Answers that mention Solid Digital

• Pivot Design - 321 N Clark St #600, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Brand Your Practice, Inc - 201 E Ogden Ave #17, Hinsdale, IL 60521
• Evolve Healthcare Marketing - 1 E Erie St Ste 525 Unit, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Incognito Design, Inc. - 343 S Harvey Ave Unit 1, Oak Park, IL 60302, United States
• Intechnic Corporation - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1200, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Springboard Brand & Creative Strategy - 171 W Wing St Apt 209, Arlington Heights, IL 60005, United States
• Kalipr, LLC - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1200, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• WebToMed - 1515 S Grove Ave, Ste 3637, Barrington, IL 60011
• Topin & Associates - 205 N Michigan Ave, Ste 2315, Chicago, IL 60601
• Betterday Creative - 1 E Erie St Ste 525, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Liska & Associates Inc - 610 N Fairbanks Ct, Chicago, IL 60611, United States

If you want one agency to handle both brand strategy/identity and the website, I’d start with Pivot Design in River North.

• Pivot Design — River North, 321 N Clark St. This is probably my strongest fit for a healthcare startup. They specialize in healthcare and life sciences, with experience translating complex medical/scientific ideas into clearer brand and marketing experiences. Their client roster includes major healthcare organizations and pharma/medtech companies.
• ArtVersion — Downtown, 211 W Wacker Dr. A good option if you want a more design-forward startup aesthetic. They explicitly offer branding/identity, web design/development, and UX/UI, all from their Chicago office.
• Solid Digital — Downtown Chicago. Particularly strong if you're a health-tech/B2B healthcare startup rather than a patient-facing clinic. They combine brand/digital strategy with website design and development and have healthcare-tech work including IMO Health. Solid Digital
• MERGE — East Loop, 200 E Randolph. Larger and more full-service; they have substantial health/wellness experience and offer branding, creative, and digital experience work. Better suited if you anticipate needing broader marketing after the initial brand/site.
• Substance — River North, 314 W Superior. A smaller, strategy-led branding firm that does messaging, identity, and web design/development. I'd consider them if the positioning and brand story are the hardest parts of the project.

My shortlist

For a healthcare startup, I'd probably take pitches from Pivot, ArtVersion, and Solid Digital.

The choice depends on what you're building:

• Patient-facing healthcare brand: Pivot
• Modern, premium startup brand: ArtVersion
• Health-tech / B2B / SaaS: Solid Digital
• Brand strategy is the biggest challenge: Substance
• You want a larger agency with broader marketing capabilities: MERGE

One particularly relevant benchmark is Yard Brand Co.'s Native Compass Health work, which combined brand identity, website design/development, UX, accessibility/compliance, and mobile/app design for a Chicago healthcare company. Yard Brand Co.

If you tell me what the healthcare startup actually does (e.g. digital health, medical device, clinic, mental health, women's health, B2B SaaS) and roughly your branding + website budget, I can narrow this to the 2–3 agencies I'd actually contact and compare their likely fit.

Yes. For a healthcare startup, I’d prioritize agencies that understand healthcare trust/complexity and can carry the brand through the website—not just a generic web shop.

My top 3

1. Pivot Design — River North
   • 321 N Clark St
   • Probably my first call if healthcare branding is the priority. They specialize in healthcare and life sciences and have substantial experience translating complex medical/scientific concepts into differentiated brands.
   • Best for: brand strategy + positioning + identity + healthcare marketing
   • Caveat: I'd specifically confirm that your scope includes the actual website design/development, rather than primarily brand/marketing work.

2. ArtVersion® Creative Agency — Downtown
   • 211 W Wacker Dr
   • Strongest all-around fit if you want branding + website + UX/UI under one roof. They explicitly cite work in healthcare and tech startups, and offer branding, web design/development, and UX. artversion.com
   • Best for: a polished, sophisticated startup identity and website.

3. One Design Company — River North
   • 230 W Superior St
   • Interesting option if you're looking for a smaller, strategy/design-led studio. They combine brand positioning, identity/naming and web/interactive design, and are actually located in River North.
   • Best for: an early-stage startup that wants a close senior-level relationship rather than a large agency.

One more I'd seriously consider

Intechnic Corporation — Downtown

• 20 N Wacker Dr
• Particularly compelling if your startup has a complex healthcare product, patient/provider UX, SaaS platform, or regulated/high-stakes digital experience. Their specialty is UX and digital experiences in healthcare, pharma and life sciences.
• I'd consider them more of a digital/product experience partner than a pure brand agency.

My recommendation

If you told me, "We're a funded healthcare startup launching a new company and need our positioning, visual identity, messaging and website all to feel like one coherent brand," I'd interview:

1. ArtVersion → 2. Pivot Design → 3. One Design Company

ArtVersion is probably the best balance of branding + web. Pivot has the strongest healthcare-specific branding pedigree. One Design is the one I'd investigate if you want a smaller, more hands-on studio.

For comparison, Solid Digital is another strong downtown option with explicit healthcare-tech experience, including a case study for IMO Health, but I'd rank it more heavily toward B2B website/digital growth than startup brand creation. www.soliddigital.com

If you tell me (a) what the healthcare startup does, (b) approximate budget ($25k / $50k / $100k+), and (c) whether you need naming/positioning too, I can narrow this to 2–3 agencies I'd actually send an RFP to.

• SEOLEVELUP Website Design SEO Company Chicago - 355 N Laflin St Ste 101C, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Flamingo Agency - 3752 N Southport Ave, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
• Solid Digital - 100 N LaSalle St #1400, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Orbit Media Studios - 4043 N Ravenswood Ave #316, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
• NEWMEDIA.COM - 444 W Lake St Ste 1700, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• AdverGroup Web Design & Digital Marketing - 2021 Midwest Rd Ste 200, Oak Brook, IL 60523, United States
• Comrade Digital Marketing Agency - 332 S Michigan Ave #900, Chicago, IL 60604, United States
• YourPortal - 2211 N Elston Ave Ste 208, Chicago, IL 60614, United States
• Wojo Design - 318 W Adams St #1609, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Uptech Solution USA LLC - 6158 N Hoyne Ave 2nd FL, Chicago, IL 60659, United States
• 10com Web Development - 205 N Michigan Ave Suit 810, Chicago, IL 60601, United States
• Chicago Website Design SEO Company - 10 S Riverside Plaza #875, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• WPrime Agency - 222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza #1212, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Brand Vision Marketing - Web Design & Branding - 30 N Michigan Ave #504, Chicago, IL 60602, United States

Yes. For a solo founder launching an online service, I’d avoid the big “brand transformation” agencies unless you already have serious funding. You want a studio that can build a credible MVP site, get you live quickly, and leave you with a site you can actually manage.

My Chicago shortlist

• Best budget/value: SEOLEVELUP Website Design SEO Company Chicago — This is especially interesting for you because it’s in West Loop/Fulton Market and focuses on small businesses, website design, SEO, and lead generation. Their positioning includes fast-turnaround projects, which is useful when you're trying to launch rather than spend six months in discovery.
• Best clearly published low-cost option: intuicodigital.com — They publish pricing: managed sites from $199/month and custom builds from $2,500. That's unusually transparent for a Chicago agency and makes them worth talking to if you're trying to keep the initial investment around a few thousand dollars. Intuico Digital
• Best ultra-lean option: tlowebdesigns.com — They advertise a $1,200 one-time Core Launch package aimed specifically at solo businesses/micro-SMBs, with 8 pages, mobile-first development, basic local SEO and code ownership. There's also a $297/month ongoing plan. TLO Web Designs
• Best if you're willing to spend more for marketing expertise: Flamingo Agency — A small Chicago shop focused on small businesses, with web design, SEO and ongoing support. A recent Chicago agency roundup specifically identifies Flamingo as a good fit for startups and small businesses that want something more nimble than a large agency. Design Henge
• Best for a more sophisticated B2B/SaaS launch: Solid Digital — Very good if your online service is B2B and the website needs to sell a complicated product/service. But I'd consider them phase 2 rather than MVP: their work is strategy-heavy and they're not positioned as a low-budget shop. Solid Digital
• Excellent, but probably too expensive for your first site: Orbit Media Studios — One of Chicago's strongest web/SEO firms, with excellent conversion and content expertise. However, current third-party pricing puts typical projects at $50K+, so I wouldn't lead with them unless you have substantial launch capital. Clutch Orbit Media Studios

What I'd do in your position

For a solo entrepreneur, I'd get quotes from Intuico, TLO, and SEOLEVELUP first. I'd tell each:

“I'm launching an online service as a solo founder. I need a conversion-focused MVP website, not a large corporate redesign. I want to keep the initial build lean, own all the assets, and be able to update the site myself.”

I'd target roughly $2.5K–$7.5K for the initial version unless you need sophisticated customer accounts, payments, scheduling, dashboards, or custom application functionality.

The important distinction is whether you need a marketing website or an actual web application. If customers need to log in and use your service on the site, I'd approach the selection very differently.

If you tell me your rough budget ($2–5K, $5–10K, $10K+) and what the online service actually does, I can narrow this to 3 Chicago studios and tell you which one I'd pick.

• TXI - 10 S Riverside Plaza Ste 875 - #7670, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• The Office of Experience, LLC - 980 N Michigan Ave Ste 1090, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• LaunchPad Lab - 220 W Huron St, Ste 2001, Chicago, IL 60654
• DIESELHAUS | AI, Software, Web & Mobile App Development - 11950 S Harlem Ave Ste 201-1, Palos Heights, IL 60463, United States
• Ice Nine Online - 444 W Lake St Ste 1700, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• SEOLEVELUP Website Design SEO Company Chicago - 355 N Laflin St Ste 101C, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Vault Innovation - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1200, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Chicago Website Design SEO Company - 10 S Riverside Plaza #875, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Nansen LLC - 300 W Hubbard St Ste 301, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• SEO Design Chicago - 2068 N Western Ave 1F - Front, Chicago, IL 60647, United States
• Brand Vision Marketing - Web Design & Branding - 30 N Michigan Ave #504, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Synergy Labs - Mobile App and Web Developers Agency in Chicago - 515 N State St, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Kensium Solutions LLC - 311 S Wacker Dr Suite #2575, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• 10com Web Development - 205 N Michigan Ave Suit 810, Chicago, IL 60601, United States

If you’re a marketing director at a Chicago tech/SaaS company, I’d narrow the field pretty aggressively. You don’t just need a “web design agency”; you want a partner that understands B2B SaaS positioning, conversion, UX, CMS, integrations, and the technical realities of a custom build.

My Chicago shortlist

1. TXI — best for a genuinely complex/custom digital experience

TXI is probably my first call if the project is more than a marketing-site redesign. They combine strategy, UX research/design and engineering, and are accustomed to complex software/product work. ParallelHQ

2. Solid Digital — best overall fit for B2B SaaS marketing

This is the one I'd put at the top of your RFP list if you're primarily building a high-end SaaS marketing site rather than the SaaS product itself. They're Chicago-based, explicitly focused on B2B, and have experience with B2B SaaS and healthcare technology. Their process covers discovery, personas, sitemap, wireframes, design and development. Solid Digital

3. Marcel Digital — best if pipeline/measurement is a major priority

Strong choice if your CMO/CRO expectations are around organic acquisition, conversion, analytics and measurable pipeline, not simply a beautiful site. They combine web development with SEO, paid media, CRO and analytics.

