ABOUT , the studio behind Empire Designs, Herkimer NY
Small, on purpose.
01 · Position
What we are
The claim Most studios sell deliverables. We build advantages.
Empire Designs exists for a specific kind of client: the small business good enough to win, invisible enough to lose.
Every engagement gets the same system: positioning, design, and search built together. A logo without a strategy is decoration, and a site nobody finds is a filing cabinet.
02 · The founder
One point of contact
Founder & principal
Gianni Luce
Empire Designs is run by Gianni Luce: designer, developer, and the single point of contact on every engagement. The person who hears your goal on the first call is the person who positions, designs, builds, and measures against it. No hand-offs means nothing gets lost in between.
He holds a B.S. in Communication and Media Design from SUNY Polytechnic Institute. The degree matters less than what it drilled: a message, a layout, and the code underneath it are one argument, and an audience only ever sees the weakest part of it. Empire is built on that premise, which is why design, brand, and search ship together rather than in sequence.
The studio grew out of one observation: small businesses rarely lose to better competitors. They lose to more visible ones. Everything Empire ships, from the brand system to the structured data underneath it, exists to close that gap.
03 · Principles
Non-negotiable
What we
won't flex on.
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Point of view
Commit to a direction and execute without flinching. Templates are how businesses disappear.
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Strategy first
Research before mood boards. Positioning before pixels. Every design decision traces back to a business reason.
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The invisible stuff
Speed, accessibility, semantics, structured data. The craftsmanship you feel but never see.
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Fewer, deeper
A handful of clients at a time, each with senior attention end to end. Depth is the deliverable.
04 · Method
Five steps, in order
Strategy first.
Pixels second.
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Discover
Your market, your competitors, your customers. We start with research, not mood boards.
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Position
One clear claim your business can own. Everything downstream is built to prove it.
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Design
Editorial, intentional, and specific to you. No templates, no borrowed aesthetics.
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Build
Semantic, accessible, and fast. The craftsmanship you feel but never see.
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Grow
Search, analytics, and iteration after launch. A site that compounds instead of decays.
FAQ · Questions
Straight answers
The
fine print.
How much does a custom website cost with Empire Designs?
Custom builds start at $5,500 with fixed, transparent scope. No hourly surprises. Final price depends on page count, e-commerce, and brand work. Most projects run 4–8 weeks.
Do you work with clients outside of Central New York?
Yes. Empire Designs is based in Herkimer, NY and works with clients nationwide, while also serving businesses across the Mohawk Valley, Utica, Syracuse, and Albany regions.
What makes Empire Designs different from other web designers?
Strategy comes before design, we build design, brand, and SEO as one system, and we take only four projects at a time, so you get senior-level attention with zero hand-offs. No templates, ever.
How long does a website take to build?
Typically 4–8 weeks from kickoff to launch, including a strategy phase, design, build, and a two-week SEO and QA hardening pass before going live.
Do you offer SEO and ongoing support?
Yes. Search programs start at $650/mo and monthly care plans start at $110/mo for hosting, updates, and maintenance. A Momentum Bundle combines both at 20% off for 90 days.
Will my website show up on Google?
Every build ships with technical SEO, structured data, and local search setup to a documented launch standard, plus sub-2-second load times, the foundation Google rewards.
Do you redesign existing websites?
Yes. We rebuild dated sites around new positioning, conversion architecture, and technical SEO, often the fastest way to turn an underperforming site into a lead source.
Who will I be working with?
You work directly with founder Gianni Luce. No account managers, no team hand-offs. That's why capacity is capped at four engagements at a time.
Is my website accessible and mobile-friendly?
Every Empire build meets WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility and is designed mobile-first: layouts are decided for the phone, not just shrunk down from desktop.
How do I get started?
Book a 20-minute discovery call. No pitch deck, just a straight conversation about your business and whether we're a fit. Call (315) 542-8942 or reach out through the site.
05 · Contact
The door is open
Twenty minutes. No pitch deck. Just the goal.
Tell us where the business is going. We'll tell you if we can get you there. And if we can't, we'll say so on the first call.
contact@getempiredesigns.com / (315) 542-8942
a call