After a long break from posting in this newsletter, I figured it was time to write something—especially with the release of this website redesign and new marketing material.
I started my web development journey back in 2021 when I made my first website using the Milkshake app. Like most things made on mobile, it felt too limited. I wanted to design fully custom sites instead of relying on templates. That’s when I switched to Webflow and made my first proper website. The learning curve was steep, and there wasn’t really anyone to teach me. But it was worth it. I stuck with Webflow for four years and counting.
That first site stayed online for a while, but it had one major flaw: it was still based on a template. When I was just getting started, the Webflow interface was confusing—so I settled on a prebuilt layout just to get used to everything. Then came summer of 2023. I finally had enough confidence to start fresh, completely from scratch. For some reason, I made two versions of the new site. One became my official website, and the other still exists online to this day.
Fast forward to now—yes, I’m redesigning it again. While it’s not a full rebuild this time, a lot has been reworded or reshaped to better reflect what the site’s actually about. Every main page has been redesigned or at least tweaked. Every main page has been redesigned or modified in some way. Somehow, this whole process ended up taking over five months. And since I spent that much time on it, I have to at least try to justify it. A lot of that time was spent tweaking settings, making sure everything looked clean and presentable. I went through countless design ideas before landing on a layout where the page content goes over the header when you scroll, making everything feel more physical and tactile. But that design caused some bugs with the footer so I ended up having to replace it with a more terditional grid style header.
At one point, I experimented with a glass effect, where the background was slightly transparent and blurred, so you could still see the header but in a more subtle way. It looked great—except for one issue: the blurred header text wasn’t exactly pleasing. The idea might make a comeback in the future, maybe combined with a parallax effect for more depth. Only problem? I’ve never done a parallax effect before, so I have no idea how it’ll turn out.
After four years of using an Ancient Egyptian hieroglyph as my logo, I finally decided it was time for a redesign. As I expand and start new projects, it’s become harder to incorporate the old logo into everything in a consistent way. The new logo still draws inspiration from the original, keeping things familiar, but introduces several changes to improve usability and design. It’s now a single color, making it much easier to work with in different contexts.
One of the biggest improvements is that the new logo is a vector, not just a PNG image. That means I can scale it to any resolution without it becoming pixelated. It also allows me to easily customize the color to suit different use cases. I still export it as a PNG when I need transparency, but working from a vector is a huge step forward.
You’ll see the new logo across all the main pages of the website. I’ve left the legacy pages (like Unblock Bing, Recreating Mission, and others) untouched, since I want to preserve them as they were originally intended. As for merchandise, new designs featuring the updated logo are on the way — but we’ll also keep the classic version available for those who appreciate its history and style.
As my businesses continue to grow and I expand the range of services I offer, the old structure just doesn’t work anymore. Previously, each service had its own brand and business — which meant that if a client needed multiple services, they had to make separate requests across different platforms. Adding a new service also meant launching an entirely new business, which quickly became overwhelming to manage and confusing for clients to navigate.
To fix this, I created Haorui Business — a centralized umbrella brand designed to keep everything streamlined, organized, and easy to understand. But I’m taking it one step further.
From now on, all of my services — from web design to branding and beyond — will be unified under Haorui Business. This shift will allow me to offer more flexible, tailored solutions that adapt to each client’s unique needs without the hassle of jumping between different brands.
I'm also raising my standards: In the past, I offered three tiers of web design — using Google Sites for basic, Wix for standard, and Webflow for premium. But going forward, Webflow will be the standard for all projects, ensuring high-quality, modern results across the board.
And here's the best part: Despite this upgrade in quality, pricing will actually be lower than before. I'm prioritizing affordable, high-impact solutions without cutting corners on design or performance.
This change isn’t just about making my life easier — it’s about giving clients a better, more cohesive experience with improved service at better prices.
If you’ve been following along for a while, you might remember that two years ago I tried to make a portfolio. I had no experience and no clue how to make one, so the portfolio page ended up empty and unfinished. Somehow I still published the site and left it like that for six months. Even the 2023 redesign didn’t include a portfolio page. Now, two years later, I finally have a complete portfolio. Feels good to say that.
That's all of the updates that I made. Follow me on the media-sharing platforms linked in the footer as those will be the platforms I will be prioritizing. (Excluding Twitter)