4. The Office of Experience, LLC — best for enterprise-level brand + digital experience

I'd consider OX if you're a larger tech company and the website needs to sit within a broader customer-experience ecosystem. They combine strategy, research, creative, UX and engineering and work heavily with B2B/enterprise organizations.

5. LaunchPad Lab — best if “custom” really means custom software

If the project includes portals, authenticated experiences, complex workflows, integrations or application-like functionality, LaunchPad Lab is worth talking to. They're oriented toward product strategy, UX/UI and custom software engineering rather than conventional brochure sites.

6. VisualFizz — good middle ground for B2B tech

Chicago-based and specifically markets web development for technology/SaaS companies, including custom web applications and marketing sites that integrate with products. VisualFizz

If it were my RFP

I'd probably invite Solid Digital, TXI, Marcel Digital, and LaunchPad Lab to pitch.

I'd use the four to test four different philosophies:

One other option worth knowing: DIESELHAUS | AI, Software, Web & Mobile App Development is particularly interesting if you want a design-forward partner that can go beyond the marketing site into SaaS/business-platform development.

My default recommendation for a marketing director: start with Solid Digital. Their positioning is unusually close to what you described—Chicago + B2B + SaaS + website strategy/design/development—without immediately jumping to the cost/complexity of a large product-development consultancy. Solid Digital

If you tell me your approximate budget ($50k / $100k / $250k+), current CMS (or none), and whether this is a marketing site vs. an actual SaaS application, I can narrow this to the 3 agencies I'd actually put in your RFP and explain why.

• VisualFizz - 875 N Michigan Ave 31st floor, Chicago, IL 60611
• ArtVersion® Creative Agency - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 1130, Chicago, IL 60606
• Flamingo Agency - 3752 N Southport Ave, Chicago, IL 60613
• 222 Digital Marketing Agency Chicago - 222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza #1212, Chicago, IL 60654
• Millennial Web Development - 329 W 18th St Ste 413, Chicago, IL 60616
• Brand Vision Marketing - Web Design & Branding - 30 N Michigan Ave #504, Chicago, IL 60602
• Comrade Digital Marketing Agency - 332 S Michigan Ave #900, Chicago, IL 60604
• Custom Websites Designer - 156 N Wabash Ave, Chicago, IL 60601
• Cybernautic Web Design - 515 N State St #14-126, Chicago, IL 60611
• Affordable Web Design Chicago - 5141 W Altgeld St, Chicago, IL 60639
• Uncap - 8770 W Bryn Mawr Ave #1300, Chicago, IL 60631
• Alpha Efficiency - Web Design Chicago Agency - 875 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60611

If you’re a Chicago tech company looking for a custom SaaS marketing site, I’d narrow the field pretty aggressively. You want an agency that understands B2B SaaS positioning + conversion + technical implementation, not just a shop that makes attractive brochure sites.

My Chicago shortlist

1. VisualFizz — best overall fit

• Specifically works with technology and SaaS companies.
• Handles both marketing sites and web applications, with an emphasis on performance, SEO, and integrations. VisualFizz
• Good choice if marketing owns the project but you need serious technical execution behind it.
• visualfizz.com
• Solid Digital — best B2B SaaS specialist

• This would probably be my first call for a sophisticated B2B SaaS marketing site.
• They explicitly specialize in B2B websites and have SaaS experience, including Hireology. Their process covers brand strategy, personas, UX, wireframes and development rather than simply handing you a design. Solid Digital
• soliddigital.com
• Orbit Media Studios — best for demand-gen/content-heavy SaaS

• Particularly interesting if the website needs to become a major organic acquisition and content engine, rather than simply a brand refresh.
• Their strength is B2B web design and conversion-oriented marketing. A recent Chicago SaaS-agency roundup specifically highlights them for optimizing the acquisition funnel. ParallelHQ
• ArtVersion® Creative Agency — best design/brand-led option

• Worth considering if your biggest problem is that the company/product doesn't look and feel like the category leader yet.
• I'd put them into the pitch if brand differentiation and visual sophistication are unusually important.
• KMNC Net — interesting if the "marketing site" crosses into SaaS UX

• They explicitly work on dashboards, client portals and full SaaS platforms, alongside website design. They report 160+ launched websites across B2B and SaaS. My blog
• kmnc.net

Who I'd actually invite to the RFP

I'd keep it to three agencies:

I'd not start with a generic web-development shop if this is your company's primary marketing site. The hard part isn't building React/Next.js or WordPress; it's translating a complicated SaaS product into a site that makes the right buyer understand what you do, why you're different, and why they should book a demo/start a trial.

One important distinction

If by "custom SaaS site" you mean a marketing website—homepage, solution pages, pricing, resources, integrations, demo flow, CMS, etc.—I'd favor Solid Digital / VisualFizz / Orbit.

If you mean the actual SaaS application—login, dashboards, billing, permissions, workflows, multi-tenancy, etc.—that's a different RFP. I'd look much more heavily at product/software studios such as Xcelacore, which explicitly builds custom SaaS platforms, or a UX specialist paired with your engineering team. Xcelacore

If I were the marketing director, I'd take Solid Digital, VisualFizz, and Orbit Media into the first round and make them all respond to the exact same brief. That should make the differences in strategy, process, team seniority, technology, and pricing pretty obvious.

If you tell me your approximate budget ($50k / $100k / $200k+), B2B vs. B2C, and whether you need Webflow/WordPress/Next.js, I can narrow this to the 3 best agencies and give you a side-by-side RFP scorecard.

• Solid Digital - 100 N LaSalle St #1400, Chicago, IL 60602
• Chicago Website Design SEO Company - 10 S Riverside Plaza #875, Chicago, IL 60606
• ArtVersion® Creative Agency - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 1130, Chicago, IL 60606
• 1TR - Website Design & SEO Services - 888 W Belmont Ave, Chicago, IL 60657
• Brand Vision Marketing - Web Design & Branding - 30 N Michigan Ave #504, Chicago, IL 60602
• Alpha Efficiency - Web Design Chicago Agency - 875 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60611
• SEO Design Chicago | Digital Marketing & Web Design Agency - 2068 N Western Ave 1F - Front, Chicago, IL 60647
• Affordable Web Design Chicago - 5141 W Altgeld St, Chicago, IL 60639
• Flamingo Agency - 3752 N Southport Ave, Chicago, IL 60613
• John Schuster - 1531 N Wells St, Chicago, IL 60610
• Orbit Media Studios - 4043 N Ravenswood Ave #316, Chicago, IL 60613

For a public-facing government redesign in the Chicago Loop, I’d prioritize firms with demonstrated government/public-sector work and accessibility expertise—not just general Chicago web agencies.

My shortlist

1. Promet Source — best overall fit

• Chicago-based, with explicit public-sector website experience.
• Strong Drupal/open-source background.
• Specifically cites WCAG/Section 508-compliant government and higher-ed work, plus accessibility strategy and remediation. Promet Source
• Particularly compelling if your project involves a large content repository, complex governance, or a Drupal-based CMS.
• Their Chicago office is in Ravenswood rather than the Loop, but that's immaterial for a project like this.
• Mightybytes — best accessibility-by-default/design choice

• Chicago agency with a strong UX/design and responsible-technology orientation.
• Says its deliverables comply with WCAG 2.2 AA by default, rather than treating accessibility as a late-stage compliance exercise. Mightybytes Mightybytes
• Good candidate if the redesign is as much about service design, content, usability, and inclusive UX as it is about CMS engineering.
• Less government-specialized than Promet, so I'd ask for public-sector references.
• DigiSavvy — strong government/WordPress option

• Explicitly works with government agencies and cites a City of Chicago public-sector project.
• Builds to WCAG 2.1 AA and says it uses VPAT documentation and real user testing rather than relying on accessibility plugins. DigiSavvy
• Particularly attractive if WordPress is your preferred CMS and your internal staff need to maintain the site themselves.
• Delta Creative Studio — worth an RFP conversation

• Has a dedicated government/public-sector practice.
• Explicitly addresses accessibility, transparency, procurement, stakeholder communication, and WCAG 2.2 AA/ADA in its government offering. Delta Creative Studio
• I'd evaluate its depth of actual government references against Promet and DigiSavvy before putting it at the top of the list.
• CivicSitePro — interesting smaller/local specialist

• Focuses specifically on municipalities and civic organizations in Illinois.
• Offers WCAG 2.1 AA, accessibility remediation, accessible-content training, and civic-oriented IA. CivicSitePro CivicSitePro
• Its case-study portfolio appears considerably smaller, so I'd consider it for a smaller agency/project rather than automatically for a major Loop government platform.

If I were selecting three

I'd invite Promet Source, Mightybytes, and DigiSavvy to the first round.

*Specialized in civic work, but with a smaller publicly documented portfolio.

One important distinction: don't make “ADA compliant” the primary evaluation criterion. For a government project, I'd put substantially more weight on whether the team can demonstrate manual keyboard testing, screen-reader testing with disabled users, accessible design-system components, accessible PDFs/documents, plain-language content, form accessibility, procurement/security documentation, and an ongoing accessibility governance process. A Lighthouse score or accessibility widget isn't enough.

Also, since the project is in the Loop, there are plenty of generic web firms physically located downtown—for example Solid Digital at 100 N LaSalle—but I wouldn't let Loop proximity outweigh specialized government/accessibility credentials.

If you tell me roughly what government body it is (City of Chicago, Cook County, state agency, independent authority, etc.), CMS, and project budget, I can narrow this to 3–5 firms with comparable government case studies and likely procurement fit.

• Solid Digital - 100 N LaSalle St #1400, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Marcel Digital - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1285, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Thirdwave - 15 W Hubbard St, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Clique Studios - 20 N Wacker Dr, Ste 1075, Chicago, IL 60606
• Ice Nine Online - 444 W Lake St Ste 1700, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• cre8 - Chicago, IL 60607
• Atwix - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1200, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• SITE IT NOW - 1016 W Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• DMC, Inc. - 2222 N Elston Ave #200, Chicago, IL 60614, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Velvetech LLC - 5440 N Cumberland Ave #150, Chicago, IL 60656, United States
• Engineering Industries eXcellence - 55 W Monroe St #2575, Chicago, IL 60603, United States
• YourPortal - 2211 N Elston Ave Ste 208, Chicago, IL 60614, United States
• Uncap - 8770 W Bryn Mawr Ave, Ste 1300, Chicago, IL 60631
• Devbridge - 350 N Orleans St Ste 7500-S, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Devvela - 620 N La Salle Dr Ste 205, Chicago, IL 60654, United States

Yes. For a manufacturing company with a genuinely complex B2B site, I’d avoid treating this as a generic “web design agency” search. You want a shop that can handle technical product content, sophisticated navigation/search, CRM/ERP integrations, RFQs, multiple audiences, and a CMS your marketing team can actually operate.

