Heco is the Chicago-based studio of designer JT Helms and copywriter Matt Cowen. They make better user experiences and more interesting brands, and try to find inner peace.
Team members
Years of combined experience
Webflow sites built
Webflow is the first web design tool that I used that felt like more than a prototyping tool — and gave me the confidence to go live with what I built.
Before JT started using Webflow, his normal web design process meant spending a lot of time in design software, mostly Sketch. And because he didn't do much web development himself, the next step meant working with a developer and handing designs off to them through Zeplin.
That meant marking up mockups with specs, and using something like Principle to prototype some animations, and to give the developer a sense of what he had in mind.
Once JT tried Webflow, he was impressed with the complexity and flexibility of the product, and in his words, “Webflow is the first web design tool that I used that felt more than a prototyping tool — and gave me the confidence that I could go live with what I built with it.”
Since Heco focuses on creating elegant, high impact, and innovative designs, they couldn’t use a tool that forced them to make creative sacrifices. Thankfully, Webflow doesn’t ask them to. In fact, Webflow gave Heco such creative freedom that their portfolio site won a Site of the Day Awwward after it launched.
Now that JT could build sites directly in Webflow, without needing to spend time coding — or waiting on a developer — he was able to move a lot faster. And his copywriting partner Matt can easily jump into the Editor and quickly tweak copy without breaking the design. This helped the two of them collaborate more seamlessly, and jump into the actual production phase a lot quicker.
Finally, once the site is built, he can set up hosting and invite clients to update the site with the Editor. In other words, it’s all in one platform for building, shipping, and managing custom sites.
JT and Matt put Webflow to the test when they got hired to build a promotion site for TechHire: an initiative by the US Government to help overlooked job seekers get the training and connections they need to start successful technology careers.
With just two weeks to go from concept to final product, the timeline was tight, but thanks to Webflow, JT and Matt were able to go way beyond just getting the site live, even adding in interactions and a level of polish that would have taken much longer in normal development cycles.
