Ferro & Stone
2023A regional architecture studio needed a portfolio site with enough restraint to let twenty years of built work speak for itself.
Ferro & Stone is a twenty-year regional architecture studio. This architecture firm website design project is a large-format editorial portfolio site built to let built work carry the page — the approach we take for any design studio or architecture firm website where the portfolio is the product.
+96%
New project inquiries
12,400
Portfolio views/mo.
5m 20s
Time on site
The challenge
Ferro & Stone had an exceptional twenty-year portfolio scattered across PDFs and a dated Squarespace site that undersold the quality of their work to prospective commercial clients.
Our approach
We designed a large-format, editorial portfolio system that treats each project like a monograph spread — full-bleed photography, minimal chrome, and a navigation system built for slow, deliberate browsing.
The results
- New project inquiries nearly doubled in the first year after launch.
- Average time on site of over five minutes, well above the studio's prior average of 45 seconds.
- Portfolio has since been referenced in two regional design publications.
How we solved it, decision by decision.
01
A large-format, editorial layout system
Each project is presented as a full monograph spread rather than a cropped thumbnail grid — the layout system Ferro & Stone's twenty-year portfolio needed to read with the same weight as the built work itself.
02
A full-bleed photography pipeline
We built a dedicated image pipeline so large-format architectural photography loads fast without compression artifacts, since image fidelity is non-negotiable for a studio whose portfolio is its primary sales tool.
03
Minimal chrome, navigation built for slow browsing
Interface elements were stripped back so nothing competes with the photography — navigation is designed for a prospective client deliberately paging through twenty years of work, not skimming a homepage in ten seconds.
04
A content model that scales past twenty years of projects
Projects previously lived scattered across PDFs and an aging Squarespace site. The new headless CMS structure lets the studio add new work without touching layout code, so the portfolio keeps growing without technical debt.
Services provided
Platform
Next.js, headless CMS, large-format image pipeline
What people ask about the Ferro & Stone website.
Why did project inquiries increase after Ferro & Stone's website redesign?
New project inquiries nearly doubled after launch because the large-format, editorial portfolio presents twenty years of built work with the same credibility signal that a printed monograph would carry — letting the work itself do the selling, rather than marketing copy.
What should an architecture firm website design prioritize?
For an established studio, the portfolio is the product — so the website's job is to get out of the way of full-bleed, high-fidelity photography rather than decorate around it with stock icons or heavy UI chrome. That's the approach we took for Ferro & Stone and apply to any architecture or design studio engagement.
What platform is the Ferro & Stone portfolio built on?
The site runs on Next.js with a headless CMS and a custom large-format image pipeline, letting the studio publish new projects directly without needing a developer to update layout code for each one.
“Cyberdude understood that our portfolio was the product. They got out of the way of the work instead of decorating around it.”
Have a project in mind?
Tell us about your business and where the current site is falling short. We'll reply within one business day with next steps.