Website Designer in Bristol

We’re on the lookout for an experienced website designer to join Studio Cotton, our independent website design studio in central Bristol. As a key member of a small creative team, you will help plan, craft, and deliver utterly splendid websites for our small business & podcasting clients. We pride ourselves on building effective business tools. Our websites look great, but we also design to maximise SEO, minimise accessibility barriers, maximise conversions, and minimise management time.

You’ll work directly with our founder/lead designer and be supported by our client manager. As a lean small business, every member of our team has direct interaction with clients, so succinct and friendly communication is essential. WordPress & Elementor Pro are our technologies of choice, so you would be building using those platforms. Previous experience with Elementor Pro or a similar page builder would be a considerable advantage, but our priority is to find a talented, professional, curious website designer with a penchant for helping independent brands to thrive online – and we can provide platform specific training where needed.

This is a mid-level role, but as a small team, we all occasionally pitch in with admin and tasks that some would consider more junior. Some weeks you could be creating an entire small business website from scratch, and the next you might be cloning and populating 12 near-identical mega menus. Oh, and we’re generally anti-generative AI here at Studio Cotton. We do not use AI for ideas, design, content, or communication – and never plan on doing so. Our clients choose us for our expertise, creativity, and authenticity, and all team members adhere to our AI Policy: How we use AI.

This role is based in our studio in central Bristol, and whilst we offer flexibility it is not suitable if you are seeking a remote position.

Expected duties:

• Website design strategy input & concept development
• Website design updates: banners, pages, menus, icons
• Device design optimisation
• Implementing strong SEO design architecture
• Communicating design decisions to the team & clients
• Creating website pages & templates in Elementor
• Tracking work against project scopes
• Self-managing workflow

Essential skills & experience:

• Website design across multiple businesses/brands
• Working knowledge of SEO in design
• High level of understanding of accessibility in website design
• Clear, friendly communication
• Email, Slack, & project management platforms
• Basic Google Docs/Sheets

Desired skills:

• WordPress
• Elementor Pro
• Other page builders platforms, e.g. Divi, Squarespace
• Adobe applications
• Google Search Console & Google Analytics
• CSS & HTML understanding
• Presenting design work

Qualities:

• A sincere curiosity for website design
• A clear design point of view
• Confidence in presenting creative ideas
• Team player
• Nice

Working at Studio Cotton:

We love to work hard, create great websites for lovely clients, and go home on time. Our studio environment is easygoing and respectful with a small team of 5-6 people in a renovated shop in the Old City. We’re quick to make decisions, open to new ideas, and optimisation-focused. We work a four‑day week, so whilst we can’t offer remote working, we can offer every single Friday to do whatever you want (and we’re closed between Christmas & New Years too). Studio Cotton is a Living Wage Employer, Better Business Act supporters, and part of the Cycle to Work scheme. We encourage applications and enquiries from all backgrounds, experiences, and identities. We’re committed to providing a workplace that supports and celebrates our talented team, and our small business community.

Please note that the salary listed for this role is per annum, not pro rata.