The people who diagnose your problem are the people who build the fix.
Grindstone Design is a Jacksonville team covering strategy, design, development, SEO and paid media. You talk to the people doing the work — no account manager relaying messages, no junior quietly handed your file after you sign. That is the trade: senior attention on every hour of the project, and we take on fewer projects because of it.
Our Story
James Price started Grindstone Design in 2020, after launching an ecommerce business of his own. Building that store taught him the thing most web designers never have to learn: a site is not finished when it looks right, it is finished when it sells. That is still the standard everyone here builds to.
What began as web design became a team that also handles SEO, paid media and conversion work — because the website is rarely the only broken part of the path from click to booked job, and pointing at someone else's work is not a service.
The turning point was a construction contracting client who needed more than a brochure. We built the internal system behind it — quoting, scheduling, the workflow the crew actually used. That is still the line between us and a design shop: when the fix is software, we write the software instead of recommending someone who will.
The track record
6years, founded 2020
5.0across 47 Google reviews
Some of the businesses we build and market for: Aircraft Parts Store, Wood Pro Supply, La Nopalera, Rex Golf, WW Pizza, MPA, FCF, PARC. See the work.
James Price
Founder & Lead Designer
James studied International Business at the University of North Florida, with a minor in Finance and Spanish, and has spent 8+ years in conversion optimization and web design — including work with Fortune 500 companies and startups before founding Grindstone. He sets the strategy on every engagement and stays on it through launch.
Around that sits the rest of the team: design and copy, development, SEO and content, and paid media. Production specialists — photography, video, and content shoots — come in by discipline from people we have worked with for years, and they are named on the project rather than hidden behind a plural.
Certifications
Three, held across the team. There is no “industry certified” badge on this page and no award nobody issues.
- CXL Institute — Conversion Optimization
- Google Ads Certified
- Meta Ads Certified
The CXL one is the one that matters and the one most small agencies do not hold. Its conversion optimization program is assessed on research methodology, experiment design and statistical validity — not on watching videos. It is why we argue about sample sizes before we argue about button colours.
How we work
The offer before the design
We do not open Figma until the offer and the tracking are fixed. A prettier site on a broken offer just loses money faster, and a redesign you cannot measure is a matter of opinion forever.
You own everything
Code, repository, domain, analytics, ad accounts, pixel and audiences — created in your name on day one, not transferred at final payment. You stay because the work is good, not because leaving is expensive.
One guarantee, in writing
If your new website doesn't outperform your current one, we work for free until it does.
Tell us what is not working
You will speak to the people who would actually run the project, not a salesperson reading from a script. If we are not the right fit, we will say so on the call rather than after the invoice.