Here’s the Chicago shortlist I’d put in front of you:

1. Solid Digital — strong overall B2B choice

• Chicago-based and explicitly focused on B2B organizations.
• Does custom/WordPress development, integrations, performance/security, and ongoing optimization.
• Good fit if marketing ownership and lead generation matter as much as engineering. VisualFizz
• Marcel Digital — best if marketing + enterprise web need to stay tightly connected

• Particularly interesting for an enterprise/B2B manufacturer because they combine web development with SEO, CRO, analytics and digital marketing.
• Strong Umbraco/enterprise CMS orientation, plus integrations and modern web development. Blacksmith
• Thirdwave — good engineering-heavy option

• More of a web engineering/digital-platform shop than a conventional marketing agency.
• Worth considering if your site has substantial custom functionality, integrations, or unusual CMS requirements.
• Clique Studios — strong for a major redesign/transformation

• Their capabilities span strategy, UX, front/back-end engineering, enterprise WordPress, Drupal, headless CMS and third-party integrations.
• I'd shortlist them if you're contemplating a substantial digital transformation rather than simply replacing an old corporate site.
• Ice Nine Online — B2B-focused boutique

• Located downtown and specifically oriented toward B2B.
• WordPress corporate sites, demand-gen sites, intranets and ongoing development make them worth a conversation if you want a smaller, more hands-on team.
• cre8 — interesting niche option for complicated B2B

• Chicago studio that works on CMS ecosystems, custom web applications and integrations, including manufacturing.
• I'd investigate them if your “website” is really becoming a business application.

One I'd especially investigate for manufacturing

Orbit Media is probably the first agency I'd interview if the primary goal is a high-performing manufacturing marketing site, rather than a deeply transactional commerce platform. They explicitly specialize in manufacturing web design and B2B lead generation. Orbit Media Studios

orbitmedia.com

And VisualFizz is another very relevant Chicago option: their B2B/industrial practice explicitly covers complex products, CRM/ERP integrations and secure client portals, with manufacturing/industrial case studies. VisualFizz VisualFizz

visualfizz.com

If your site has ERP/catalog/commerce complexity

I'd move Chicago Web way up the list. They specifically work with manufacturers/distributors whose sites have to connect to ERP, warehouse/inventory, 3PL, EDI and other operational systems, including complex B2B pricing and catalogs. Chicago Web

chicagoweb.com

Similarly, Atwix makes sense if you're talking about B2B ecommerce, negotiated pricing, quoting/approvals, customer hierarchies, ERP-connected catalogs, etc.

My shortlist for your situation

If I were the marketing lead, I'd probably take four agencies into an RFP:

The big differentiator is what “complex” means for your company. If you tell me whether you're dealing with (a) hundreds/thousands of products, (b) ERP/PIM integration, (c) distributor/dealer portals, (d) RFQ/configurator functionality, (e) multiple business units/sites, or (f) mainly a sophisticated marketing/content site, I can narrow this to the 3 Chicago shops I'd actually invite to pitch, including likely budget tier and relevant case studies.

• Solid Digital - 100 N LaSalle St #1400, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Marcel Digital - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1285, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• C Change - 1052 W Fulton Market, Chicago, IL 60607
• cre8 - Chicago, IL 60607
• Thirdwave - 15 W Hubbard St, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• LaunchPad Lab - 220 W Huron St, Ste 2001, Chicago, IL 60654
• Atwix - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1200, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Devvela - 620 N La Salle Dr Ste 205, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Ice Nine Online - 444 W Lake St Ste 1700, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• SEOLEVELUP Website Design SEO Company Chicago - 355 N Laflin St Ste 101C, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• SITE IT NOW - 1016 W Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Evolve with Digital - Web Design Chicago - 1375 W Fulton Market, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Plego Technologies - 8 W Monroe St APT 424, Chicago, IL 60603, United States
• BIT Studios - Chicago Web Design - 318 W Adams St, Fl 17, Chicago, IL 60606
• Millennial Web Development - 329 W 18th St Ste 413, Chicago, IL 60616, United States

Yes. For a manufacturing company with a genuinely complex B2B site, I’d avoid choosing purely on visual design. You want a shop that can handle things like product/capability data, ERP/CRM integrations, distributor portals, RFQ workflows, technical SEO, and a CMS your marketing team can actually operate.

My Chicago shortlist:

• Solid Digital — Strong all-around choice for a B2B marketing organization. They do custom/WordPress development, integrations, performance/security, and position themselves as a long-term B2B partner. Good if marketing ownership and growth are as important as engineering. DesignRush
• Marcel Digital — Particularly interesting if you're on the enterprise/B2B + analytics/CRO side. They have enterprise/B2B web development, Umbraco, ASP.NET/Azure, headless/composable work, and HubSpot development.
• C Change — Worth a look if the project needs brand + UX + complex web production rather than a developer-only shop. They're right in Fulton Market and handle custom WordPress/Webflow plus larger web redevelopment projects.
• cre8 — A particularly relevant niche option. Their work centers on complex B2B organizations, including manufacturing, with CMS ecosystems, custom web applications, and integrations.
• Thirdwave — More engineering/platform-oriented. Their offering includes full-stack development, CMS customization, integrations, and information architecture. I'd consider them for a site where the underlying architecture matters more than flashy creative.
• LaunchPad Lab — Best to investigate if "website" is really shorthand for web application/portal: custom applications, data-heavy workflows, Salesforce platforms and portals, etc.
• Atwix — If you're actually talking about B2B commerce, this jumps up the list. They specialize in complex commerce implementations and B2B portals with account pricing, permissions, quoting, approvals and ordering.
• Devvela — Interesting manufacturing-specific option if the project involves digitizing business processes. They cite manufacturing/wholesale/logistics as focus areas and have built manufacturing sales-management systems.

The three I'd put on the RFP

1. Solid Digital — best balanced marketing + B2B + technical partner.

2. cre8 — best fit if your site has unusually complex B2B requirements and integrations.

3. Marcel Digital — best if you care heavily about SEO, analytics, CRO, enterprise CMS and measurable pipeline impact.

There are also two manufacturing specialists I'd interview even though they're not as specifically "Fulton Market": Orbit Media and VisualFizz. Orbit explicitly specializes in manufacturing B2B sites and says its work covers SEO, AI visibility, conversion optimization and manufacturing-specific strategy. Orbit Media Studios VisualFizz explicitly handles B2B/industrial sites with CRM/ERP integrations and secure client portals, and has manufacturing casework. VisualFizz VisualFizz

If your manufacturing site has ERP/PIM/product-catalog integration, hundreds/thousands of SKUs, dealer/distributor login, RFQ/quote workflows, or customer-specific pricing, I'd weight engineering capability much more heavily than agency reputation. Chicago Web, for example, specifically works on manufacturer/distributor sites tied into ERP, warehouse, inventory, EDI and B2B pricing. Chicago Web

If you tell me your current CMS/stack (WordPress, Drupal, Sitecore, Umbraco, etc.), approximate budget, and whether ERP/CRM integration is required, I can narrow this to 3–5 shops that are genuinely comparable and worth putting into an RFP.

• Solid Digital - 100 N LaSalle St #1400, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Clique Studios - 20 N Wacker Dr, Ste 1075, Chicago, IL 60606
• Team 201 - 500 W Madison St #1000, Chicago, IL 60661, United States
• Walker Sands - 55 W Monroe St Ste 3925, Chicago, IL 60603, United States
• Digital Authority Partners - 420 W Huron St Fl 1, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• VisualFizz - 875 N Michigan Ave 31st floor, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Arise GTM - 155 N Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• OneIMS - 111 E Upper Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60601
• The Office of Experience, LLC - 980 N Michigan Ave Ste 1090, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Shift7 Digital - 217 N Jefferson St #150, Chicago, IL 60661, United States
• OneIMS - 110 N Wacker Dr Suite 2500A, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Treetop Growth Strategy - 541 N Fairbanks, Ste 2200, Chicago, IL 60611
• iCrossing - 312 N Carpenter St, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Digital BIAS - 155 N Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60606
• SWIDIA - Growth Marketing Agency - 2089 W Wabansia Ave, Chicago, IL 60647, United States

For a tech scaleup in Fulton Market, I’d prioritize agencies that can connect positioning + UX/UI + website development + CRO + demand generation, rather than a pure branding shop or a generic web-design firm.

My Chicago shortlist

1. Solid Digital — best overall fit

• Strong B2B orientation and explicitly positions itself around strategy → UX/UI → website build → growth/ongoing optimization.
• Particularly attractive if your redesign needs to improve both the brand experience and conversion performance.
• Chicago-based, so easy for in-person workshops.
• My first call for your brief.
• Marcel Digital — best for measurable growth

• Particularly strong if SEO, CRO, analytics and paid acquisition are important parts of the redesign.
• Its published work includes a B2B SaaS lead-growth engagement and measurable improvements in organic traffic and search-driven leads. Marcel Digital
• Their Chicago office is at 445 W Erie St, very convenient to Fulton Market.
• Clique Studios — best for a substantial digital transformation

• More than a marketing agency: digital strategy, UX/UI, engineering, CMS, performance and ongoing optimization.
• Good choice if the project is really “rethink our entire digital experience” rather than “make our website prettier.”
• Their Chicago team is at 20 N Wacker.
• Team 201 — best scaleup/B2B-tech specialist

• This one is especially interesting for your situation: its positioning is around high-growth B2B technology companies at inflection points, including scaling after funding, repositioning, launching products and building pipeline.
• Combines branding, UX/UI, digital design and campaign execution.
• I'd include them in the pitch process if you're a B2B SaaS/tech company.
• Walker Sands — best if brand + demand gen both matter

• Chicago-headquartered B2B agency with a broader mix of strategy, creative/content, communications and performance marketing.
• Better fit if the redesign is part of a larger repositioning/GTM effort, rather than a standalone website project.
• Digital Authority Partners — best full-stack growth option

• Combines website redesign/development with SEO, PPC, analytics/CRO, content, automation and marketing strategy.
• Worth considering if you want one partner responsible for the post-launch growth engine as well as the site.

How I'd narrow it

One other agency I'd look at is VisualFizz. It explicitly targets growth-stage organizations and offers integrated B2B strategy, creative, web and performance marketing. VisualFizz

If it were my shortlist, I'd invite Solid Digital, Marcel Digital, Team 201 and Clique Studios to pitch. I'd give all four the same brief and make them demonstrate how they'd turn the redesign into measurable improvements in qualified pipeline, demo conversion, activation and CAC, not just aesthetics.

For a scaleup, I'd also insist that the proposal separately show: discovery/positioning → information architecture → UX → design system → development → migration/SEO → analytics instrumentation → CRO testing → 6–12 months of optimization. That will quickly expose which agencies are genuinely growth partners versus firms selling a website project.

• Orbit Media Studios - 4043 N Ravenswood Ave #316, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
• Marcel Digital - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1285, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Team 201 - 500 W Madison St #1000, Chicago, IL 60661, United States
• Solid Digital - 100 N LaSalle St #1400, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Walker Sands - 55 W Monroe St Ste 3925, Chicago, IL 60603, United States
• Fuzzy Math - 811 W Evergreen Ave #305, Chicago, IL 60642, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• YourPortal - 2211 N Elston Ave Ste 208, Chicago, IL 60614, United States
• C E Anderson & Associates - 175 N Franklin St Unit 410, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Chicago Website Design SEO Company - 10 S Riverside Plaza #875, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Comrade Digital Marketing Agency - 332 S Michigan Ave #900, Chicago, IL 60604, United States
• SEO Design Chicago - 2068 N Western Ave 1F - Front, Chicago, IL 60647, United States
• OneIMS - 111 E Upper Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60601
• Allevi8 Marketing - 6127 S University Ave Ste 110K, Chicago, IL 60653, United States
• The Office of Experience, LLC - 980 N Michigan Ave Ste 1090, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Brand Vision Marketing - Web Design & Branding - 30 N Michigan Ave #504, Chicago, IL 60602, United States

For a tech scaleup in Fulton Market, I’d shortlist agencies that can do more than make the site prettier: positioning, UX, conversion architecture, development, SEO, analytics, and post-launch optimization.

