Overview
Jack Passananti is a writer, calligrapher, and illuminator who hand-letters on archival paper: scripture, literary passages, family trees, wedding vows. Work like that sells on craft and trust, and neither survives a generic template. Over two months we built Broad Strokes a website that carries the same care as the pieces it sells, with a commission process, a priced catalogue, and checkout that lets a client commit without a back-and-forth email thread.
The Challenge
Bespoke work is hard to sell online. Buyers cannot touch the paper, cannot feel the weight of the gilding, and have no reference point for what a hand-lettered 16x20 should cost. Most calligraphy sites solve this by hiding prices behind a contact form, which loses the buyer. The brief was to make the value legible: show the real work, explain the process honestly, and publish the prices so a serious client can self-qualify before the first conversation.
A Constraint That Defined the Site: No AI Imagery
Jack was firm from the first consultation: every piece shown on the site has to be a photograph of real work, not a generated image. For a studio whose entire promise is that a human hand made this, that is not a preference, it is the product. It meant the build waited on photography, and it meant designing layouts around the pieces that actually existed rather than filling grids with stock. The constraint made the site slower to finish and considerably more honest.
What I Built
A seven-page studio site with a full commission funnel, from first look to paid deposit.
Landing Page
A single promise, words of enduring beauty created to be cherished for generations, carried by one full-bleed photograph of the studio desk rather than a wall of copy.
Commissions Page
Three clear categories: custom artwork, family heritage pieces, and special occasions, each with the kind of text the studio letters and the sizes available.
Published Pricing
Eight priced options across four formats, framed and unframed, from an 8x10 at $225 to a 16x20 framed at $1,148. No quote request required to find out what a piece costs.
Gallery
Photographed pieces, shot as real artefacts on real paper, giving buyers the texture and scale reference a product description cannot.
Process Page
The three phases spelled out: private consultation on intent and text, a composition study approved before lettering begins, then final artwork with optional gilding, diapering, rubrication, and framing.
Consultation Booking
A 30-minute private consultation bookable directly through Cal.com, because a short call is the cleanest way to scope custom work.
Inquiry Page
For clients who want to describe a piece in writing before committing to a call.
Stripe Checkout
Eight Stripe payment links, one per size and framing option, each tagged with a client reference so Jack knows exactly which piece was purchased without reconciling anything by hand.
Tech Stack & Hosting
Astro
FrameworkStatic generation, chosen so the large photographs of the work load fast and the pages stay crisp on a phone screen, which is where most people first see a piece.
Stripe Payment Links
CommerceFull checkout without running a store. No cart, no inventory system, no platform fee stacked on top of Stripe's own, and nothing for Jack to administer between commissions.
Cal.com
SchedulingConsultation booking that writes straight to Jack's calendar, removing the scheduling email thread entirely.
Cloudflare
Hosting (Free Tier)Edge-delivered and free to run, so the studio's only fixed costs are the domain and Stripe's transaction fee.
What the Client Said
Quan is phenomenal to work with; he designed a website for my calligraphy business and worked with me for two full months to make sure it was exactly how I hoped it'd be. Everything from personal preferences (i.e. not using AI, but taking actual photos of the work) to pricing structure was convenient and clearly laid out in both our consultations and contract. Quan went above and beyond expectations and would not accept any bonus/tip for his patience and effort.
My Role
Two months, end to end, from the first consultation to the first sale:
Why There Was No Development Fee
Jack tried to pay me a bonus at the end and I turned it down. A one-person studio putting months into hand-lettered work should be spending its money on paper, gilding, and photography, not on me. The guild takes fees from the clients who can carry them, which is precisely what frees us to build for the artisans who cannot. Two months of work, no invoice, and the site earns its keep every time a commission comes in.
Project Status
The studio is open for commissions and taking payment through the site. Because checkout runs on Stripe payment links and booking runs on Cal.com, Jack can add a size, change a price, or close his calendar without touching code. When the catalogue grows past what payment links handle comfortably, the Astro build is ready to take a proper storefront.
Selling Craft That Deserves Better Than a Template?
We build sites for makers, studios, and independent professionals whose work is the product. Tell us what you make and we will tell you how we would sell it.