Pleiad Studio does strategy work for businesses in Birmingham, Alabama and beyond: research, positioning, naming and messaging, written down before anything gets designed. It starts with what you already have, the analytics, the reviews and the thing your best customer actually says on the phone, and it ends with an argument the whole project can stand on.
What it covers
- Research: your analytics, your reviews, your customers on the phone
- Positioning, and the one sentence that says why it works
- Naming, when the name is part of the problem
- Messaging for the site, the pitch and the campaign
- Site structure and page plans before a single pixel
This is for you when
You are not sure what the site should say, the current one gets traffic that never turns into calls, or a launch is coming and the story is not settled.
20%more inquiries became toursAn analysis found where families dropped off before a tour, and every fix aimed there.Buckner Retirement Services Read the project →
Asked about strategy
Do we need strategy if we only want a website?
Every project opens with a week of reading what you already have, and that week is part of the build. If the positioning is already settled, we say so and move straight to structure.
What do we actually get?
Positioning, messaging and page structure in writing. If we cannot say why it works in one sentence, nothing gets drawn.
How long does the strategy part take?
Move one is week one. Move two, drawing the argument, is weeks two to three. Design starts once both are agreed.
Pleiad Studio designs brand identities in Birmingham, Alabama: the mark, the wordmark, the type and colour system, packaging, print and merchandise, and guidelines your own team can run. You get the source files and a walkthrough, so the brand keeps looking like itself after we leave.
What it covers
- Identity: mark, wordmark and the system around them
- Type, colour and layout rules
- Guidelines somebody else can follow on a Tuesday
- Packaging, signage and print
- Merchandise people actually want to wear
- Naming, when you need it
This is for you when
You are launching something new, the current identity is holding the business back, or the brand looks different on every surface it lands on.
$6,000+in sales on opening dayIdentity, packaging, signage and launch social all shipped together before day one.Neptune’s Frozen Treats Read the project →
Asked about brand
We already have a brand. Is that a problem?
No. We keep what is working and build from there. Plenty of projects are a new website, search work or a film built on a brand that already fits.
Do you do packaging and merchandise?
Yes. Neptune’s Frozen Treats opened with tubs, signage and launch merch designed together, and Long Cove sold more than 1,500 pieces of merchandise built on a restrained type system.
What do we get at the end?
Source files, guidelines and a recorded walkthrough. The brand is yours to run, and we stay on the phone after handover, for as long as you are growing.
Pleiad Studio designs and builds websites in Birmingham, Alabama, from a single page with one job to a Shopify store with a real catalogue behind it. The same people design it and build it, you see it on a real URL by week four, and it ships fast, accessible and easy for your team to edit.
What it covers
- Design and copy, built around the one thing the page has to do
- Build on Shopify, Webflow or a hand written front end
- Online stores with a real catalogue behind them
- Speed, accessibility and technical SEO from day one
- Training, documentation and support that carries on after launch
This is for you when
The site is the front door and it is not bringing people in, or you are launching and need one that will.
11department pages rebuilt on ShopifyThe site walks like the aisles do, so the website shops like the store.Mark’s Outdoors Read the project →
Asked about websites
What does a website cost?
It depends on the pages and what they need to do, so we price it after the first conversation. You get the number before any work starts, and it does not move unless you ask for something new.
How long does a website take?
Most brand and website projects launch in about eight weeks, with a first look at your real website by week four. A single page is faster, especially when the strategy is already settled.
Can our team edit it after launch?
Yes. It is built so your team can change it without us, and it comes with documentation and a recorded walkthrough.
Pleiad Studio makes sites that search engines can find and answer engines can quote, from Birmingham, Alabama. SEO gets a business found on Google. AEO gets it named when someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google’s AI Overviews instead. Both start from a site that says plainly what it is and what it knows.
What it covers
- Keyword and question research for the searches your customers actually make
- Titles, structure and pages written to answer those searches
- Schema markup that tells search and answer engines what each page is
- Local search: Google Business Profile, reviews and consistent listings
- Performance, accessibility and the technical work that search engines reward
This is for you when
People are searching for exactly what you do and finding someone else, or you have asked an AI tool about your own industry and your name never came up.
Asked about SEO & AEO
What is AEO?
Answer engine optimization. More people now ask ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google’s AI Overviews and take the answer without clicking anything. AEO is the work that makes your business the one those tools name: clear pages, real answers and markup they can read.
How long before SEO shows results?
Months rather than weeks. Technical fixes count as soon as they ship, but rankings follow as search engines recrawl the site and come to trust it. You hear what to expect at the start, and you see what moves as it moves.
Can you guarantee a first page ranking?
No, and nobody honest can. What we can promise is a site that search and answer engines can read properly, pages written for the questions your customers actually ask, and a clear picture of where you stood before and where you stand after.
Pleiad Studio shoots, edits and grades film in Birmingham, Alabama: brand films, store films, campaign pieces and the short vertical cuts that social rewards, all from the same footage so everything looks like one brand. The film on our home page is ours, made in house.
What it covers
- Planning and shooting, on site
- Editing and colour
- Brand and store films for the site and the room
- Vertical cuts for social, from the same shoot
- Motion on the web: the parts of a site that move
This is for you when
You have a story that a paragraph cannot carry, a launch that needs a film in the room, or a feed that needs to look like the business.
65second store film, cut from a weekend of raw footageOne weekend of footage became the store film and the cuts for the feed.Mark’s Outdoors Read the project →
Asked about motion
Do you shoot on location?
Yes. Birmingham is home, and we travel when the shoot needs us in the room.
What comes out of one shoot?
The film for the site, the piece for the room and the vertical cuts for the feed, all from one weekend of footage, so everything looks like one brand.
Can motion be part of a website project?
It usually is. Film, motion and the site are planned together, so the footage is shot with the pages in mind.
Pleiad Studio does data work in Birmingham, Alabama: analysis, dashboards, market research and data products, for the questions where the answer has to come from numbers or it is worth nothing. It starts with what you already have and ends with one screen your team actually reads.
What it covers
- Analysis of what you already have: analytics, sales, reviews
- Market and competitor analysis
- Funnel reviews: where people drop off and why
- Dashboards and monthly reporting
- Data products, when the numbers are the product
This is for you when
Interest is not turning into customers and nobody can say where it stops, or a decision is coming that should not be made on a hunch.
20%more inquiries became toursAn analysis found where families dropped off before a tour, and every fix aimed there.Buckner Retirement Services Read the project →
Asked about data
What does a data project look like?
Buckner Retirement Services needed its site to turn interest into tours. A competitive market analysis found where families fell away between inquiry and tour, every recommendation went straight at that point, and 20% more inquiries became tours.
Do we need a lot of data to start?
No. Most businesses already have more than they use: analytics, sales, reviews and what customers say on the phone. We start there.
Do you set up analytics on the sites you build?
Yes. Every site we build is measured from day one, and the report is one screen your team reads monthly.