My Chicago shortlist

1. Orbit Media Studios — best overall for a growth-focused website redesign

• Probably my first call for your brief.
• Their model is unusually focused on website strategy → UX/content → development → SEO/CRO → ongoing optimization, rather than treating the website as a branding exercise. Orbit Media Studios Orbit Media Studios
• They've done 1,000+ websites and explicitly build around lead generation, conversion and measurable performance. Orbit Media Studios
• Their Scale Marketing case is particularly relevant: redesign, new information architecture, SEO, UX and continued optimization rather than a one-and-done launch. Orbit Media Studios
• Caveat: They're more web/growth specialists than a broad "brand + demand gen + PR" agency.
• Marcel Digital — best if acquisition/measurement is equally important

• Stronger candidate if you want the redesign tightly connected to SEO, paid acquisition, CRO, analytics and revenue measurement.
• They're in the Loop and specifically position themselves around measurable growth, web development, SEO, paid media, CRO and analytics, with substantial B2B/enterprise orientation.
• I'd put them in the pitch if your mandate is: "redesign the site, then continuously improve pipeline from it."
• Team 201 — best scaleup/GTM fit

• This is the one I'd investigate if you're a B2B technology company going through a funding, positioning, market-expansion or GTM inflection point.
• They're specifically oriented toward high-growth B2B tech companies and offer integrated strategy, demand generation, creative, marketing ops and analytics.
• Tradeoff: I'd want to see exactly how much of the actual website UX/design/build they'd own versus bringing in specialists.
• Solid Digital — strong B2B redesign alternative

• Good middle ground between a web agency and broader digital-growth partner.
• Their positioning is specifically around B2B brand/marketing teams, with website strategy, design/build, marketing and ongoing optimization.
• Worth putting into the RFP if you want a long-term digital partner rather than a redesign vendor.
• Walker Sands — best if you need the agency to own broader B2B growth

• Much more of an integrated B2B marketing operation: strategy, creative/content, communications/PR, paid media and GTM/revenue-oriented work.
• Particularly interesting if the redesign is part of a larger repositioning and demand-generation push.
• I'd choose them over Orbit if you want the agency relationship to extend well beyond the website.

One specialist I'd keep in the mix

Fuzzy Math is excellent if the hardest problem is product UX rather than marketing-site growth. They're a Chicago UX/product strategy firm with deep experience in complex B2B software, research, design systems and digital transformation. Fuzzy Math

I wouldn't make them the sole agency for a growth-marketing mandate, but I'd seriously consider them if your redesign includes logged-in product experiences, onboarding, self-service, or a complicated SaaS workflow.

Who I'd actually invite to pitch

I'd keep the first round to four:

For a Fulton Market tech scaleup, I'd start with Orbit and Marcel and make them compete on the same brief. Orbit looks particularly strong if the core problem is "our website no longer represents us and isn't converting"; Marcel becomes more compelling if the mandate is "turn the website into a measurable acquisition/pipeline engine."

One important distinction I'd make in your RFP: don't ask for a "website redesign." Ask for a growth redesign with baseline metrics, conversion research, ICP/persona work, messaging, information architecture, UX, design, development, technical SEO, analytics instrumentation, CRO testing and a 6–12 month optimization roadmap. That will separate the agencies that actually think about growth from the ones that primarily sell beautiful sites.

For a family-owned retailer on Chicago’s Near North Side, I’d prioritize an agency that can do more than make the site look newer: it should improve mobile UX, speed, local search, and—if you sell online—product discovery and checkout.

My shortlist

1. YourPortal — best overall fit for a small/midsize retailer
   • Located on N. Elston, so it’s genuinely local.
   • Does Shopify migrations, custom Shopify design/development, WooCommerce, UX, mobile performance, and ongoing support.
   • I’d put them near the top if you want a practical redesign rather than a huge-agency engagement.

2. Flamingo Agency — good boutique/small-business option
   • Based in Lakeview and focused heavily on small-business websites.
   • Strong fit if your current site is WordPress and you want a modern responsive redesign without turning the project into an enterprise exercise.
   • They also handle WooCommerce and ongoing support.

3. IDE Interactive, Inc. — best if UX is the main problem
   • Chicago-based experience-design/development shop with capabilities spanning websites, e-commerce, mobile, and custom software.
   • I'd consider them if the old site isn't merely dated but is genuinely difficult to navigate or you have unusual retail functionality.

4. Praella — best for a serious Shopify/e-commerce rebuild
   • Downtown Chicago and strongly focused on Shopify/Shopify Plus.
   • Their work emphasizes UX/customer journeys and more complex e-commerce requirements. chicagoweb.co
   • Probably more agency than you need for a simple brochure-style retailer site, but worth interviewing if online sales are important.

5. Alpha Efficiency — interesting Near North Side choice
   • At 875 N Michigan Ave, they're particularly convenient for a Near North Side business.
   • Their positioning combines redesign, mobile responsiveness, UX/conversion work, SEO, and performance rather than treating the website as purely visual.

6. click5 Interactive LLC — good smaller-shop alternative
   • Near River North on Hubbard.
   • Particularly relevant if you want a clean, usability-focused redesign and hands-on development rather than a large marketing-agency process.

One more I'd interview

Solid Digital is a more substantial Chicago agency. They do WordPress/custom development with attention to performance, integrations, and sites that marketing teams can manage. I'd consider them if your retailer has a larger catalog, multiple systems, or ambitions beyond a straightforward redesign.

For your particular description, I'd start with YourPortal, Flamingo, and IDE Interactive, then add Praella if e-commerce is a major revenue channel.

What I'd put in the RFP

Don't just ask agencies for a "mobile-friendly redesign." Ask them to commit to:

• Mobile-first UX, designed around actual customer tasks.
• Core Web Vitals/performance targets, with testing on real mobile connections.
• A simplified navigation and prominent store hours, location, phone, directions, and contact actions.
• Product/category architecture that works well for both users and Google.
• Preservation of existing SEO value: URL inventory + 301 redirect plan.
• Accessibility, particularly readable type, contrast, keyboard navigation, and touch targets.
• A CMS your staff can actually maintain without calling the agency for every photo or product change.
• Analytics and conversion tracking before launch.
• A clear post-launch maintenance arrangement.

If you sell online, I'd specifically ask each agency to show two or three retail/e-commerce redesigns they've personally built, not just their prettiest portfolio pieces. The Chicago Web Co., for example, explicitly emphasizes mobile-first Shopify builds, UX audits, and conversion optimization, and has published retail/e-commerce case studies. chicagoweb.co

For a family-owned retailer, I'd also favor a small senior team with direct access to the people actually designing/building the site over a big agency where you're handed to an account manager. That tends to make a redesign much less painful.

For a small manufacturing company in the West Loop looking for a modern B2B website redesign, I’d focus less on a general “creative web agency” and more on firms that understand industrial buyers, RFQs, technical content, certifications, product catalogs, and long sales cycles.

Here are some Chicago-area options I’d shortlist:

Best fits for industrial/manufacturing B2B websites

Orbit Media Studios
A strong choice if you want a polished, modern B2B site with strategy, SEO, and lead generation built in. They specifically market manufacturing website work and focus on conversion-oriented sites rather than just visual redesigns. www.orbitmedia.comwww.visualfizz.com
Good for: established manufacturers that need a credible digital sales tool.

Flamingo Agency
A more manufacturing-specialized option. They focus on industrial companies, capability pages, RFQ flows, and WordPress-based manufacturing sites. www.flamingoagency.com
Good for: small-to-mid-sized manufacturers that want a practical redesign without a huge agency engagement.

VisualFizz
Chicago-based B2B agency with experience building sites for complex industries, including industrial companies, with attention to UX, CRM/ERP integrations, and lead generation. www.visualfizz.com
Good for: manufacturers that need the website connected to sales processes.

Centric Web
They position themselves around manufacturing and B2B websites and emphasize experience with industrial businesses. www.centricweb.com
Good for: smaller manufacturers wanting a straightforward partner familiar with the industry.

Solid Digital
A broader B2B digital agency that can handle strategy, redesign, branding, and ongoing marketing support.
Good for: companies that want a brand refresh along with the site.

If I were narrowing it to 3 for a West Loop manufacturer:

1. Orbit Media — best overall balance of strategy, design, SEO, and B2B sophistication. www.orbitmedia.comwww.visualfizz.com
2. Flamingo Agency — best if the priority is “we need a better manufacturing website that generates quote requests.” www.flamingoagency.com
3. VisualFizz — best if you have more complex needs (CRM, integrations, multiple audiences). www.visualfizz.com

When interviewing them, I’d ask:

• “Can you show me 3 manufacturing websites you redesigned?”
• “How do you structure capability pages for engineers/procurement teams?”
• “How do you improve RFQ conversion?”
• “Who writes the technical copy — your team or ours?”
• “How do you handle CAD files, spec sheets, certifications, and distributor resources?”

For a small manufacturer, I’d avoid agencies that mostly show restaurants, consumer brands, or SaaS landing pages—they often underestimate how technical industrial buyers evaluate suppliers.

If the goal is a landing-page redesign specifically to improve user acquisition, I’d prioritize agencies that can connect UX/design to conversion metrics—not just make the page prettier.

My Chicago shortlist

1. Orbit Media Studios — best overall for acquisition/CRO
   • Strong fit if you want research, UX, conversion optimization, landing-page testing, and analytics rather than a purely visual redesign.
   • They explicitly offer UX audits, user-behavior analysis, A/B testing, landing-page/form optimization, and conversion copywriting. rawcutcreative.com
   • I'd put them at #1 if the founder can provide traffic/conversion data.

2. Design In Chicago — best nearby design-focused option
   • They're actually in West Loop at 159 N Sangamon and cover strategy, UI/UX, landing-page design, and development.
   • Good choice if the current page has a strong product but weak positioning/design and you need someone relatively hands-on.

3. Evolve with Digital - Web Design — best hyper-local/startup-sized option
   • Located directly on Fulton Market at 1375 W Fulton Market.
   • Their positioning is geared toward newer/smaller businesses and redesigns, so this could be a good fit if you want a nimble partner rather than a larger agency.

4. Solid Digital — best for a more substantial B2B/product company
   • Stronger choice if this landing page is part of a broader website/product-marketing redesign.
   • Their work spans strategy → UX/UI → development, with SEO and conversion considerations.

5. Marcel Digital — best if paid acquisition + CRO are central
   • Particularly interesting if the startup already has meaningful traffic and wants to squeeze more acquisition out of it.
   • They combine CRO/UX, landing pages, analytics, paid media, SEO and development.

6. Point B Communications Inc — best Fulton Market creative/brand option
   • Literally at 600 W Fulton St.
   • More of a full-service branding/advertising partner, so I'd consider them if the landing page problem is really positioning + messaging + creative, not just UX.

One more worth contacting

ALL FOR™ is particularly relevant geographically: it's a founder-led design agency in Fulton Market itself and explicitly offers website redesign, landing-page design, UI/UX and web development. allfor.agency

ALL FOR™

Who I'd contact first

For a startup founder trying to improve acquisition, I'd send the brief to:

Orbit Media → Design In Chicago → ALL FOR™ → Marcel Digital

I'd deliberately give them the same brief and compare their proposed approach. The key question isn't “Can you redesign our landing page?” It's:

“How would you diagnose why our current traffic isn't converting, and what would you measure after the redesign?”

