Sleight of Dev

Websites and web apps, built by hand.

Sleight of hand is the one piece of magic that admits it is technique. So does this. You get the finished thing — and the wires, any time you want to look at them.

General arrangement of the Sleight of Dev markA hand emerging from a sleeve shaped like a code angle bracket, pinching a playing card between thumb and forefinger. The same card is drawn again in phantom line as a floppy disk, marked as an alternative position. The drawing is dimensioned and its four parts are numbered.97624°1234CARD FACE TOCLIENT'S SPEC.A
Drawing no.SOD-001
Drawn byJ. Christian
ScaleNTS
Issued
Rev.A
Sheet1 of 1
Start a drawingTell me the job
  1. 1 Sleeve, cut as an angle bracket
  2. 2 Hand
  3. 3 Card
  4. 4 Alternative position: floppy

General notes

  1. 01All work is drawn and built by Jim Christian. There is no account team, and nothing is passed to a third party.
  2. 02Websites for people and organisations. Marketing sites, portfolios, and sites for performers and small businesses.
  3. 03Web apps and custom tools. Bespoke applications, internal tools, dashboards, booking and enquiry systems.
  4. 04Every build is handed over whole: the running site, the repository, the domain, and how to work it.
  5. 05The wires are shown on request. Ask how any of it works and you get a straight answer, not a trade secret.

Not shown on this drawingRates. Every job is quoted after we have talked about it, because a price before the question is a guess.


Details

Two client jobs and two of the studio’s own. Every one is online right now; open any of them and you are looking at the actual thing, in the state its status line gives.

A

BTN Crew

Scale 1:1btncrew.com(opens in a new tab)
The BTN Crew home page: a black screen with the Bring the Noise logo in green brush lettering.
  • Every route ends at one quote form
  • Their own logo carries the hero. No stock photography
  • The headline answers “can you do this job”

Brighton site and stage crew: festival builds, stage production, plant operators. The people who book them are usually on a phone, on site, with mud on it. The site has to answer “can you do this job, on these dates” before anything else.

Client
BTN Crew Ltd, Brighton
Type
Website — four pages
Status
Live
B

Marcus Garvey

Scale 1:1marcusgarvey.actor(opens in a new tab)
The Marcus Garvey home page: a headshot above his name, set on a near-black ground.
  • Headshot first. Casting recognises a face before a name
  • Name, then one word
  • About, then the full credit list below

A working screen actor — Hijack, Fool Me Once, Disclaimer, Four Lions, Broadchurch. Casting arrives knowing one credit and needs the rest inside a minute, then needs the agent’s number.

Client
Marcus Garvey, actor
Type
Website — single page
Status
Live
C

Framework Prompting

Scale 1:1frameworkprompting.com(opens in a new tab)
The Framework Prompting home page: a large serif headline reading “Build better prompts with strategy, not guesswork.”
  • One action, visible on every screen
  • The method stated in a single line
  • Before and after, side by side

A workbench that turns a vague task into a prompt worth reusing. Free, open source, no sign-up. Proof that the studio ships applications and not only pages.

Client
The studio’s own
Type
Web app
Status
Live
D

SketchScript

Scale 1:1sketchscript.app(opens in a new tab)
The SketchScript holding page: bold black type on ruled yellow notepaper reading “SketchScript v2 is coming.”
  • A holding page while v2 is drawn
  • One field, one promise

Paste a meeting transcript, get a hand-drawn sketchnote. Version 1 is retired while the renderer, library, editor and export are rebuilt. Shown here as it stands, mid-job.

Client
The studio’s own
Type
Web app — v2 in build
Status
Rebuilding

Sequence of works

  1. 01

    Survey

    Tell me the job. I ask what it has to do, and who for.

  2. 02

    Drawing

    You get the plan and the price. Nothing is built before you have both.

  3. 03

    Build

    I build it. You watch it run as it goes, not at the end.

  4. 04

    Handover

    It goes live. You get the keys, the repository and the instructions.


Issue an enquiry

Tell me what you need built and roughly when. I read these myself and reply to all of them.

What it has to do, who for, and when you need it.

Or write to [email protected]