Building Spells

What we’ve built / Our own live editorial project

Essex Before You Go.

A practical visit planner for people choosing a day out in Essex. Designed to answer the less glamorous questions before the journey: entry costs, toilets, terrain and transport.

Visit the live website ↗

Desktop homepage of Essex Before You Go, captured on 13 November 2026
The live homepage, captured 13 November 2026. This is our own editorial project, not a paying client or a customer testimonial.

The brief: make the practical bits easy to find.

An attractive destination is only part of a good day out. Visitors also need to know what is confirmed, what is unknown and what needs checking with the operator. We built the site around those distinctions.

09Place guides, including closure notices
06Publisher-sourced walks
01Practical outing finder

A small site with a considered structure.

The homepage introduces five candidate outings and keeps four ongoing closure notices separate. Filters match confirmed details rather than treating missing information as a yes. A comparison page puts practical facts side by side; individual guides carry the detail.

The walks page brings distance, terrain and facilities together. The routes are publisher-sourced, not field-tested by us. Source dates and limits are visible so readers can make their own checks before travelling.

Essex Before You Go homepage at a 390-pixel mobile width
The same project on a smaller screen.

Design decision / Read before you travel

Give the essentials room.

A warm editorial layout, real place photography and direct language invite exploration. Clear labels and mobile layouts keep the practical details readable.

The photographs retain credits on the live website. Our screenshots show the site as it appeared on 13 November 2026, not current visitor conditions.

What this demonstrates.

A complete editorial website with a responsive layout, linked guide structure, practical filtering and explicit source limitations. Those are delivered features, not claims about traffic, sales or customer results.

Essex Before You Go is our own live project. It is separate from the coming Building Spells website-builder beta and does not mean the beta is open.

Explore Essex Before You Go ↗ · Back to selected work

Bring us a different kind of brief.

Your website should serve your customers, not copy a travel guide. We’ll start with what they need to know and what you need the site to do.

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