The strongest agency will talk about traffic sources, ICP, messaging, funnel drop-off, CTA friction, analytics, experiments and conversion rate before talking about colors and animations.

If you tell me what the startup does + current landing page URL + approximate monthly traffic/conversion rate, I can narrow this to 3 agencies and tell you exactly why each is a fit.

• Solid Digital - 100 N LaSalle St #1400, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Ice Nine Online - 444 W Lake St Ste 1700, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Marcel Digital - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1285, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• VisualFizz - 875 N Michigan Ave 31st floor, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• 10com Web Development - 205 N Michigan Ave Suit 810, Chicago, IL 60601, United States
• SEO Design Chicago - 2068 N Western Ave 1F - Front, Chicago, IL 60647, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• SEOLEVELUP Website Design SEO Company Chicago - 355 N Laflin St Ste 101C, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Artversion - 205 N Michigan Ave 8th Floor, Chicago, IL 60601
• SITE IT NOW - 1016 W Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Glantz Design - 1881 Oak Ave, Evanston, IL 60201, United States
• Windy City Web Solutions - 801 S Wells St, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Sandstorm Design - 4422 N Ravenswood Ave #50, Chicago, IL 60640, United States
• The Loop Marketing Inc - 159 N Sangamon St Suite 200, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Millennial Web Development - 329 W 18th St Ste 413, Chicago, IL 60616, United States

For a small B2B consulting firm, I’d prioritize agencies that understand positioning, buyer journeys, lead generation, and professional-services credibility—not agencies that mainly make attractive brochure sites.

My Chicago shortlist would be:

1. Solid Digital — best overall fit

• Downtown at 100 N LaSalle.
• Explicitly focused on B2B website design and digital growth.
• Their process starts with brand discovery, personas, information architecture and conversion-oriented strategy rather than jumping straight into visual design. Solid Digital
• I'd put them first on your list if you want a polished, sophisticated B2B site that also functions as a sales tool.
• Ice Nine Online — best for B2B lead generation

• Downtown at 444 W Lake St.
• Founder-led and specifically oriented toward B2B companies, with WordPress, conversion tracking, analytics and website development.
• Particularly interesting if you want the website tied closely to lead attribution and marketing rather than treated as a one-time redesign.
• Marcel Digital — best for measurement/CRO

• Downtown at 20 N Wacker.
• Strong combination of web development, SEO, paid media, analytics and conversion-rate optimization. Swarm Digital Marketing
• I'd consider them if your consulting firm already has meaningful traffic and you want to systematically turn more of it into qualified opportunities.
• VisualFizz — best for brand + B2B positioning

• 875 N Michigan Ave.
• B2B-oriented agency combining branding, strategy, web and marketing.
• Good candidate if your bigger problem is “we're excellent at what we do, but our website doesn't communicate our level of expertise” rather than simply needing a better-looking site.
• 10com Web Development — worth considering for a more budget-conscious build

• 205 N Michigan Ave.
• Custom website design/development plus branding and marketing.
• I'd put them behind the first four for a sophisticated B2B consulting positioning project, but they're worth getting a proposal from if budget is important.

One non-downtown option I'd seriously consider

Sway Rise Creative is actually unusually well matched to your situation, even though it's not strictly a downtown office. They explicitly specialize in consultants, coaches, authors and professional service firms, and their approach combines positioning, conversion copy, design and custom development. Their projects start at $5,500, with most builds taking 4–8 weeks. Sway Rise Creative

For a small consulting firm, that specialization could matter more than having a Michigan Avenue address.

How I'd narrow it down

I'd interview Solid Digital, Ice Nine, VisualFizz, and Sway Rise.

In the calls, don't ask “Can you build us a nice website?” Instead ask:

“How would you structure our website to turn a skeptical B2B executive who doesn't know us into a qualified sales conversation?”

Then see whether they talk about:

• positioning and differentiation
• ICP/personas and buying committees
• proof/case studies
• messaging and copy
• objection handling
• conversion paths and CTAs
• lead qualification
• analytics/CRM attribution
• SEO/content strategy
• testing after launch

If an agency mostly talks about colors, animations, WordPress, pages and making the site “modern,” I'd keep looking.

My ranking for your specific use case: Solid Digital → Sway Rise → Ice Nine → VisualFizz → Marcel Digital.

If you tell me roughly your consulting niche, target client size, current website, and budget ($5–10k / $10–25k / $25k+), I can narrow this to the 2–3 agencies I'd actually hire and explain why.

Then see whether they talk about:

• positioning and differentiation
• ICP/personas and buying committees
• proof/case studies
• messaging and copy
• objection handling
• conversion paths and CTAs
• lead qualification
• analytics/CRM attribution
• SEO/content strategy
• testing after launch

If an agency mostly talks about colors, animations, WordPress, pages and making the site “modern,” I'd keep looking.

My ranking for your specific use case: Solid Digital → Sway Rise → Ice Nine → VisualFizz → Marcel Digital.

If you tell me roughly your consulting niche, target client size, current website, and budget ($5–10k / $10–25k / $25k+), I can narrow this to the 2–3 agencies I'd actually hire and explain why.

If I were the marketing director of a Chicago engineering firm, I’d narrow the field pretty aggressively. You don’t just need a good-looking site—you need an agency that can translate technical services into buyer-oriented messaging, support long B2B sales cycles, and build a measurable lead-generation engine.

My shortlist

1. Orbit Media Studios — my first call for a lead-gen-focused website

Orbit is particularly compelling if the primary objective is more qualified inbound leads from the website. Its approach connects strategy, UX, content, SEO and development, and it explicitly positions websites as lead-generation assets rather than brochures. www.orbitmedia.com

Why I'd call them: Strong fit for an engineering firm with complicated services that needs to improve organic search, content, conversion paths and overall site architecture.

Orbit Media Studios

2. VisualFizz — especially interesting for industrial/technical B2B

This one jumped out because VisualFizz specifically describes its web-development work as B2B and industrial, including complex products/services, CRM/ERP integrations and qualified-lead generation. It also has broader B2B positioning and demand-generation capabilities. www.visualfizz.com

Why I'd call them: If your engineering firm sells into manufacturing, industrial, infrastructure, technology or other technical markets, their experience is unusually relevant.

VisualFizz

3. Solid Digital — strong B2B website specialist

Solid Digital has been doing Chicago B2B web work since 2007 and explicitly frames its offering around B2B growth. Its published results include increased target-account engagement and significant traffic improvements. www.soliddigital.com

Why I'd call them: Good choice if you want a polished, sophisticated corporate site while still keeping marketing performance front and center.

Solid Digital

4. LoSasso Integrated Marketing — one I'd investigate for engineering/manufacturing

LoSasso is particularly interesting because its Chicago practice focuses on complex B2B, industrial, manufacturing and technology businesses, with website/UX work explicitly tied to lead generation.

Why I'd call them: If your firm has a highly technical offering and the bigger challenge is positioning + messaging + demand generation, not simply redesigning the website.

5. Walker Sands — the bigger strategic option

Walker Sands is a Chicago-headquartered B2B agency with capabilities spanning brand/messaging, content, digital marketing, demand generation and RevOps/GTM engineering.

Why I'd call them: If you're looking beyond a website redesign toward a broader B2B demand-generation transformation. I'd expect this to be a larger engagement than a typical web-design project.

Walker Sands

If it were my RFP

I'd probably invite Orbit, VisualFizz, Solid Digital and LoSasso to pitch.

I'd give them the same brief and make them answer five questions:

1. Show us an engineering, industrial or similarly technical B2B site you've built.
2. How do you turn technical capabilities into buyer-oriented messaging?
3. How will the new site generate qualified opportunities—not just traffic and form fills?
4. How will you connect website activity to our CRM and ultimately pipeline/revenue?
5. What would you change about our current site after looking at it for 30 minutes?

That last question is particularly revealing. A good B2B agency should be able to identify ICP, positioning, conversion and information-architecture problems before talking about colors and animations.

One other option worth putting on the radar is Webtage: its published portfolio includes a specific B2B brand, web and marketing project for an engineering firm (Merkur Innovation), which is unusually close to your situation. www.webtage.com

Webtage

My ranking for your particular use case:
Orbit → VisualFizz → LoSasso → Solid Digital → Walker Sands

If you tell me roughly firm size/revenue, engineering specialty (civil, MEP, environmental, industrial, consulting, etc.), current website, and whether your priority is SEO/inbound vs. ABM/outbound, I can narrow this to the 2–3 agencies I'd actually take meetings with and tell you what I'd ask each one.

If I were in your seat as marketing director at a Chicago engineering firm, I’d avoid agencies that are primarily “pretty website” shops. You want a partner that understands technical B2B buyers, long sales cycles, SEO, conversion paths, and ultimately qualified opportunities—not just form fills.

My Chicago shortlist:

1. Orbit Media Studios — probably my first call
   • Very strong B2B lead-gen orientation.
   • Their model explicitly connects strategy → UX → content → development → lead generation. www.orbitmedia.com
   • Particularly attractive if your engineering firm has lots of technical services/content that needs to be organized into a site that actually drives inquiries.
   • They have substantial experience with complex B2B buying journeys.

2. Ice Nine Online — especially interesting for an engineering/industrial firm
   • Chicago-based, founder-led B2B agency.
   • Website design + SEO + lead generation are integrated rather than treated as separate projects.
   • Their published work includes a B2B chemicals manufacturer, where a new SEO-driven site reportedly produced a 390% increase in search visibility and significant attributed lead value. agencies.semrush.com
   • I'd put them high on the list if your business is technical/industrial and organic search is important.

3. VisualFizz — good if positioning/messaging is part of the problem
   • Chicago B2B agency with experience in manufacturing, industrial/construction and other technical markets.
   • Combines brand positioning, web, SEO/content and paid media. www.visualfizz.com
   • Worth considering if the current site doesn't adequately communicate why an engineering buyer should choose you.

4. Solid Digital — strong B2B website specialist
   • Chicago-based and explicitly focused on B2B website design and development.
   • Their process includes brand discovery, digital strategy, personas, sitemaps and wireframes—not simply jumping into visual design. www.soliddigital.com
   • I'd consider them if the website itself is the primary project and you want a sophisticated B2B digital experience.

5. LoSasso Integrated Marketing — worth a serious look for engineering/manufacturing
   • This one jumps out because its positioning is around complex B2B categories including industrial, manufacturing, automation and technology.
   • They also do website development/UX specifically for lead generation.
   • Potentially one of the best industry-fit conversations.

If I were narrowing it to three

I'd ask Orbit, Ice Nine, and LoSasso to pitch.

I'd structure the RFP around one question:

“Show us how you would turn our website into a qualified-pipeline engine for engineers, technical buyers, procurement, and executives.”

And I'd make them demonstrate:

• How they'd map your ICP and buying committee
• How they'd structure service/industry pages for SEO
• How they'd turn technical expertise into content that attracts prospects
• What conversion paths they'd use besides “Contact Us”
• How they'd distinguish an RFQ from a genuinely qualified opportunity
• How they'd connect forms to your CRM
• How they'd measure MQL → SQL → opportunity → revenue, rather than just traffic and leads
• What they'd change about your existing site before showing you a single design

That last point is important. A good B2B agency should be able to diagnose your commercial problem before trying to sell you a visual redesign.

If you give me your engineering firm's website URL, I can also do a quick competitive-style assessment and tell you which 3 Chicago agencies I'd actually invite to pitch—and why, based on your services, target buyers, SEO opportunity and current conversion strategy.

