About Groundnation
For more than 25 years, we’ve been helping businesses bring their ideas to life through thoughtful, well-crafted design. We work with clients across the UK and worldwide in industries including architecture, furniture, travel, leisure and construction.
We’re a boutique studio with big-agency experience. You get the creativity, skill, and attention to detail of a top London agency, without the cost or complexity. Our flexible way of working brings together a trusted network of creative and technical specialists, perfectly matched to each project.
Our approach is simple: listen closely, understand your goals and create something that not only looks great but works hard for your business. Over the years, this ethos has helped us build long-standing client relationships.
Dual expertise: digital & print
While the majority of our work is in custom website design and development, we also have solid experience in traditional graphic design giving you the rare advantage of a creative partner who can deliver both your digital and print needs with the same high level of design quality and brand consistency.
We build fully bespoke, SilverStripe-powered websites - fast, secure and tailored to your business goals and can extend that same design thinking into your printed materials, so every customer touchpoint feels connected and professionally executed.
With over a decade in specialist catalogue and brochure design, including work for multiple award-winning publications, we know how to create layouts that are as effective commercially as they are beautiful. And when it comes to branding, we work with you to shape a visual identity which speaks to your audience and works seamlessly.
What we offer beyond the screen
- Catalogue & brochure design from initial concepts to print-ready artwork, designed for clarity, impact and results.
- Branding & visual identity logos, typography and style guides that work across every medium.
At Groundnation, AI isn’t a buzzword, it’s a tool we use every day to give our clients a real advantage. By weaving AI into our SilverStripe workflow, we speed up performance, cut out repetitive tasks and unlock functionality that simply wasn’t possible before. The result: websites that are faster, smarter and better value.
Faster performance
AI helps us optimise websites at every level, from page load speeds to behind-the-scenes workflows. Your visitors enjoy a smooth, responsive experience, while you benefit from a site that performs brilliantly in search.
Smarter features
From custom landing page generators to our exclusive Groundnation Client Portal, AI lets us add powerful, tailored functionality that goes beyond off-the-shelf solutions and adapts to your business needs.
Better value
By removing old technical and budget barriers, AI allows us to deliver more for less. You get advanced, bespoke functionality at a fraction of the cost it would have taken in the pre-AI era.
Things we often get asked
Here are some of the questions we’re asked most often about our services, process and approach. If you don’t see what you’re looking for, get in touch, we’ll be happy to help.
Groundnation is an award-winning, design-led web and print agency with over 25 years’ experience. We work with an international client base across a range of industries including architecture, furniture, travel, leisure and construction.
The core Groundnation team provides you with continuity and your points of contact and our key personnel are:
James Richardson, Creative Director
James began his career at TA Design, one of Britain’s leading specialist catalogue companies, where he quickly rose to senior designer. There he produced award-winning catalogues across sectors ranging from fashion to hardware, while also creating acclaimed direct marketing and CRM campaigns for a re-emerging Marks & Spencer.
Alongside his print expertise, James immersed himself in the fast-evolving world of web technologies, designing and developing successful e-commerce and business websites at a time when digital was transforming how brands connected with their audiences. This combination of traditional design craft and technical innovation gave him a rare, multi-disciplinary skill set – blending proven print and marketing techniques with cutting-edge web design and development.
In 2005 he founded Groundnation, with a clear focus on design-led web development. Two decades on, James continues to deliver work that combines creativity, technical precision and commercial insight, helping clients achieve both standout design and measurable results.
Georgia Richardson, Studio Manager
Georgia brings a wealth of experience from her time running the design studio at Brighton’s Evening Argus newspaper, where she mastered the art of keeping calm under pressure in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment. At Groundnation she makes sure projects flow smoothly from start to finish, supporting both the team and clients every step of the way — and when it comes to the accounts, she’s got that covered too!
Away from the studio, Georgia loves giving her time to support elderly people in the community, helping them stay independent and continue living life to the full.
Every Groundnation website is built on our proprietary 'Boilerplate', developed on SilverStripe CMS. It delivers a wealth of tried-and-tested functionality, from flexible section blocks to an SEO landing page builder, while avoiding generic templates and unnecessary code, so there’s no compromise on design, performance or scalability.
We combine over 25 years of design and development expertise with the flexibility of SilverStripe CMS and the power of AI to deliver sites that are:
- Custom design - designed around your brand and audience, not a preset layout
- Fast - optimised for speed, accessibility, and SEO from day one
- Future-ready - built to scale and able to adapt as your business grows
- AI bot ready - using the latest 'schema' to prepare for next-gen search
Yes. All Groundnation websites include the latest schema markup and follow technical best practices to ensure they’re optimised for AI-powered search engines and content discovery tools.
