Small on purpose. Nobody in between.
Chord33 is a design and engineering studio in Edmonton, on Treaty 6 territory. We build websites, web applications and real-time systems, and hand them over whole. There is nobody between you and whoever is doing the work.
Who you are hiring
Wisper Bird draws the design and runs the build. Every project goes through him, from the first conversation about what your organization does to the day he hands it over and it is yours. You email him, and he is the one who answers.
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. The arrangement is the expense, not the website.
We take on a small number of projects instead. Nothing gets drawn that cannot be built, nothing gets built that looks like an afterthought, and there is nobody to lose your request between two desks. If starting means waiting two weeks, you hear that before you pay anything, rather than after a deposit has put you in a queue.
- We work anywhere. Most of this job happens over email and a screen share, and always has. Where you are has never been the hard part.
- Based in Edmonton. Treaty 6 territory and the homelands of the Metis Nation. If you are local we come to your office, and if you are not, nothing about the work changes.
- You deal with us directly. No account manager, no translation layer, no queue. Your question goes to the person who is building the thing you asked about.
- One nonprofit client. Ben Calf Robe Society, which is where we learned how a grant cycle and a board meeting set the real schedule.
- Not only brochure sites. Behind every site we ship is the client dashboard, an application in its own right: sign in, edit any word, see every change and undo it, read the real numbers. Accounts, history and security review are inside what we do.
We are new. Price that in.
Chord33 is a young studio. One delivered client project, a short public record, and no decade of testimonials behind us. A studio this new that tells you otherwise is managing you.
We would rather say that first than have you find it out later. Everything under this line is a check you can run, or a promise that costs us and not you.
- 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 first. Half the fee starts the work. If the first designs are not right, you stop there and owe nothing more.
- The second half is due at handover. Not at a midpoint, and not before the site is live, working and handed over.
- You own it either way. Whatever has been built when we part company is yours. Not a licence to use it, the files themselves.
- We say when we are not the fit. Some projects need an agency with a support desk answering at midnight. You will hear that from us before you hire us, rather than after.
Four positions we actually hold.
If you cannot leave, the work was not finished. The files, the domain and the accounts are in your name from the day it ships. Leave tomorrow and nothing switches off.
Ownership is not negotiable
Static where static works. A page that opens at once on a bad connection in a community hall is worth more than an animation nobody waits for.
Fast is a feature
Admin panels and internal tools are where staff spend the day. Those screens get the same hours as the homepage, because that is where the work actually happens.
The boring screens matter
Flat fee, written scope, hosting cost named out loud. If something will be expensive or is a bad idea, you hear it before you pay for it, not after.
Say the real number
What we build with.
Chosen because they are fast, cheap to run and unlikely to strand you, not because they are fashionable.
No framework is listed because most sites do not need one. When a project genuinely does need one, you hear the reason before we reach for it.