Today we’d like to introduce you to Peter Hulce.
Hi Peter, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My Design Story
My design story begins in childhood. As a kid, I loved colored pencils, stencils, and geometric design coloring books. One of my favorite memories is making custom-designed bookmarks for my Dad.
In my pre-teen years, I got into buying Christian music CDs, and I loved looking through the album artwork and lyric notes that were included. I started messing around in Microsoft Publisher, arranging song lyrics in various ways using the album artwork as style inspiration. Then, when I was 14, my older sister told me about “graphic design,” which prompted more design exploration, taking words like faith, hope, and love and creating designs with their definitions.
In high school, I taught myself the Adobe Creative Suite programs using various textbooks. I continued to explore a lot of different graphic design styles and began sharing my work on Instagram. By the end of high school, I had created my own logo and first website as well as some logos and websites for others.
After high school, I attended Rogue Community College to pursue an Associate of Science degree in Graphic Design. I spent the next 2 1/2 years attending design and art classes, all the while working part-time for a local advertising agency, which gave me a lot of real-world experience creating designs for a variety of clients that actually got put to use.
Immediately after graduation, I was hired full-time as the in-house graphic designer for a vitamin and supplement company based out of Ashland, Oregon. I got to work with a small team doing digital and print marketing design, packaging design, website design and development, and more. I have found over the years that I learn best by doing, so this allowed me to jump into a variety of different mediums and learn a lot on the fly.
Before taking this job, however, I considered the idea of full-time freelance. But after thinking about it and taking advice from family and friends, I thought it wise to gain experience working for someone else first before venturing out on my own. This proved to be beneficial; after working for this company for a little over a year, most of their operations moved down to Southern California, but I was kept on as a remote employee. This allowed me to transition to working from home full-time at the beginning of 2019.
One year later, in January 2020, that company didn’t want any more out-of-state employees, but they still wanted to work with me, so we switched to an independent contractor setup. This allowed me to learn the ins and outs of tracking my time on different projects, sending invoices at the end of each month, paying quarterly taxes, and the plethora of other things that come with working for yourself. It also gave me the confidence, freedom, and flexibility to take on other client work and diversify my income streams. Oh, and this is when I officially started my LLC called “PHD Studios.”
Over the next couple of years, it was a smooth transition from relying upon one client to provide all my income to having a variety of clients, eventually no longer working with the original company. Throughout this time, I was still providing general graphic design services. I began by marketing myself as someone who could do typography, photography, and graphic design. Later, I refined my messaging slightly to focus on logo design, graphic design, and website design. Eventually narrowing my focus again, specifically on website design, development, and maintenance.
I began my journey in website design by building sites on WordPress, which worked fine for a while, but I grew tired of platform limitations and the headache of constantly having to update themes and plug-ins. This led me to start building new client sites on Webflow in 2021. I loved being able to create truly custom sites in a visual designer interface built upon the core foundations of website development: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
During the summer of 2022, I joined their Webflow Experts program (now called Webflow Partners). And this changed everything. It gave me greater confidence in myself as a freelance website designer/developer, and allowed me to specialize in a high-quality, highly sought-after platform. The main perk of being in the Webflow Partner program is having a dedicated page on their site where people can go if they know they want to hire an approved Webflow partner, which has become a great avenue for gaining new clients. Because of the Webflow portal and referrals from past clients, I’ve never had to actively market myself or do any paid advertising.
Currently, when someone asks me what I do for work, I say with a smile, “I design and build websites.” If they ask for more details, I explain I exclusively work on a platform called Webflow, designing, developing, and maintaining websites for a variety of clients across the nation. My current tagline that has served me well for years is “Clean Webflow Sites”. That’s what I create.
By God’s grace, with the talents He’s given me and the opportunities He’s put in front of me, I’ve been able to build a sustainable, growing, and flexible business that allows me to work from home as my wife and I raise our three kids. This is only possible because of what Jesus has done in my life. He made me and saved me, and I work to glorify Him.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I design, build, and manage clean Webflow sites.
I specialize in Webflow design, Webflow development, and Webflow maintenance.
I’m proud of my website (phd.so), my short domain name, and my animated logo.
Everyone needs a website. Webflow is an awesome platform. I build Webflow sites for people who need one.
Any big plans?
I plan to continue offering Webflow design and development support with care, efficiency, and attention to detail, all the while valuing time and clear communication. As AI continues to grow and change the landscape, I plan to use it as a helpful tool and keep the human touch in the digital world. People need people.
Pricing:
- Websites are priced per project at a flat rate
- Ongoing support is handle through a monthly retainer
Contact Info:
- Website: https://phd.so
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/peterhulce
- Twitter: https://x.com/PeterHulce