Performance isn’t an afterthought, it’s part of our process from the start. We:
- Optimise images, scripts, and code for speed
- Use server-side caching and fast, SilverStripe-optimised hosting
- Build with clean, efficient code that avoids the bloat of template-based platforms
- Test and fine-tune for Google PageSpeed Insights before launch
We also monitor your site after it goes live and can make adjustments to maintain performance over time. This means your visitors get a faster, smoother experience and you benefit from better SEO rankings.
Yes, and we highly recommend it. Groundnation offers fully managed, 100% green-powered hosting that’s optimised specifically for the way we build websites in SilverStripe.
Unlike cheap shared hosting, where you’re left to deal with faceless chatbots, generic email replies, or long waits on the phone, our hosting comes with direct support from us. If there’s an issue, we’re alerted immediately and can fix it quickly, often before you even notice something’s wrong.
Because it’s tailored for SilverStripe, you get faster load times, better security, and more reliable performance than you’d get on a one-size-fits-all server. And because we manage everything for you, you don’t have to worry about the technical side, you get the benefits of premium hosting without the hassle.
Why choose Groundnation hosting over cheap shared hosting?
| Groundnation Managed Hosting | Cheap Shared Hosting |
| ✅ 100% green-powered (certified by Green-e® – www.green-e.org) | ❌ Often no sustainability policy |
| ✅ Fully managed & proactive fixes | ❌ You fix problems yourself |
| ✅ Direct support from us | ❌ Chatbots & long queues |
| ✅ SilverStripe-optimised | ❌ Generic, untuned setup |
| ✅ Fast issue resolution | ❌ Slow, reactive support |
| ✅ One point of contact | ❌ No dedicated contact |
We build websites using SilverStripe CMS, a flexible, enterprise-grade platform trusted by major brands and governments. Unlike template-based page builders, SilverStripe gives us complete freedom to design and develop exactly what your business needs, without unnecessary code or limitations.
It’s also the perfect match for our AI-driven approach, allowing us to integrate powerful, custom functionality, improve performance and ensure your site is future-ready.
Most Groundnation websites take around 4-6 weeks from design approval to launch, depending on size and complexity. We’ll give you a clear timeline before we start and keep you updated throughout the process.
If you need a site more quickly, we can sometimes offer accelerated build schedules, just let us know your deadline and we’ll work with you to make it happen.
Yes! All Groundnation websites come with 2 months unlimited support.
Optionally thereafter we offer tailored maintenance retainers to keep your site secure, up-to-date and performing at its best. That includes software updates, performance checks and fixing any issues before they become problems.
We can also help you make ongoing improvements, whether that’s adding new features, refining your design or improving accessibility, so your site continues to evolve alongside your business.
Page builders can work fine for very simple sites, but they come with trade-offs:
- Design limitations you’re restricted to preset templates and layouts
- Performance issues slower load times from bloated, one-size-fits-all code
- Scalability limits harder to adapt as your business grows
- Support gaps often limited to chatbots or generic help desks
At Groundnation, we build fully custom websites in SilverStripe, which means no template restrictions, faster performance and the freedom to integrate exactly the features your business needs. We also weave in AI where it adds real value, from performance improvements to advanced functionality and ensure every site we deliver is AI bot ready for the next generation of search.
Clients
We’ve had the privilege of working with clients across a wide range of industries, from local independents to international brands.
Anderson Orr
Arior
Bespoke Window Systems
Brands Incorporated
Build Nine Property Group Ltd
CDA Group
Central Windsurf
Château de la Baudonnière
Cliftons Projects
COGO Travel
Conscious Engineering
Coomber Associates
Cube Design
D20 Architects
Daniel Associates
David James Architects
Dixon Yacht Design
DMW Architects
Dune Design
Edward Parsley Associates
El Olivar
Emmetts on Exmoor
Expert Architect Studio LLP
Fineline Architects
Flint Architects
George and James Architects
Graves Son & Pilcher
Hartley Bennett
Hayward Smart Architects
Helyer Davies Architects
Humphreys Yacht Design
Howard Pease Architects
James Burleigh
Jane Duncan Architects
John Feely Architects
John Pardey Architects (JPA)
Jonathan Rhind Architects
LA Architects
Lawrence and Long Architects
LDN Architects
Light House Studio
Little Ships
LKMK Architects
Lomax Architects
Matthew Robertson
Miller Bourne Architects
Modus Furniture
Momentum Men
NPAS Architecture
OCR Architecture
One Garden Brighton
P Chapman Construction
Plumpton College
Ralph Freeman
Rock Clinic
Rockall Projects
Simply Architecture
Spatial Design Architects
Spoon Creative
Strom Architects
Studio 40
The Design Net
William Green Architects
Featured recent projects
Ready to take your next step? Let’s build a website that works as hard as you do.
Beautiful design and smart functionality go hand in hand. We’ll help you showcase your business at its very best.