Trend round-ups age badly. Neumorphism came and went. Dark mode is a preference, not a strategy. Voice UI still does not book your next client.

Here is what we still specify on custom websites for founders, and what we refuse when someone pastes an AI website-builder export and asks us to “just polish it.”

Keep: a layout that matches the offer

A photographer and a B2B SaaS founder should not share a 12-section homepage. Custom design starts with the job: book a call, buy, or trust you enough to email. Everything else is decoration.

Keep: type that can carry the brand

Bold type on a quiet background still works because people read the promise before they notice the gradient. Pair one display face with a readable body font. Do not set paragraphs in a novelty font because a generator suggested it.

Keep: motion with a job

A hover state, a coverflow of real work, a word that rotates through outcomes: those help. A looping 8MB Lottie in the hero that pushes the form below the fold does not. If motion hides the brief, cut it.

Keep: mobile as the default canvas

Your European or US client will open the site on a phone in a taxi. Buttons need space. Type needs to stay 16px or above. The primary action cannot live only in a desktop sidebar.

Keep: speed as a design decision

Uncompressed images, three chat widgets, and autoplay video are design choices, not “technical debt.” We compress, lazy-load below the fold, and skip the widgets you will never answer.

Skip: AI template dumps

Generated sites love identical section stacks: floating badges, fake metrics, a purple blob, and a testimonial named “Sarah Johnson.” They look finished in a demo. They are hard to edit, hard to rank, and easy for visitors to distrust. Custom WordPress or a coded site costs more than a weekend builder. It is still cheaper than rebuilding in 12 months.

Skip: trend for trend’s sake

3D for a local service business, AR for a two-page brochure, and “eco colour palettes” that do not change the file weight are theatre. Use them when the product needs them.

Skip: five calls to action

One primary action. Newsletter, social and “learn more” can wait. Founders lose leads because the page cannot decide what it wants.

If you want a site that still looks current in two years, custom and AI-ready, not assembled from a prompt, tell us what it needs to do.