Web Design History

Chicago web design was where the story started. Two decades later, the job is bigger than the website.

Before growth systems, before AI, there was one job: build a website that worked. Design Delulu’s Website Design practice is built on that history — including a decade at #1 for “Chicago web design.”

The Blueprint Era

What Blueprint Design Studio actually was.

Founded in Chicago in 2006, Blueprint Design Studio built websites, branding, and digital strategy for clients ranging from local businesses to national brands — the practice that went on to hold the #1 Google ranking for “Chicago web design” for roughly a decade.

This is the most modern version of the Blueprint site on record: a responsive rebuild from the site’s final years, built to work across phone, tablet, and desktop before “mobile-first” was standard practice.

The tools were simpler. The job was the same: build something people could find, trust, and use.

The Ranking Story

#1 for “Chicago web design,” roughly a decade.

Google’s algorithm changed constantly across those years, and the ranking held anyway. That wasn’t luck — it took the same fundamentals SEO still runs on today: technical structure, real content, and a site built to earn trust, not just traffic.

See how that experience runs through SEO Services today →

Selected Work

Three projects, three different design problems.

Not a full portfolio — the projects that actually test design and UX thinking. See the broader Chicago client list →

RedEye Chicago Tribune website design
RedEye (Chicago Tribune) — a daily youth-culture publication: dense content and constant editorial change, on a homepage that had to keep working under both
Northwestern University Center for Translational Imaging website design
Northwestern University CTI — a research center site where the real challenge was structure: organizing dense academic content into something a visitor could actually navigate
Navy Pier Passport tourism campaign website design
Navy Pier Passport — a tourism campaign site built for a visitor making a fast decision, not a researcher reading a report

Then vs. Now

The website used to be the whole job. Now it’s one system.

In 2006, a website’s job was mostly to exist: a digital brochure, built once, updated rarely. Getting found in search was a separate, simpler problem than it is today.

Now a site has to participate in acquisition, not just host a phone number: SEO built in from the structure up, content that keeps it alive, lead capture that turns a visit into a conversation, and automation that follows up before the lead goes cold. That’s the shift Design Delulu is built around — the Attention → Trust → Leads → Customers path, not a brochure with a contact page.

What Never Changed

The fundamentals didn’t move.

  • Clarity beats decoration
  • Usability beats cleverness
  • Credibility has to be earned on the page, not just claimed
  • A visitor needs a reason to act, not just something to look at
  • Getting found still matters as much as looking good once you’re found

Website Design, Today

Same standard. Modern price.

Design Delulu’s Website Design service is a flat $1,000 for the kind of site that runs $10,000–$15,000 at a traditional studio — built on the same fundamentals that won Chicago rankings two decades ago, with modern speed, mobile-first design, and SEO built in from day one.

See how Website Design works today →

Chicago, Then and Now

Still Chicago at the roots.

Design Delulu’s roots are in Chicago, and the growth-systems company that grew out of Blueprint still starts every conversation from that history. A Chicago office is planned and coming soon; in the meantime, Design Delulu works with clients nationwide, remotely — the same way it works with clients in Chicago.

Read the full Chicago story and client work →

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