Studio
Small on purpose.
Birds is a design and engineering studio in Edmonton, on Treaty 6 territory. Two people, no account managers, no layer between you and whoever is actually doing the work.
Who you are hiring
Wisper Bird leads design and delivery. Every project goes through him, from the first conversation about what your organization does through to the handover session at the end. He is the person you email and the person who answers.
Michael Pawlyk works on development across projects, taking on build work as it comes up. Between the two of us, more than one person understands how your site is put together.
Why small
Most agencies split design and engineering into two departments and put a project manager between them. That works, and it is why a straightforward website ends up costing thirty thousand dollars and taking seven months.
We take on a small number of projects instead. Nothing gets designed that cannot be built, nothing gets built that looks like an afterthought, and there is nobody to lose your request in a handoff. If that means you wait two weeks to start, we will tell you that rather than taking a deposit and putting you in a queue.
- We work anywhere. Most of this job happens over email and a screen share, and always has. Distance has never been the hard part.
- Based in Edmonton. Treaty 6 territory and the homelands of the Metis Nation. If you are local we will come to your office, which some clients want and others never need.
- You deal with us directly. No handoff, no translation layer, no project manager relaying questions to someone you never meet.
- Deep in the nonprofit sector. That is where our client work has been, and we understand how the funding and approvals actually run.
- Comfortable with hard systems. Real-time state, server-authoritative architecture, security review. Not only brochure sites.
Read this before you hire us
We are new, and you should price that in.
Birds is a young studio. One delivered client project, a short public track record, and no decade of testimonials behind us. Anyone telling you otherwise about a studio this new is managing you.
We would rather say it plainly and tell you how we take the risk off your side of the table.
- Talk to our client. Ask us for the contact at Ben Calf Robe Society and call them without us on the line.
- See the design before you commit further. Half the fee starts the work. If you see the first designs and it is not right, you can stop there and owe nothing more.
- The second half is due at handover. Not at some midpoint, and not before the site is live and working.
- You own it either way. Whatever has been built when we part company is yours, files and all.
- We will tell you when we are not the fit. Some projects need an agency with a support desk. We will say so rather than take the work.
How we think
Four positions we actually hold.
Ownership is not negotiable
If a client cannot leave, the work was not finished. Files, accounts and domains go in your name. We would rather earn the next project than trap you into it.
Fast is a feature
Static where static works. A page that loads instantly on a bad connection in a community hall is worth more than an animation nobody waits for.
The boring screens matter
Admin panels and internal tools are where staff spend their day. We design those with the same care as the homepage, because that is where the actual work happens.
Say the real number
Flat fee, written scope, disclosed hosting cost. If something will be expensive or is a bad idea, we say so before you pay for it, not after.
Capability
What we build with.
Chosen because they are fast, cheap to run and unlikely to strand a client, not because they are fashionable.
No framework is listed because most sites do not need one. When a project genuinely does, we will tell you why before we reach for it.