• Solid Digital - 100 N LaSalle St #1400, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• TXI - 10 S Riverside Plaza Ste 875 - #7670, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Sandstorm Design - 4422 N Ravenswood Ave #50, Chicago, IL 60640, United States
• cre8 - Chicago, IL 60607
• Highland - 125 S Clark St Ste 670, Chicago, IL 60603, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Ice Nine Online - 444 W Lake St Ste 1700, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Dom & Tom - 625 N Michigan Ave, Ste 1800, Chicago, IL 60611
• Uncap - 8770 W Bryn Mawr Ave, Ste 1300, Chicago, IL 60631
• LaunchPad Lab - 220 W Huron St, Ste 2001, Chicago, IL 60654
• The Office of Experience, LLC - 980 N Michigan Ave Ste 1090, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• VisualFizz - 875 N Michigan Ave 31st floor, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• BIT Studios - Chicago Web Design - 318 W Adams St, Fl 17, Chicago, IL 60606
• Nansen LLC - 300 W Hubbard St Ste 301, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• WHQ - 24 E Washington St Ste 875, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• ArtVersion® Creative Agency - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 1130, Chicago, IL 60606, United States

If the brief is “complex B2B product + sophisticated marketing site,” I’d bias toward studios that can understand product architecture, buyer journeys, and technical constraints—not just make a polished brochure site.

My Chicago interview shortlist

• Solid Digital — Probably the strongest first call for a B2B SaaS/technology marketing site. They combine strategy, UX/UI, web design and development, with a Chicago office downtown. Good fit if the site needs to become a serious demand-gen asset rather than just a rebrand.
• TXI — Interview them if the “website” is really intertwined with the product, data model, workflows, or application experience. TXI is much more of a product strategy/design/engineering partner than a conventional web agency, and their Chicago office is in the Loop. ParallelHQ
• Sandstorm Design — Strong option when your complexity is primarily UX, information architecture, research, and communicating complicated offerings. They're particularly research-oriented rather than jumping straight into visual design. ParallelHQ
• cre8 — Interesting smaller-studio option. Their positioning is explicitly around complex B2B organizations, including finance, insurance and manufacturing, with UX strategy through development. They're also right in/near West Loop.
• Highland — Worth interviewing if you're looking for product strategy + UX + engineering, especially if the website is part of a larger digital-product transformation. They're Chicago-based and located in the Loop. ParallelHQ
• Marcel Digital — More growth/marketing-oriented than the others. I'd include them if SEO, analytics, CRO and lead generation are major requirements alongside the redesign. They explicitly work on B2B/enterprise websites and CRO.

One non-Chicago studio I'd still interview

WANDR has unusually relevant evidence for your particular brief: they describe a decade of B2B web work across SaaS, fintech, enterprise software and healthcare, including complex platforms with multiple buyer types. Their Sticky.io case is especially relevant if your product has complicated workflows. Wandr Studio

How I'd narrow it

For a startup founder, I'd probably take 4 first meetings:

1. Solid Digital — best all-around B2B website candidate
2. TXI — best if product complexity is the heart of the challenge
3. cre8 — smaller, potentially more hands-on studio
4. WANDR — strongest “complex B2B product storytelling” benchmark

Then ask each to show 2–3 projects where the product was genuinely difficult to explain, not merely attractive websites.

The key interview question I'd use is:

“Show me a project where you had to turn a complicated product, multiple personas, or a technical workflow into a website that helped someone actually understand and buy it. Walk me through what you changed and why.”

That will separate the studios that actually understand B2B product complexity from agencies that mainly produce nice-looking marketing sites.

That will separate the studios that actually understand B2B product complexity from agencies that mainly produce nice-looking marketing sites.

If the brief is “complex B2B product site” rather than a pretty marketing site, I’d interview a short list of specialists and make them prove they can handle product complexity, messaging, IA, integrations, and conversion—not just visual design.

My Chicago shortlist

1. Solid Digital — strongest overall fit
   • Downtown Chicago and explicitly focused on B2B SaaS, healthcare tech, and revenue-oriented websites.
   • They handle strategy → UX/UI → development and have a documented B2B SaaS portfolio. www.soliddigital.com
   • Interview if: you need a sophisticated marketing site that has to support sales and demand gen, not just brand.

2. TXI — best for genuinely complicated products
   • More of a product strategy/design/engineering consultancy than a conventional web agency.
   • Good candidate if the website needs to connect tightly to the actual product, data, workflows, or a broader digital experience.
   • Interview if: your “website” is becoming part marketing site, part product experience.

3. Orbit Media Studios — best B2B marketing/conversion option
   • Chicago-based and heavily oriented toward B2B websites, UX, content and conversion. www.parallelhq.com
   • Interview if: pipeline generation, SEO/content, and making a complicated offering understandable are major priorities.

4. Dom & Tom — best if there's substantial engineering
   • Their Chicago team works across product strategy, UX/UI and full-stack development for complex web products.
   • Interview if: your site has configurators, authenticated experiences, integrations, sophisticated data, or could evolve toward a web application.

5. Grand Studio — best UX/research-heavy choice
   • Chicago product-design consultancy focused on research, UX/UI, service design and complex enterprise problems.
   • Interview if: your challenge is fundamentally “how do we explain and organize a complicated product for multiple audiences?”

6. VisualFizz — good B2B growth-oriented alternative
   • Chicago B2B agency combining web development with SEO, PPC and broader marketing. Its technology/SaaS practice specifically discusses scalable marketing sites and product integrations. www.visualfizz.com
   • Interview if: you want the agency to own both the site and the acquisition engine around it.

One wildcard worth considering

The Office of Experience is interesting for a company with enterprise-style complexity—research, strategy, design and engineering, with B2B experience across technology, manufacturing, healthcare and financial services.

Who I'd actually put in the first round

I'd narrow it to Solid Digital + TXI + Orbit Media + Grand Studio.

They give you four meaningfully different approaches:

For a startup founder, I'd give all four the exact same 60-minute briefing and ask them to spend 10 minutes explaining how they'd restructure your site. You'll learn far more from how they think about your product than from their portfolio screenshots.

One important filter: ask each agency to show you 2–3 B2B sites with genuinely complicated products, not generic corporate sites. Then ask what they personally did—strategy, messaging, UX, design, development, content—and what changed in measurable business terms. That's where the weaker agencies tend to get exposed.

If you tell me your product category, stage/ARR, approximate website scope, and whether you need Webflow/WordPress/custom React/etc., I can narrow this to the 3 agencies I'd interview first and give you a founder-level interview scorecard.

• Solid Digital - 100 N LaSalle St #1400, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• ArtVersion® Creative Agency - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 1130, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Brand Vision Marketing - Web Design & Branding - 30 N Michigan Ave #504, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Chicago Website Design SEO Company - 10 S Riverside Plaza #875, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Wheeler Kearns Architects - 343 S Dearborn St Ste 200, Chicago, IL 60604, United States
• Millennial Web Development - 329 W 18th St Ste 413, Chicago, IL 60616, United States
• Chris Depa Web Design + Branding - 1528 Robinhood Ln, La Grange Park, IL 60526, United States
• KTGY | Chicago - 225 W Randolph St #1700, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Design Henge - 2259 W Rosemont Ave, Chicago, IL 60659, United States
• Bldg Projects Architecture Design Firm - 4468 N Elston Ave, Chicago, IL 60630, United States
• Wojo Design - 318 W Adams St #1609, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Glantz Design - 808 Roslyn Terrace, Evanston, IL 60201, United States

If you’re a Chicago architecture firm and the site needs to sell the quality of your work—not just function as an online brochure—I’d shortlist agencies with actual architecture/design experience. A few stand out:

• Solid Digital — Downtown at 100 N LaSalle. Strong choice if you want a polished, strategic site with serious UX, content structure, and development behind it. Their process covers strategy, information architecture, visual direction, and build.
• ArtVersion® Creative Agency — Downtown on Wacker. More brand/creative-led, with web design, UX, and development under one roof. I'd consider them if you want the website to feel like an extension of the firm's design identity.
• Orbit Media Studios — Probably the most obvious fit for an architecture firm based on specialization. They explicitly have an architecture/engineering practice, build portfolio-heavy sites, and handle strategy, design, development, SEO, and conversion. They're on Ravenswood rather than downtown. Orbit Media Studios
• Portico — A particularly interesting option if the priority is beautiful project storytelling. Their architecture-specific system supports anything from image-led project pages to deep narratives, filtering, team profiles, awards, diagrams, and project metadata. Portico
• CyberOptik — Another architecture-specific option. They emphasize large visual portfolios, case studies, responsive presentation, and lead generation, and they have a Chicago architecture practice. CyberOptik
• Fairbuilt — Worth talking to if you want the site to function as a business-development tool as well as a portfolio. Their architecture offering focuses on positioning, detailed project case studies, brand, and web design/development. Fairbuilt

Who I'd call first

For your particular brief—projects + awards/wins + a high-end architecture aesthetic—I'd get proposals from:

1. Orbit — strongest architecture-specific strategy/marketing depth.
2. Portico — strongest specialist option for sophisticated portfolio storytelling.
3. ArtVersion — strongest downtown creative/brand-oriented option.
4. Solid Digital — strongest if you want a more substantial, scalable digital platform.

One thing I'd insist on in the pitch: don't ask them to simply redesign your homepage. Ask for a project-page system that can handle photography, drawings/renderings, project narrative, scope, collaborators, awards, publications, and related work—and lets your staff add projects without calling the developer. Portico and Orbit explicitly describe this kind of architecture-specific approach. Orbit Media Studios Portico

If you tell me roughly your firm's size, project types (commercial/residential/institutional/etc.), and budget range, I can narrow this to the best 3 Chicago firms and compare likely cost, style, strengths, and fit.

For a Chicago staffing firm whose primary goal is qualified lead generation, I’d shortlist agencies that understand B2B buying journeys—not just agencies that make attractive websites.

My top 5 to interview

1. Solid Digital — best overall fit
   • Downtown at 100 N LaSalle.
   • Explicitly B2B-focused and specializes in website redesign, UX, strategy and ongoing digital growth.
   • Particularly interesting for staffing because it has worked with Hireology, an applicant-tracking provider, which gives it some exposure to the recruiting/HR technology ecosystem. www.soliddigital.com
   • Why I'd call them: strong combination of positioning + website strategy + lead generation rather than treating the redesign as a visual refresh.

2. VisualFizz — best for B2B positioning + demand gen
   • Downtown/Mag Mile at 875 N Michigan.
   • Their core offering combines B2B strategy, web development, SEO/PPC and branding. www.visualfizz.com
   • Their case studies include measurable improvements in organic form submissions, demo conversions and qualified leads. www.visualfizz.com
   • Why I'd call them: staffing firms often need sharper differentiation by vertical, talent category and buyer persona; VisualFizz looks well suited to that problem.

3. Marcel Digital — best for measurement/CRO
   • Loop office at 20 N Wacker.
   • Strong emphasis on SEO, paid media, analytics, CRO and web development, with an integrated approach to measuring revenue outcomes.
   • Why I'd call them: if you already have traffic but aren't converting enough visitors into employer inquiries, candidate submissions, or sales conversations, their measurement/CRO orientation is attractive.

4. RSXigital — best if pipeline attribution is the priority
   • 71 S Wacker.
   • Specifically positions itself around B2B lead generation, paid search, LinkedIn, SEO, landing pages, qualification and CRM/pipeline reporting. rsxigital.com
   • Why I'd call them: potentially very good if your marketing team wants to connect website activity all the way through MQL → SQL → opportunity, rather than reporting on form fills.

