Hollis & Daughter

Rebrand · Website · Derby florist

From “please ring for prices” to orders by 1pm.

ClientHollis & Daughter Florists (fictional), est. 1987

ScopeBrand refresh, web design, build, photography direction

StackAstro, Tailwind, static hosting

The redesigned homepage: plum serif headline ‘Flowers with a Derby accent’, clear Order buttons and a large photo of peach roses.
The old Hollis and Daughter homepage: pink gradient banner in Comic Sans, a fixed-width table layout, cramped sidebar and small blurry photos.
Before · 2009After · 2026

Drag the handle, or focus it and use the arrow keys, to compare.

The problem

A lovely shop hiding behind a 2009 website.

Hollis & Daughter had a loyal walk-in trade and a website nobody under 50 could use. Weekend orders went to national chains.

  1. 1

    No mobile layout

    A fixed 960 px table. On a phone you pinch, zoom and give up, and 7 in 10 florist searches happen on a phone.

  2. 2

    “Please ring for prices”

    No prices and no way to order online meant every sale needed a phone call during opening hours.

  3. 3

    Photos that undersell the work

    Tiny, blurry thumbnails of genuinely beautiful arrangements.

  4. 4

    Clutter over clarity

    Eight nav links, a visitor counter and a “coming soon” box competing with the one thing people came for.

Process

Six weeks, four steps, one very patient shop dog.

  1. 01

    Listen

    A morning in the shop with Ann and Ellie Hollis. We logged every phone call for a week: 61% were “how much is…?” or “can you deliver today?”.

  2. 02

    Refresh, don’t replace

    Kept the family name and the plum the shop door has been painted for 30 years. Swapped Comic Sans for Fraunces, a warm serif with florist’s-ribbon curves.

  3. 03

    Design the order path

    Three taps from the homepage to “Continue to delivery”, with prices up front and a clear 1pm same-day cut-off.

  4. 04

    Build it fast

    Static Astro site with responsive AVIF images, no tracking scripts and system-friendly fonts. Hosted free on a CDN.

The identity, refreshed

Same family, same door colour, a typeface that finally matches the flowers.

  • Plum
  • Petal
  • Leaf
  • Rust
  • Cream

Before

~*~ Hollis & Daughter ~*~

After

Hollis & Daughter

Mobile first

Built for the phone in your pocket.

The old site rendered a shrunken desktop page on phones. The new one leads with the order button and today’s opening hours, and every tap target is at least 44 px.

Explore the new siteVisit the old site
The new site on a phone: large headline, Order button and photo stacked in a single column.
The old site on a phone: a tiny, zoomed-out desktop page that is impossible to read.
Before · 2009After · 2026

Results

Measured, not guessed.

Google Lighthouse (mobile), run on both pages of this demo on the same machine (2026-11-02). Scores out of 100.

Honest footnote: our recreation of the old site is served from the same modern CDN, so its speed score is flattered, and its SEO score also reflects the noindex tag we added to keep it out of search. The real gap is on phones and in the order path.

Lighthouse scores and page weight, old site versus new site
MetricOld siteNew site
Performance99100
Accessibility97100
Best practices100100
SEO69100
Largest Contentful Paint1.7 s0.9 s
Works on a phoneNoYes

What we’re aiming for

  • 3×

    online orders vs. phone orders, month 3

    Target · illustrative

  • −40%

    price-enquiry calls during busy hours

    Target · illustrative

  • 120

    flower subscribers in year one

    Target · illustrative

Client quote

Sample reviews (concept)

“Mum still answers the phone, but now it’s people saying thank you, not asking how much a dozen roses are.”