Let's talk

← All articles

Dossier

Planning a website project

Budget, timeline, RFP, return on investment and CMS: straight answers to plan a website redesign with confidence.

Most website projects go wrong before the first design is drawn: an unclear budget, an unrealistic timeline, a brief that leaves out what really matters.

This dossier gathers what we have learned from planning and delivering websites since 2008. What a custom website costs and why, how long each phase takes, how to write a brief or an RFP that gets you useful proposals, how to measure the return, and how to choose the technology behind it all.

Scout Motors website, designed and built by Locomotive

Articles in this dossier (7)

  1. Creative Agency Website Cost in 2026
    A practical 2026 budget guide for award-level creative agency websites, from focused custom builds to immersive experiences and ongoing support.
  2. Enterprise Website Redesign Timeline: A 24-Week Roadmap
    A practical 24-week roadmap for enterprise website redesign, from discovery and narrative framing to WebGL staging, CMS migration, QA, and a controlled launch.
  3. RFP for Website Redesign: A Global Brand Framework
    Build a global website redesign RFP that gives agencies a clear business problem, testable technical requirements, and a fair scoring rubric.
  4. Brand Website Redesign ROI: What an Award Can Return
    An award-winning redesign can create value beyond visual recognition. Learn how to measure its effect on demand, sales efficiency, brand strength, press, and recruiting.
  5. Best Headless CMS Platforms for Award-Winning Creative Agencies
    Compare Sanity, Prismic, Storyblok, and Contentful for custom layouts, preview environments, localization, and WebGL asset workflows.
  6. How to write a website brief: a 10-point checklist
    A good website brief covers ten things: your goals and audiences, current problems, content, brand, technical needs, who manages the site, budget range, schedule, how you'll decide, and legal requirements. Two to four pages is usually plenty to get a real conversation going.
  7. 7 ways to level up client communication
    We’re stoked to share some skills we’ve learned as entrepreneurs and creatives. Hopefully, our authentic perspective about bringing companies real solutions through web design and digital strategy proves useful to our…

Let's work together

Ready to take your brand to the next level? Tell us about your project.

Start a project