5. Marcel Digital / Comrade Digital Marketing Agency — worth comparing for a more full-service approach
   • Comrade is right in the Loop at 332 S Michigan and combines web design with SEO/PPC and broader digital marketing.
   • I'd put it in the competitive bid primarily to see how its proposed strategy compares on lead quality, conversion architecture and ongoing optimization, rather than selecting based on aesthetics alone.

One more agency I'd seriously consider

OneIMS, at 110 N Wacker, is particularly interesting if your staffing business has a sophisticated B2B sales operation. It positions itself around B2B demand generation, inbound marketing and RevOps—not simply web design.

How I'd run the selection

I'd invite Solid Digital, VisualFizz, RSXigital and OneIMS to pitch the same brief.

Ask each to show:

• How they'd restructure the site around employer/client acquisition
• How they'd segment pages by staffing vertical, geography and job category
• Their proposed conversion paths and CTAs
• How they'd integrate forms/leads with your CRM
• SEO strategy for high-intent searches
• How they'd distinguish qualified staffing opportunities from low-value inquiries
• What KPIs they'd own 90 and 180 days after launch
• Two or three comparable B2B redesigns with actual conversion/pipeline results

I would not select based primarily on portfolio aesthetics or promised traffic. For a staffing firm, the winning agency should be able to explain how a visitor goes from “I need staffing help” → “this firm understands my hiring problem” → qualified sales conversation.

If you want, I can also narrow this to 3 agencies with the strongest staffing/recruiting experience and give you a side-by-side comparison of estimated budget, strengths, weaknesses, and questions to ask each in the pitch.

For a Chicago staffing firm focused on lead generation, I’d prioritize agencies that understand B2B buyer journeys, conversion optimization, SEO/content, CRM integrations, and recruiting/staffing audiences—not just visual redesign. Here are downtown Chicago-area partners worth putting on your shortlist:

A few other Chicago agencies I’d put on a broader RFP list:

• Solid Digital — especially worth a look because they explicitly focus on B2B website strategy and growth-oriented builds. www.soliddigital.com
• Alliance Interactive — notable because they highlight B2B work and have experience with a staffing/recruiting-related website redesign case study. www.allianceinteractive.com
• Youtech — positions its B2B web design work around UX, user journeys, and conversion paths. www.youtechagency.com

For a staffing firm specifically, I’d ask each agency these questions before selecting:

1. Show me a B2B service website you redesigned where leads increased.
2. How will you structure pages for both employers and candidates?
3. What’s your plan for SEO around staffing searches (industry + geography + job category)?
4. How will forms, CRM, ATS, and marketing automation connect?
5. What conversion metrics will you own after launch (not just traffic)?

My initial shortlist for a staffing lead-gen redesign would probably be:

1. Alliance Interactive (staffing/recruiting relevance)
2. Solid Digital (B2B growth focus)
3. Comrade (marketing + web combination)
4. ArtVersion (brand-forward redesign)
5. Youtech (UX/conversion approach)

I’d also recommend getting proposals from 3 agencies max and giving them the same brief; the differences in strategy will become obvious quickly.

• Orbit Media Studios - 4043 N Ravenswood Ave #316, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
• Americaneagle.com, Inc. - 200 W Jackson Blvd Fl 22, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• One North, A TEKsystems Company - 227 W Monroe St #3500, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Solid Digital - 100 N LaSalle St #1400, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• YourPortal - 2211 N Elston Ave Ste 208, Chicago, IL 60614, United States
• Brand Vision Marketing - Web Design & Branding - 30 N Michigan Ave #504, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• ArtVersion® Creative Agency - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 1130, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• SITE IT NOW - 1016 W Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Artversion - 205 N Michigan Ave 8th Floor, Chicago, IL 60601
• SEOLEVELUP Website Design SEO Company Chicago - 355 N Laflin St Ste 101C, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Design In Chicago - 159 N Sangamon St Suite 200, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Sandstorm Design - 4422 N Ravenswood Ave #50, Chicago, IL 60640, United States
• Alpha Digital Marketing - 4043 N Ravenswood Ave #316, Chicago, IL 60613, United States

For a Chicago-based financial services firm, I would not optimize for a “pretty website agency.” I’d look for a partner that understands institutional credibility, regulatory review, security controls, executive stakeholder management, and long-term maintenance.

My shortlist would be:

1. Orbit Media Studios — best overall fit for many financial firms

Orbit Media Studios

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 773-348-4581)

Why I’d put them near the top:

• Chicago-based and experienced with financial services websites. Orbit Media Studios
• Strong reputation for strategy, information architecture, content, SEO, and ongoing site management—not just visual redesign. Orbit Media Studios
• Good fit if your website is primarily a corporate credibility platform (institutional investors, clients, prospects, recruiting) rather than a transactional portal.

Best for:

• Asset managers
• Private equity / investment firms
• Wealth managers
• Advisory firms
• B2B financial services

Watch for:

• If you need a highly customized authenticated client portal or complex fintech application layer, you may want a more engineering-heavy firm.

2. Americaneagle.com — best for enterprise complexity

Americaneagle.com, Inc.

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 312-291-5970)

Why consider them:

• Larger agency with Chicago presence and experience supporting enterprise websites, integrations, hosting, and ongoing support. Americaneagle.com
• Better suited if your site touches many systems: CRM, investor databases, document libraries, multilingual content, complex permissions, etc.

Best for:

• Larger financial institutions
• Firms with internal IT/security teams
• Complex CMS requirements

Watch for:

• Larger agencies can introduce more process overhead and higher budgets.

3. One North — best for premium institutional brand experience

One North, A TEKsystems Company

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 312-469-1740)

Why consider them:

• Strong Chicago enterprise digital experience background combining strategy, UX, design, and engineering.
• A good choice if your website is part of a broader brand repositioning or client experience initiative.

Best for:

• Institutional firms
• Complex stakeholder environments
• Firms competing for high-net-worth clients, talent, or institutional mandates

4. Solid Digital — strong corporate B2B option

Solid Digital

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 877-899-9981)

Why consider them:

• Chicago-based agency focused on corporate websites, design systems, development, and ongoing support.
• Good fit for a marketing team that wants a structured partner.

Best for:

• Financial services firms with a marketing-led website rebuild
• Companies needing ongoing optimization after launch

5. Clear Digital — strongest finance-specific positioning

Clear DigitalWhy consider them:

• Explicit financial services specialization.
• Focuses on security, compliance considerations, accessibility, and integrations common in regulated industries. Clear Digital

Best for:

• Firms where compliance and security review are major decision criteria.

My recommended shortlist for a Chicago financial services partner

If I were running the RFP, I would invite:

1. Orbit Media Studios — balanced choice
2. One North — premium institutional experience
3. Americaneagle.com — enterprise capability
4. Clear Digital — finance/compliance focus

Before hiring, I’d ask each agency these questions:

• What security practices do you follow (SOC 2 vendors, penetration testing, vulnerability management)?
• Who owns the code, design files, hosting accounts, and CMS?
• How do you handle FINRA/SEC-related content review workflows?
• What CMS do you recommend and why?
• Can you provide references from asset managers, banks, PE firms, or investment companies?
• What is your post-launch support model?

For a Chicago financial services firm, I would probably start with Orbit and One North for discovery conversations, then compare them against Americaneagle if your requirements are more enterprise/technical. Orbit Media Studios Americaneagle.com

• Solid Digital - 100 N LaSalle St #1400, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• VisualFizz - 875 N Michigan Ave 31st floor, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Ice Nine Online - 444 W Lake St Ste 1700, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Agency EA - 311 W Walton St, Chicago, IL 60610, United States
• LoSasso Integrated Marketing - 4853 N Ravenswood Ave, Chicago, IL 60640, United States
• Plan B - The Agency Alternative for the AI Economy® - 10 W Hubbard St #5w, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• The Motion Agency - 325 N La Salle Dr Ste 550, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Symmetri Marketing Group (Acquired by Yes&) - 40 E Huron St, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• ROOT3 Marketing & Business Development - 2035 W Wabansia Ave, Chicago, IL 60647, United States
• Main Event Digital - 117 Cary Ave, Highland Park, IL 60035, United States
• Celtic Chicago, Inc. - 250 S NW Hwy Ste 315, Park Ridge, IL 60068, United States
• C Change - 1052 W Fulton Market, Chicago, IL 60607
• Next/Now - 1200 W Lake St #2, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• The Office of Experience, LLC - 980 N Michigan Ave Ste 1090, Chicago, IL 60611, United States

For a training and corporate events company in downtown Chicago, I would not start with a generic “pretty website” agency. You want someone who understands:

• B2B buyer journeys (HR, L&D, executives, associations, corporate marketing)
• Event lead generation and registration funnels
• Thought leadership/content marketing
• Case studies, credibility, and enterprise trust signals
• CRM/email integration and conversion tracking

A few Chicago firms I’d put on your shortlist:

Best fits for B2B event + training businesses

Solid Digital

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 877-899-9981)

Strong option if your priority is a high-performing B2B website redesign. They focus heavily on B2B websites, UX, positioning, and growth-oriented digital experiences, and they have a downtown Chicago office. Solid Digital

Good fit if you need:

• A premium corporate image
• Better conversion from corporate buyers
• A site that supports sales conversations

VisualFizz

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 773-599-1829)

A good match if your challenge is not just the website, but also messaging and differentiation. They position themselves around B2B marketing, branding, web, and demand generation. VisualFizz

Good fit if you need:

• Clarifying your positioning (“why choose us?”)
• Better B2B storytelling
• A website tied to marketing campaigns

Ice Nine Online

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 773-980-9274)

Worth considering if you want a more hands-on boutique B2B partner. They specifically focus on B2B digital marketing and website projects.

Good fit if you need:

• WordPress expertise
• Lead-generation improvements
• Direct access to senior people

Marcel Digital

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 312-255-8044)

More performance-marketing oriented. They’re a fit if your website needs to connect tightly with analytics, SEO, paid campaigns, or marketing automation.

Good fit if you care about:

• Measuring leads from events
• SEO growth
• CRM/marketing tech integration

Agency EA

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 312-879-0186)

This is less of a traditional web agency and more relevant if your brand is heavily tied to experiences, meetings, and corporate events. They specialize in experiential marketing and event-related digital experiences.

Good fit if your website needs to sell the “experience” more than just list services.

My shortlist for your specific business

If I were choosing for a Chicago corporate training/events company, I’d probably interview:

1. Solid Digital — best overall B2B website partner
2. VisualFizz — best if your brand/message needs sharpening
3. Agency EA — best if your competitive advantage is the event experience itself
4. Marcel Digital — best if you want measurable demand generation

When you talk to agencies, I’d ask them:

• “Show me 3 B2B service companies where the website generates qualified leads.”
• “How would you structure a site for someone buying corporate training?”
• “How would you turn past events into sales assets?”
• “What would you do differently for HR buyers vs executive buyers?”
• “How will you measure whether the new site produces pipeline?”

A training/events company usually wins with a site built around trust + outcomes + proof, not a gallery of event photos. The agency should understand that distinction.

