madewithpixels

Freelance website design & development in Sheffield

For over two decades we've been delivering high quality websites to clients of all shapes and sizes. We can help you to build your brand, sell your products, drive your sales, raise awareness for your cause or increase your design agency production capacity.

Over the years we've been lucky enough to work with some memorable brands.

Why choose us?

Agency level service; Freelance prices.

Led by creative director and graphic designer Michael Auty - the team is experienced, independent and lucky enough to be based in sunny Sheffield, South Yorkshire; supported by copywriting, SEO, social media and brand development specialists.

All of this means that we're able to offer a service that competes with the big guns; yet comes with an affordable freelance price tag. Great news for you and your project.

We don't have fancy offices or a large project management team. We prefer to pass those cost savings back to you and allow you to talk directly to the designer and developers building your website.

We keep our process simple and transparent.

We don't believe in writing proprietary software that ties our clients into difficult to break contracts.

Using a project and budget relevant mixture of open source content management systems means that our clients enjoy a cost-effective and sustainable online strategy that affords them flexibility, freedom and choice.

Technically - our sites stand shoulder to shoulder with work from the largest digital agencies. We use the same level of cloud-based high-speed, up-time guaranteed hosting providers; so that our customers can enjoy peace of mind when it comes to site security and data safety.

We've worked on a wide variety of projects.

Spanning everything from boutique businesses through small to medium sized enterprises, charities, not-for-profits and global corporations; Covering the Travel, Tourism, Media, Museums and Heritage, Retail, Healthcare, Software and Commercial Manufacturing industries; across both public and private sectors. We've delivered E-commerce platforms with point of sale stock integration across multiple stores; event, ticketing and E-learning tools.

We've integrated accounting packages, CRM and commerical manufacturing specification systems. We've built blogs, photography, architecture and media portfolios; Asset and service-management portals and online educational resources.…

We think it's fair to say that our team has a strong and varied track record.
Email michael@madewithpixels.co.uk

Explore our portfolio

Industry & Commerce

Origin website
Travel Ledger website
Shogun website
Dolphin Dynamic website
Provision Recruitment website

Consultancy

Aype website
Continuum Group website
mw-a website
Futura Consulting website
Jessop Financial Planning website
Kadow Interpretation website

Social Enterprise

Now Then Magazine website
Fairness on the 83 website
Opus Independents website
Guild of St George website
Writing Sheffield website
Tradding Histories website

Visitor Attractions

The Coronation Street Tour website
The Oxford Castle Tour website
The Kent Life website
The Antonine Wall website
The Creswell Crags website

Music

Black Cat White Cat website
Mustt Audio website
Club60 website
Dionne Bromfield website

Nightlife

SoYo website
SoYo Live website
Molly Malones website
Code:Sheffield website
Mr Wilsons website
Ohm website

Healthcare

McCulley website
Insight CBT website
Mednet website

E-commerce

Aquaculture website
Origin e-commerce website

How can we help?

Simple websites for small business

Prices start at £700 plus hosting fees *

Perfect for service or product portfolio websites.

  • User-friendly content management
  • Service designed to keep costs down
  • Google analytics and social media integration
  • Simple e-commerce systems

Bespoke design, build and hosting

Prices start at £3000 plus hosting fees *

For larger organisations with more complex business needs.

  • Highly extensible open-source content management system
  • API integrations with third-party tools
  • Design & development of complex business tools
  • Suitable for clients with bespoke business or e-commerce requirements

Design, marketing and PR agencies

Per person/day £350 Block booking discounts available

Expand your agency production capacity.

