Stella Rooflight: A new website for a specialist manufacturer.

Premium products deserved a better showcase.

Stella Rooflight build the only conservation rooflights on the market made from marine-grade stainless steel. They are products designed to last a lifetime, but their digital presence was struggling under technical debt left behind by a previous developer.

The team needed a way to manage a vast array of content, a range of resource documents, and high-resolution project galleries without wrestling with a clunky, badly prepared WordPress backend. The goal was to build a site that was as precision engineered as the products themselves.

They needed: a fresh design to match their beautiful branding, paired with a user friendly backend that served their business without getting in the way.

A sturdy structure, rebuilt from the ground up.

I stripped away the bloat of dodgy themes and unnecessary plugins and built a site from scratch that gives the client full control over their content without the need to navigate an overly complex user interface.

A fixed price for a fixed scope.

This was a fully defined brief with a clear set of requirements and I was able to quote a fixed price proposal. We agreed on the scope up front, locked in the budget, and delivered the site without any hidden extras, and no surprises for the customer.

Stella came to me with a clear set of goals and existing branding, which allowed me to quote precisely and then get on with coding. That said, when new ideas do come up mid-project, I'll sometimes need to quote additions separately so that clients are always aware of where their budget stands.

Stable, secure, structurally sound.

WordPress Advanced Custom Fields

WordPress was the ideal engine for this project. When built properly, it’s a high-performance, secure backend that the Stella team already knew how to use. Their brand needed a digital presence as structurally sound as the marine-grade steel they use in their products.

By employing bespoke code instead of a bloated theme with a dodgy interface, I ensured the user experience remained top-notch and fast. I keep plugins to a strict minimum, usually just Advanced Custom Fields. Everything else is hand-coded to eliminate unnecessary security holes that usually plague WordPress builds.

Faster to update, easier to find.

The new platform has transformed how Stella Rooflight interacts with their digital presence:

• Watertight reliability. A stable, secure, and always online website for when potential customers and architects want to learn more.
• Backend friction has disappeared, allowing them to launch new case studies and products in seconds, not days or weeks.
• Site performance is best-in-class, providing a smooth experience for users on any device, even with galleries of high-res photography.