Hook and Eye Company — Sitemap & Information Architecture

This is the page-by-page structure of the site I propose we build toward. It covers what exists at first-post (the base site you will have in hand within the three-week pilot) and where the features-for-later slot in when we bring them online.

The structure serves the two-audience framing from our consultation: commercial partners should feel the professionalism before they read a word; normies should be able to self-qualify and schedule without calling. Every page below earns its place against one or both of those jobs.

Top-level navigation

Six items, in this order:

1. Home
2. Work (what we called "Where You've Seen Our Work")
3. Services
4. Process
5. Who We Are
6. Contact

A note on ordering: Work sits second rather than last because it is the single strongest argument we can make to a visitor who does not already know you. A commercial buyer who clicked in from a referral wants to see the work; a normie wants to see whether the work feels like the register they need. Both get served by putting Work one click from the front door.

Who We Are sits fifth rather than second because you asked for the team to be unified, not front-and-center. The team page is there when someone wants it — it is not the thing the site is selling.

Home

Job. Set the register. Within three seconds, a visitor should know: (a) this is a real shop with real craft, (b) this is not a Wix template, (c) there is a person on the other end of the inbox. Self-qualification starts here — commercial leads feel professionalism; normies feel welcome.

Sections, in order:

1. Hero. Full-bleed image (jacket-with-tiger or equivalent hero moment, depending on design direction ratified in session 01). Tagline set over it. Single call-to-action: See our work (to Work page) and Book an alteration (to Contact → Calendly).
2. Elevator pitch. Two or three sentences beneath the hero. Answers what you do for someone who just landed here cold. Written plainly; no jargon; no "we believe."
3. Featured work carousel. Three recent projects, image-led, each linking to its case study on the Work page. Pulls the visitor into depth without requiring a click.
4. Social-proof strip. Logos of commercial partners (Lego, Texas Rose, and whichever others you clear). Quiet row, not a trophy case. Badge-permission check goes with this — I will flag any logo we need written approval for before it goes live.
5. Short "who we are" teaser. One paragraph, one photo, one link to the Who We Are page. Puts a face on the shop without hijacking the home page.
6. Footer. Contact email (real, not a Wix-flavored forward), physical shop info (city/neighborhood; street address only if you want walk-ins), social links, privacy/terms links.

First-post vs. later: all six sections ship at first-post. The carousel may only have two projects at first-post if we are still pulling assets — that is fine; the structure holds.

Work

Job. The portfolio. Deep enough that a commercial buyer can assess fit for a new commission; legible enough that a normie can see "oh, they do things like what I need."

Structure:

• Index view. Grid of projects, each with a hero image and a one-line title. Filterable or sortable is a nice-to-have, not required at first-post — the index itself is enough if the projects are strong.
• Per-project case study. Each project is its own page. Structure within:
• Hero image
• One-paragraph context (what the project was, who commissioned it, what the constraints were)
• Body imagery (build shots, details, finished work)
• Credits (your team, the commissioning party, photographer, any collaborators)
• Depth posture. We show what we built and that we built it to a standard. We do not give away the how — the specific techniques, patterns, and judgment calls that make your work your work. This is a deliberate line. Your craft is not a tutorial.

First-post vs. later: ship with three to five strongest projects at first-post. Add projects over time as you finish or clear new ones. The page is designed to scale from five projects to fifty without needing to be rebuilt.

Services

Job. Set expectation for the register of work you do. This is where a normie figures out whether their need fits your shop, and where a commercial buyer sees the range.

Structure:

Two columns or two sections, depending on the design direction:

• Commission & Build. The capital-W work — theatrical, film, commercial, bespoke. What you actually do for clients who come to you with a brief.
• Alterations & Tailoring. The walk-in side — weddings, formal, repair, adjustment. What the Austin local is looking for when they search "alterations Austin."

Each section lists what is in scope and — just as importantly — what is not. The "what is not" language helps normies self-qualify: we don't do X, for X we'd recommend Y. That screen-out is doing you a favor every time it works.

Pricing. I am not proposing we publish prices. Alterations can have a "starting at" line if you want a normie to know whether they are in the ballpark. Commission work stays per-project. Your call.

First-post vs. later: ship at first-post. Expand the "what is not" lists as real examples come up.

Process

Job. Walk the visitor through what it is like to work with Hook and Eye, because — as you said on the 17th — so few people commission custom work anymore that they genuinely do not know what to expect.

Structure:

Four steps, in order:

1. Inquiry. They contact you. What that looks like from their side (email or book a fitting slot), what they should bring (photos, references, inspiration, rough idea of use), what to expect in reply time and tone.
2. Fitting. What happens in person. Measurements are taken. Sometimes photos are taken of the work-in-progress for the team to reference. This is where the privacy language lives, in plain English: we take measurements, we sometimes photograph work in progress, we do not share or sell any of that, and we delete it when the job is done. Full formal privacy policy is one click away for anyone who wants it.
3. Build. The shop work. What happens between the fitting and the fitting-two. Some peek behind the curtain — a photo or two of the shop, of the team at work. This is the "seeing the sausage get made" page you told me about.
4. Final. The hand-off. What finished looks like, what to expect at the second fitting, what to do if something is off after the piece leaves the shop.

