whose work gets shown in galleries, the next I'm designing something for a business that serves the local community in a much more direct way. I find both equally satisfying, for different reasons.
One project that's stayed with me is Heckmann Design – Ralf Heckmann and Anna Saroukanova, architects and interior designers based locally. I built their first website, then they took a space on Mildmay Grove and opened a gallery in the basement of their studio in 2024. I built the new site for that too. Last year they hosted an exhibition of my digital paintings, Echoes Within, which was a strange and good feeling, showing work in a space I'd had a small hand in building. That kind of overlap doesn't happen often. When it does it's hard to explain.
Startups
A significant number of the businesses I work with locally are startups, and I've made peace with the fact that many of them won't be around in five years. It's one of the less discussed realities of working with new businesses – the work you do for them is real and considered, and then the business closes and the website disappears with it. I don't think that makes the work less worthwhile, but it does give it a particular quality. You're building something for a version of a business that's still figuring itself out, and what you make has to hold up under that uncertainty.
It's not unlike signage, which is the other thing I used to do. I designed a lot of signs on Brick Lane and around Shoreditch in the early 2000s. Walking those streets now, very few of them are still up. The businesses changed hands, the new owners had different ideas, and the signs came down. That's how it goes with most creative work, I think – you make something, it exists for a while, and then it doesn't.
Though occasionally you get to keep a piece of it. In 2003 I worked with an architect on a sign for Eastern Eye Balti House – acrylic three-dimensional letters and an eye drawn in the style of Le Corbusier's sketches, with white neon inside. It was one of those jobs where the client gave us enough room to do something genuinely interesting. About ten years later I happened to walk past and saw a couple of men taking the eye down – the new owner had decided it wasn't for them. I asked if I could have it. They said yes. It's been lighting my hallway ever since.
What working locally actually means
I'm not sure there's anything particular about Islington and Hackney that creates specific web design needs – businesses here want the same things businesses everywhere want: a site that works, that represents them honestly, and that helps them find the clients they're looking for. What's different is the relationship that builds when you're part of the same neighbourhood. I pass clients on the street. I eat in restaurants I've built websites for. I see the businesses I've worked with functioning and growing, and there's a quiet satisfaction in that which doesn't come from remote work – the sense that you've built a small part of something that exists in the physical world, not just online.
If you're based in Islington, Hackney or anywhere nearby and you're thinking about a new website or a redesign, I'm easy to find – and I know a couple of good places to have a coffee.
Get in touch to talk about your project.