--- title: "WEBCRAFT" description: "A design service, by Judah of joodaloop.com" domain: "webcraft.joodaloop.com" --- # WEBCRAFT by Judah of [**joodaloop.com**](https://joodaloop.com) [judah@joodaloop.com](mailto:judah@joodaloop.com) I design and develop websites for people who like my brand of purposeful minimalism and restrained originality. Some of them also appreciate the handmade nature of my work — I aim for “good fit” (in the [Christopher Alexander](https://www.ryansinger.co/christopher-alexander-a-primer/) sense) between content and design, and build the final site myself. I am also a writer, so I take the quality of copy, the presentation of prose and the experience of the reader rather seriously. I help people pick writing formats and content styles so that they don’t get stuck with web-writer’s block. The web is a publishing platform with [specific](https://frankchimero.com/blog/2015/the-webs-grain/) powers and constraints, and our sites should act like it. > “I don’t like most websites and have wasted 100 hours trying to like mine. But I like your websites.” > “Judah is incredibly serious at being the best at creating personal websites. Basically like “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”… a craftsman dedicated to the craft.” > “I just loved your style and that you blogged and that I enjoyed your site, so why not hire you to make others feel that way when they land on mine?” > “Your work stands out in the age of AI - feels more human, intentional. And the more Claudeslop there is out there, the more the human approach stands out. In a sense, me hiring you is also me taking a stand for certain principles.” **You should hire me if you…** - want a perceptible level of quality, through typography and layout - need someone to [care](https://behzod.com/blog/being-hired-to-care) - want a site that gets to the point - need a designer who understands computers and the web - don’t mind being asked “what are we *actually* trying to do here?”, to prevent needless process **You should probably NOT hire me** if you want a website that… - scrolljacks, hogs bandwidth, or otherwise disrespects the end user - looks like an absolute work of art at first glance, but tires your senses with too many animations - lies to the user by pretending to be something it’s not - involves a gradient-heavy aesthetic - relies heavily on AI-generated assets **A full engagement starts at $2000**, which involves everything from design to deployment of the project. Custom pricing for more fractional work can be figured out as needed. I also have a “prelim process”, for people who’d like a smaller stepping stone towards a full engagement. You can pay me $350 to go through your brief, think about it, and give you my high level ideas and sketches. You can then judge if we seem like a good fit. **Reach out at [judah@joodaloop.com](mailto:judah@joodaloop.com)** to send me a brief (I have a template if you need one) or schedule a call with me. ### Personal sites Personal sites - James Stuber - joodaloop.com - Lauren Gilbert - Nick Arner - Pradyumna Prasad - Shreeda Segan  [jamesstuber.com](https://jamesstuber.com) 2024 “Japandi, Asian cafes, megacities, network graphs, public transit, A Pattern Language, journaling, cozy, minimal, outliner notetaking apps.”  [joodaloop.com](https://joodaloop.com) 2024 Current and longest-standing version of my personal site. A [labour](https://joodaloop.com/colophon/) of love if there ever was one.  [lgilbert.co](https://lgilbert.co) 2026 I must confess, with some shame, that the time between Lauren reaching out to me and me actually making the site was...11 months.  [nickarner.com](https://nickarner.com) 2023 For this site, I invented the horizontal table of contents (to not use up prime vertical space). This layout has inspired at least [one other](https://venki.com/notes/design-journal) site.  [OFFLINE]() 2023 “LaTeX, dense, structure, research paper, type, detailed.”  [shreedasegan.com](https://shreedasegan.com) 2023 “Whole earth catalog, field notes, journal, writerly, typewriter, modern, newspaper, editorial, earth, neutral, jewel tones, Christopher Alexander” ### Prose Prose - Anjali Shrivastava’s essays - Commoncog Case Library - Measure for Measure  [anjalishriva.com](https://anjalishriva.com) 2026 I co-wrote an essay with Anjali, there was no way I wasn't also going to make sure it looked good on her site.  [commoncog.com/c](https://commoncog.com/c) 2025 To date, the work I've done for Commoncog is the most challenging and fun layout problem I've had to solve. (I'm still working on it).  [measureformeasure.co](https://measureformeasure.co/) 2024 A site that is not ashamed of it's rubricated nature. ### Landing pages Landing pages - Aaron Swartz Statue Project - Augur - Calaveras - Paradigm 3 Institute  [OFFLINE]() 2025 Website to explain, and track the progress of, a statue-making project to honour Aaron Swartz.  [augurai.net](https://augurai.net) 2025 Website for a research consultancy.  [OFFLINE]() 2025 Startup trying to put me out of a job (they sell frontend RL envs).  [paradigm3.org](https://paradigm3.org/) 2026 I do indeed ask myself the question "how many good websites can I make with just good typography and straight lines?", but I haven't found the number yet. ### Info-sites Info-sites - Frontier of the Year - Map of my Internet - The Atlas of Innovation - The Mac App Directory - Things You Could Buy  [frontier.renaissancephilanthropy.org](https://frontier.renaissancephilanthropy.org/) 2026 A fun data presentation site for Renaissance Philanthropy, via Gavin Leech.  [map.joodaloop.com](https://map.joodaloop.com/) 2024 Perenially due for an update, this is a map of the internet I spend (or used to spend) time on.  [atlasofinnovation.org](https://atlasofinnovation.org/) 2025 A collaboration with 2 other designs and an illustrator, I was responsible for the interface quality and building the website itseld.  [mac.joodaloop.com](https://mac.joodaloop.com) 2024 A list of MacOS apps I consider to be the epitome of good native software.  [buy.joodaloop.com](https://buy.joodaloop.com) 2026 My most beautifully minimal site ever. ## A few words on websites (click titles to read) ### “each artist should create their own space on the web” From the beautiful essay “[My website is a shifting house next to a river of knowledge. What could yours be?](https://thecreativeindependent.com/essays/laurel-schwulst-my-website-is-a-shifting-house-next-to-a-river-of-knowledge-what-could-yours-be/)”, I pick out a few paragraphs: > To those creative people who say “I don’t need a website,” I ask: why not have a personal website that works strategically, in parallel to your other activities? How could a website complement what you already do rather than competing or repeating? How can you make it fun or thought-provoking or (insert desired feeling here) for you? How can the process of making and cultivating a website contribute to your approach? > > …each artist should create their own space on the web, for a website is an individual act of collective ambition. > > My favorite aspect of websites is their duality: they’re both subject and object at once. In other words, a website creator becomes both author and architect simultaneously. There are endless possibilities as to what a website could be. What kind of room is a website? Or is a website more like a house? A boat? A cloud? A garden? A puddle? Whatever it is, there’s potential for a self-reflexive feedback loop: when you put energy into a website, in turn the website helps form your own identity. I want people to always try and remember: This is **YOUR** website. You can choose what parts of you to show off, and how to display them. You might just want to make a list of things you love, and have that be your home on the web. You might want to build a [timeline of your life](https://colly.com/). You might want a music collection in the form of a magazine. You can have a page with weather, that switches its theme according to the current temperature in your city. A website could be a [commonplace notebook](https://piperhaywood.com/). It could look like an entire app. It might have cool [algorithmic art](https://tbts.tl/) on the home page. It might even be a [playable game](https://nateparrott.com/). Even a [minimal blog](https://manuelmoreale.com/) can feel extremely personal. ### “active engagement with the making of web pages” More and more, I see the terms “handmade” and “authentic” being waved around as so many crucifixes against the hordes of infinite output machines. While I dislike the fetishization that these frame usually leads to, there are at least a couple things that I admire about the effort. I quote below from “[A Handmade Web](https://luckysoap.com/statements/handmadeweb.html)” by J. R. Carpenter. First, re. an attitude of self-involvement with the internet: > I evoke the term ‘handmade web’ in order to advocate for an ongoing active engagement with the making of web pages and of web policies. > > In The Web We Lost (2012), Anil Dash writes: “In the early days of the social web, there was a broad expectation that regular people might own their own identities by having their own websites, instead of being dependent on a few big sites to host their online identity.” Involvement, through the act of personal production: > The term ‘handmade’ usually refers to objects made by hand or by using simple tools rather than machines. The result may be homely — as in a child’s clay ashtray — or exquisite — as in a pair of bespoke brogues. > > I evoke the term ‘handmade web’ to refer to web pages coded by hand rather than by software; web pages made and maintained by individuals rather than by businesses or corporations; web pages which are provisional, temporary, or one-of-a-kind; web pages which challenge conventions of reading, writing, design, ownership, privacy, security, or identity. ### Public praise for WEBCRAFT, a compendium > STRONGLY admire Judah’s deliberate and intentional process, style and craft. was reading through this solid, integrated intro and thinking isn’t this way of designing how *all* things should be done? > > [Evginii Menkov](https://x.com/_yabanjin/status/2101394974851895672?s=20) > wtf this is so good, @joodaloop i’m mad > > [nvpkp](https://x.com/nvpkp/status/1668437886021279744?s=20) > so from one glance i could tell @joodalooped made this site troynikov.io for @atroyn and that is bloody brilliant! > > [Rohit Krishnan](https://x.com/krishnanrohit/status/1716325944326021391) > Soooo I ended up being one of the lucky ppl that @joodaloop decided to design & build a custom personal website for (for free?!) > > I gave him a few vibes to work with & I love how it turned out 🥹 > > [Shreeda Segan](https://x.com/freeshreeda/status/1668389564799504386) > the personal site that @joodalooped did for @PradyuPrasad is truly a fine work of art. > > pradyu.netlify.app > > [Lewis](https://x.com/ctjlewis/status/1765236779576340951) > New website up thanks to the awesome design skills of @joodalooped: nickarner.com > > [Nick Arner](https://x.com/nickarner/status/1709661934084354130) > I’m going to keep loving on my new website (built by @joodalooped) > > I love that it’s all hosted on Github, so all I have to do to make any changes is open VS Code, make a local edit to text file, and push the changes > > no web browsers or logging into a CMS required > > so good > > [Michael Ashcroft](https://x.com/m_ashcroft/status/1817570819762995288?s=20)