Each step is one short section with one image. Not five paragraphs. The point is to lower the friction between I have a thing I want made and I am ready to email.

First-post vs. later: ship at first-post. The imagery can refresh over time — this page gets better the more real work we document behind it.

Who We Are

Job. Put a face on the shop without reducing it to a lineup of résumés. You named this clearly: when someone hires Hook and Eye they are hiring the shop, not a row of grad-school bios.

Structure:

• Shop paragraph. Two to three paragraphs on the shop itself — when it was founded, the through-line of the work, what the shop is about. First person plural, not third.
• Team photo. One strong group shot if we can get one; otherwise a grid of portraits in matching treatment. Hand-lettered or editorial captioning depending on design direction.
• Short bios. One or two sentences per person, not CVs. Names, roles, what each person brings to a job — Callie handles wedding and formalwear; Samantha runs the front of house and keeps the trains running; Emma builds and alters; Lindsay keeps the whole thing upright. (That is a guess at the shape; you tell me in session what is actually right.)
• A quiet acknowledgment of origins if you want one — the shop's history, mentor lineage, the things that matter to the craft. Optional. Some shops like this, some find it precious.

First-post vs. later: ship a provisional version at first-post using what we have. Refine once we can run a short photo session — this is the page most improved by good photography.

Contact

Job. Let the right contact happen with the lowest possible friction. Different visitors need different paths.

Structure at first-post:

• Primary CTA: mailto button. Opens the visitor's email app with the right address pre-filled and a subject line that will route well on your end. This bypasses the Wix form-spam mess entirely — the email arrives from their real inbox, not from a Wix intermediary that triggers your spam filter.
• Secondary CTA: embedded Calendly. For alteration drop-offs and fittings. Booking without phoning is what many of your normies actually want — you said this on the 17th about millennials, and I think you are right about the broader generational pattern too. Calendly's free tier covers what we need; we can integrate it with Google Calendar so your calendar stays the source of truth.
• Shop address and hours. In case they want to walk in.
• Phone number — prominently placed but not as the primary CTA. The people who want to call will call regardless; the people who would rather not are the ones we are trying to serve here.
• "For commercial inquiries" — a short paragraph with Samantha's direct contact path, since commercial buyers mostly do not find you through the site but when they do, they need to reach the right person fast.

Structure later:

• Personalized contact form with attachment upload. For inspiration photos and references, so a normie can send their three wedding-dress Pinterest saves without starting a twenty-five-email thread. This is a phase-two build because doing it right requires the privacy policy drafted, an attachment-handling backend chosen, and the spam-protection layered correctly. First-post stays with mailto.

First-post vs. later: mailto + Calendly + address/hours + phone + commercial-inquiries paragraph ship at first-post. Attachment-upload form ships phase-two.

Legal pages

Job. Be correct, be readable, exist where someone who wants them can find them. Not the site's voice — its scaffolding.

Pages:

• Privacy Policy. The full policy. Includes the measurement-and-photo language in formal form, the Google Workspace usage disclosures, any analytics disclosure (we will decide in session what analytics we use), cookie language if applicable. Linked from the footer of every page.
• Terms of Service. Standard terms for commissioned work and alterations. Scope, timelines, revision policy, cancellation, payment terms. We will draft from a reasoned starting point, not a template. Linked from the footer.

First-post vs. later: ship provisional drafts at first-post; revise toward lawyer-review-ready over the next month. I would rather have a thoughtful interim version live than a copy-pasted template.

Features-for-later — where they slot in

Three features came up on the 17th as exciting but not session-01-urgent. Here is where they live when they arrive:

• Wedding silhouette selector. Lives as a sub-page under Services → Alterations & Tailoring, or possibly as a standalone page inside Services. Callie is the subject-matter expert; this ships when we can build it with her. Natural phase-two or phase-three.
• Inspiration-photo upload portal. Lives inside the Contact page as the richer form treatment (see "later" note under Contact above). Depends on the privacy-policy draft being in place and on picking an attachment-handling backend.
• Backend integrations. Scheduler auto-populating Google Calendar (can happen at first-post via Calendly); payment receipts flowing to a spreadsheet (phase-two or phase-three, depending on how you want to take payment); text notification when someone books (nice-to-have, not urgent). All possible with Google Workspace plus a small layer.

None of these are blockers for first-post. The sitemap is designed so each can be added without restructuring what is already live.

What this means for session 01

The IA above is proposed, not decided. Specifically, I would love you to react to:

1. Nav order. Does the Work-second / Who-We-Are-fifth ordering match how you want visitors to move?
2. Services split. Commission & Build vs. Alterations & Tailoring as two sections on one page — is that the right cut, or do you want them on separate pages?
3. Who We Are treatment. Shop-paragraph-plus-short-bios vs. something else. You told me on the 17th you wanted unified, not individual grad-school bios — the above tries to honor that, but there are other shapes.
4. Contact page primary CTA. Mailto first vs. Calendly first. I have put mailto first for commercial and normies who want direct contact; Calendly is the second path. You may have a different intuition.
5. First-post scope. Is everything above plausible to have live as a base site within three weeks? I think yes, but your read on how much time you actually have over the next two and a half weeks is the binding constraint.

See you Friday at 11:00.