Skarlo built a global web design agency for AI companies by choosing a clear market, keeping its core team to four designers, and removing the layers that slow down client work. Framer gives the team one place to shape a site, work directly with clients, and publish without handing every decision to another department.
That setup matters when the client is an AI company. Products, competitors, and market expectations can change within weeks. A site cannot take months to catch up.
Find a market where design changes the buying decision
Skarlo started with a simple observation: many technology companies looked alike.
The same visual language appeared across websites, pitch decks, and product branding. For a new company trying to earn trust, its website became evidence of how much care it brought to the product itself.
People have now realized that design is the main differentiator.
It is actually really funny. You see a lot of memes of people one-shotting websites, and then in the comments people ask how they can trust a product when its own website looks like an afterthought. Skarlo helps these companies differentiate themselves from all the noise.
That gave Skarlo a specific market to serve. The studio now describes itself as a design partner for companies building with AI, with work spanning brands, websites, and products. Instead of offering general design services to everyone, it can build its process around the needs of one fast-moving group.
For an agency, the lesson is practical: choose a niche where better design solves a visible business problem. A clear focus sharpens the portfolio, makes referrals more relevant, and helps prospects understand why the agency fits their brief.
Keep the core team small and close to the work
Skarlo’s core team consists of Luca, Rowan, Ana, and Emily. The studio has chosen to stay at four people rather than add management layers around the designers.
That changes how work moves. The people making the site can join the client conversation, make a decision, and act on it. They do not need to pass every update through several rounds of internal approval.
We’re doing this, we’re doing it this way, we’re publishing.
Small does not automatically mean fast. A small studio still needs a clear owner for each decision, a shared standard for quality, and a way to keep client feedback from spreading across too many tools. Skarlo’s advantage comes from pairing a small team with a direct process.
Use one workflow from design to publishing
Rowan came to Framer from product design. The canvas and interaction model felt familiar, so he could move from designing screens to building a live website without translating the work into a separate production process.
That removes a common agency handoff:
A designer creates the page.
A client reviews a static version.
A developer rebuilds it.
The designer checks whether the implementation still matches the idea.
A content team waits for another person to publish it.
When design and publishing happen in the same project, the team can test ideas in their real context. Layout, motion, responsive behavior, CMS content, and copy can be judged together. A client can react to the site that will ship, not an approximation of it.
For Rowan, this also changes who gets to speak with the client. Designers no longer have to sit behind layers of meetings and handoffs. The people closest to the work can explain a decision and revise it while the context is still fresh.
Build an agency process that matches the client’s pace
AI companies often need to change their story while the product is still taking shape. A new release can alter the homepage. A new audience can require a landing page. A growing library of use cases, integrations, or resources can turn a small site into a large CMS.
Skarlo’s process is built for that pace. The team can move from a conversation to an editable page, then publish once the direction is right. Rowan describes the goal in ambitious terms: managing a site with thousands of CMS items without needing a ten-person web team around it.
The point is not that every large site should be run by one person. It is that the tool should not force an agency to add coordination work before the site itself requires it.
What other agency teams can take from Skarlo
Skarlo’s model offers four useful principles for anyone starting or refining a web design agency:
Pick a specific market. Skarlo focuses on AI and technology companies that need design to separate them from similar-looking competitors.
Keep creators in the client conversation. Direct access reduces lost context and gives clients clearer answers.
Limit handoffs. Designing and publishing in one project lets the team evaluate the real website sooner.
Use a small team as a constraint. A focused team has to make ownership, feedback, and publishing decisions clear.
The result is a lean agency model with fewer layers, closer client contact, and a shorter distance between an idea and the live site.
Watch the full Skarlo story on YouTube, explore Framer for agencies, or browse more agency websites built in Framer.