  • We've collaborated with some of the best and brightest agencies in the UK
  • White label design and build service
  • With decades of design and deveopment experience you can be confident that we'll hit the ground running

Praise for madewithpixels

I've worked with some great web designers in my time. But the team @madewithpixels are absolutely amazing. Andrew Coulthard,
Director - Futura Consulting
We have worked with madewithpixels for a number of years, this reflects on their great understanding of our requirements and their hard work in meeting our needs Maria Smith,
Creswell Heritage Trust
They provided all of the features we asked for at a price the other design companies we approached couldn't even get close to. Mark Welch,
Manager, SOYO
Michael is a passionate designer with the ability to grasp difficult concepts and translate these into stunning visuals for the web. Darren Bristow,
Director - Quba New Media
The team at madewithpixels are responsible for successfully translating our brand aesthetic to the web. After careful consideration of our requirements, they produced a custom-built website which sits proudly alongside our printed magazine. Friendly, approachable and always available, Michael is a versatile designer with a flair for creativity and good eye for what works. Highly recommended. Sam Walby,
Editor - Now Then Magazine
Michael is one of the best designers we have used in terms of creativity and understanding of user centred design. Matthew Williams,
Director - Quba New Media
madewithpixels take basic concepts and create something both beautiful and functional. Through their passion and hard work, the results speak for themselves. Matt Cottril,
Founder - SOYO Live
The team at madewithpixels made E-commerce look easy. We couldn't be happier with our new site. Great service, great price. Thanks very much! Simon Spinks,
Managing Director, Aquaculture

Curriculum Vitae

Michael lives and works in Sheffield, South Yorkshire in the UK.

About me

With over two decades of experience in digital software design, focussed primarily on graphical-user-interface development; I've been fortunate to have enjoyed some great experiences working with globally recognised brands for interesting agencies and lucky enough to have gone on to forge a successful freelance career.

I have always relished the design process and enjoy bringing creative and technical insight to client projects. Helping to diagnose and solve ongoing issues or bring fresh ideas to the table for establised businesses is at the core of what I do.

My experience and expertise makes me a strong candidate for multi-disciplinary teams. With a focus on GUI design for Web, Desktop and Mobile applications. I've been a Photoshop / Illustrator user since the late 90's; so I'm fluent with much of the Adobe Creative Suite. In addition - I'm familiar with 3D packages such as 3DS Max, Blender and Video Game Engine technology plus I have some commercial experience in editing video with Premiere and Final Cut Pro.

Over the years I've developed a strong interest and excellent commerical experience with front-end HTML and CSS. Taking creative work through to pixel-perfect markup and layout is a process I find challenging and enjoyable.

Currently I'm embracing SaaS platforms such as WebFlow and Wix Studio to provide a more responsive design-and-build service which can rapidly deliver websites with a high degree of both production value and built-in platform stability at costs much lower than the traditional agency model.
I'm also enjoying taking part in the explosion of generative AI tools; ChatGPT wrote much of the javascript for this site and I've successfuly used platforms such as Midjourney and AI 'in-painting' tools to further enhance or entirely create commercially viable assets.

Experience

Freelance - Creative director and lead designer at madewithpixels
2009-2024
Since starting my freelance career I've enjoyed servicing a client base with atypically large clients in the public and private sectors. Collaborations with some local design heroes like Peter and Paul and David Bailey formerly of Desigers Republic have been the icing on the cake.
During this time I've learned a lot about client handling, project management and the tendering/sales process.

Quba New Media - Senior designer
2002-2009
I'm very grateful for the confidence shown in me by the founding members at Quba. Working with such a large team was a fantastic opportunity to expand my skillset and consequently I was able to really focus on and sharpen my skills as a web-designer and front-end developer.

Continuum Group - GUI designer
1995-2002
I started my design career in York working with the company that created the Yorvik Viking Centre on a multidisciplinary team creating interactive touch-screen software for projects in the archaeology and museums sector. Working primarity as a GUI designer I learned a lot about software accessibility issues and the art of story-telling.

Education

Leeds Arts University
Post Diploma in Advertising Graphics.

Batley School of Art and Design
National Diploma in Graphic Design.

GCSE Grades A-C
Engish Literature and English Language, Computer Science, Art, Drama.

Hobbies

When I have the spare time, I like to cycle or do photography. More recently I took up archery and for many years I've been a keen armchair astronomer.
But mainly, I'm a Dad that enjoys time with his family.

Contact us for help or advice
michael@madewithpixels.co.uk 07515 392390