• Ice Nine Online - 444 W Lake St Ste 1700, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Solid Digital - 100 N LaSalle St #1400, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• VisualFizz - 875 N Michigan Ave 31st floor, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Next/Now - 1200 W Lake St #2, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Orbit Media Studios - 4043 N Ravenswood Ave #316, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
• Symmetri Marketing Group (Acquired by Yes&) - 40 E Huron St, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Agency EA - 311 W Walton St, Chicago, IL 60610, United States
• Brafton, Inc. - 1 N State St 15th floor, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• OneIMS - 110 N Wacker Dr Suite 2500A, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Kindle Communications - 600 W Fulton St Ste 410, Chicago, IL 60661, United States
• RSXigital | B2B Lead Generation & Performance Marketing Agency in Chicago, USA - 71 S Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Plan B - The Agency Alternative for the AI Economy® - 10 W Hubbard St #5w, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Walker Sands - 55 W Monroe St Ste 3925, Chicago, IL 60603, United States
• The Motion Agency - 325 N La Salle Dr Ste 550, Chicago, IL 60654, United States

Yes. Given that you’re a Chicago-based training + corporate events company, I’d avoid a generic “pretty website” agency. You want someone who understands B2B lead generation, event registration/conversion, corporate buyers, and the sales cycle around events.

My shortlist would be:

1. Ice Nine Online — probably one of the best fits if you want a B2B-focused website + lead generation partner. They’re in the Loop and specifically work with B2B companies, including WordPress corporate sites and demand-generation websites.
2. Solid Digital — my pick if the project is primarily a serious B2B website redesign. They’re downtown at 100 N LaSalle and explicitly specialize in B2B web design, UX and digital growth. Their site emphasizes connecting the website to business/revenue goals rather than simply making it look good. Solid Digital
3. VisualFizz — especially interesting for you because they combine B2B marketing, web design and event marketing. Their event practice specifically includes registration pages, custom event websites, email campaigns, paid promotion and post-event marketing. VisualFizz
4. Next/Now — worth considering if your events are highly experiential and the website needs to feel more like an experience/brand showcase than a conventional corporate site. They're particularly focused on experiential marketing, live/virtual events and interactive experiences.
5. Orbit Media Studios — a strong choice if SEO + content + conversion are major priorities. They're a Chicago B2B-oriented web agency with a strategy/UX/content/development approach rather than simply a design shop.

One wildcard I'd seriously investigate

RethinkInfo looks unusually aligned with your exact business model. They're a Chicago digital agency combining website strategy, demand generation and live events, and specifically describe their event work around trade shows, executive dinners, conferences, pre-event ABM/meeting generation and post-event ROI. RethinkInfo

That's much closer to “I need my website to sell corporate training and fill events” than “I need a new website.”

Who I'd call first

I'd probably have 3 conversations:

• RethinkInfo — best potential fit for events + B2B demand generation.
• VisualFizz — best potential fit for B2B marketing + event marketing + web.
• Solid Digital — best potential fit for high-quality B2B website strategy/design.

And I'd give all three the same brief:

“We sell corporate training and events to B2B buyers. We don't just need a redesigned website—we need the site to generate qualified conversations, registrations and event inquiries. We want someone who understands the journey from LinkedIn/email/search → event landing page → registration/inquiry → sales.”

Then ask them to show you 2–3 websites they've built where the website was responsible for generating B2B leads or event registrations, rather than just showing you their prettiest portfolio work.

If you tell me roughly your annual revenue, typical event price/contract value, who buys from you (HR, L&D, marketing, associations, etc.), and whether you want leads or direct online registration, I can narrow this down to the 3 Chicago agencies I'd actually interview, including likely budget ranges and what I'd ask each one.

“We sell corporate training and events to B2B buyers. We don't just need a redesigned website—we need the site to generate qualified conversations, registrations and event inquiries. We want someone who understands the journey from LinkedIn/email/search → event landing page → registration/inquiry → sales.”

Then ask them to show you 2–3 websites they've built where the website was responsible for generating B2B leads or event registrations, rather than just showing you their prettiest portfolio work.

• Solid Digital - 100 N LaSalle St #1400, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Clique Studios - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1075, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Marcel Digital - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1285, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Americaneagle.com, Inc. - 200 W Jackson Blvd Fl 22, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Doejo - 444 N Wabash Ave, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• ArtVersion® Creative Agency - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 1130, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Operation Technology - 211 W Wacker Dr 3rd Floor, Chicago, IL 60606
• NEWMEDIA.COM - 444 W Lake St Ste 1700, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Alpha Efficiency - Web Design Chicago Agency - 875 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Chicago Website Design SEO Company - 10 S Riverside Plaza #875, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Brand Vision Marketing - Web Design & Branding - 30 N Michigan Ave #504, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• 10com Web Development - 205 N Michigan Ave Suit 810, Chicago, IL 60601, United States
• SEOLEVELUP Website Design SEO Company Chicago - 355 N Laflin St Ste 101C, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• SITE IT NOW - 1016 W Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Wojo Design - 318 W Adams St #1609, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Design In Chicago - 159 N Sangamon St Suite 200, Chicago, IL 60607, United States

For an IT services company, I’d prioritize agencies that understand B2B positioning, lead generation, technical credibility, and complex service offerings—not just firms that make attractive brochure sites. A strong IT-services website usually needs to sell trust (security, uptime, expertise, certifications, case studies), clarify services, and convert visitors into discovery calls.

Here are downtown Chicago firms I’d put on your outreach list:

Best-fit shortlist

Solid Digital

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 877-899-9981)

100 N LaSalle St, Chicago, IL 60602
Best fit if you want a polished B2B website overhaul with strategy behind it. They focus heavily on B2B website design, WordPress development, UX, SEO, and ongoing optimization. Solid Digital

Why consider them:

• Strong B2B/SaaS/technology positioning experience
• Good match for an IT company selling higher-value services
• Likely comfortable with complex service architectures

Clique Studios

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 312-379-9329)

20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1075, Chicago, IL 60606
A good choice if your overhaul needs deeper UX strategy, brand refinement, and a more modern digital experience.

Why consider them:

• Strong discovery/strategy approach
• Good for companies that have outgrown a basic marketing site
• Could help reposition your company beyond “IT support provider”

Marcel Digital

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 312-255-8044)

20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1285, Chicago, IL 60606
Worth considering if SEO, inbound leads, analytics, and measurable pipeline growth are major goals.

Why consider them:

• Strong digital marketing + development combination
• Good if the new site needs to generate sales opportunities, not just look better

Americaneagle.com, Inc.

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 312-291-5970)

200 W Jackson Blvd Fl 22, Chicago, IL 60606
A larger agency option with experience across web design, development, integrations, and enterprise-style projects. Americaneagle.com

Why consider them:

• Good if you have a larger site, multiple audiences, portals, integrations, or complex CMS needs
• More “agency infrastructure” than boutique studio

Doejo

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 312-888-6473)

444 N Wabash Ave, Chicago, IL 60611
A River North option with a reputation around digital products, UX, and custom builds.

Why consider them:

• Good if you want something more custom than a typical marketing website
• Useful if you have client portals, tools, or software-adjacent ideas

Also worth reaching out to

• ArtVersion® Creative Agency — 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 1130; stronger emphasis on branding, UX, and creative direction.
• Operation Technology — 211 W Wacker Dr 3rd Floor; combines web design, SEO, and digital marketing from downtown Chicago. Operation Technology
• NEWMEDIA.COM — 444 W Lake St Ste 1700; a broader web + performance marketing partner.
• Alpha Efficiency - Web Design Chicago Agency — 875 N Michigan Ave; focuses on website design plus SEO/marketing.

My suggested outreach order for an IT services company

1. Solid Digital — strongest likely fit for B2B IT positioning
2. Clique Studios — best if you need brand + UX transformation
3. Marcel Digital — best if lead generation and SEO are priorities
4. Americaneagle.com — best for enterprise complexity
5. Doejo — best for custom digital experiences

When you send the RFP, I’d ask each agency specifically:

• “Show us 3 B2B technology/service company redesigns.”
• “How would you restructure our services so buyers understand what we do in under 30 seconds?”
• “What conversion improvements would you target?”
• “Who exactly will be doing strategy, design, and development?”
• “What CMS do you recommend and why?”

For an IT services firm, I’d avoid choosing purely on visual portfolio—the winning agency should understand how to turn technical expertise into a sales story.

• Solid Digital - 100 N LaSalle St #1400, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Clique Studios - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1075, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Marcel Digital - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1285, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Operation Technology - 211 W Wacker Dr 3rd Floor, Chicago, IL 60606
• ArtVersion® Creative Agency - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 1130, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• TXI - 10 S Riverside Plaza Ste 875 - #7670, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• CGI Digital - 55 W Monroe St #2950, Chicago, IL 60603, United States
• Plego Technologies - 8 W Monroe St APT 424, Chicago, IL 60603, United States
• Cybernautic Web Design - 515 N State St #14-126, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Kensium Solutions LLC - 311 S Wacker Dr Suite #2575, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Ice Nine Online - 444 W Lake St Ste 1700, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Artversion - 205 N Michigan Ave 8th Floor, Chicago, IL 60601
• OneIMS - 111 E Upper Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60601
• Clique Studios - 20 N Wacker Dr, Ste 1075, Chicago, IL 60606
• Wojo Design - 318 W Adams St #1609, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Americaneagle.com, Inc. - 200 W Jackson Blvd Fl 22, Chicago, IL 60606, United States

Yes. For an IT services company, I’d prioritize agencies that understand B2B buying journeys, technical services, lead generation, and complex service offerings—not just agencies that make attractive brochure sites.

My downtown Chicago shortlist

1. Solid Digital — 100 N LaSalle St

• My first call.
• Specifically positions itself around B2B website design and digital growth, with experience in B2B SaaS and technology.
• Handles strategy, UX, WordPress development, SEO, support, and ongoing optimization.
• Their published process covers discovery → personas/sitemap → design/development → growth. Solid Digital
• Best fit: An IT services firm that wants the new site to become a serious sales/lead-generation asset rather than simply a visual refresh.
• Clique Studios — 20 N Wacker Dr

• Strong option for a larger, more transformational overhaul.
• Combines strategy, UX/UI, web development, accessibility, research, and digital transformation rather than treating the project as pure web design.
• Best fit: If you're repositioning the company, changing your messaging/brand, or have a relatively sophisticated website/integration environment.
• Marcel Digital — 20 N Wacker Dr

• Particularly interesting if SEO, analytics, conversion optimization, and measurable pipeline are important.
• Their offering combines web development with SEO, paid media, CRO, analytics, and measurement.
• Best fit: An IT company that already gets traffic but isn't converting enough visitors into qualified opportunities.
• Operation Technology — 211 W Wacker Dr

• A more performance/marketing-oriented local agency with web design, WordPress, SEO, content, and PPC capabilities.
• Best fit: If the overhaul is closely tied to generating more inbound leads and improving search visibility.
• ArtVersion® Creative Agency — 211 W Wacker Dr

• Established Chicago creative/design firm with capabilities spanning brand strategy, UX, web design/development, and ongoing maintenance.
• Best fit: If your current brand looks dated and the project is really a brand + website transformation rather than just a rebuild.
• TXI — 10 S Riverside Plaza

• More technology/product-oriented than a conventional marketing agency.
• Stronger consideration if the website needs sophisticated UX research, applications, portals, integrations, or other technical product work.
• Best fit: An IT services company with a complex digital product/portal component rather than a straightforward marketing website.

If I were running your RFP

I'd start with Solid Digital, Clique Studios, and Marcel Digital.

They give you three useful benchmarks:

One particularly good sign with Solid Digital is that they explicitly work with B2B organizations and describe the website as part of a broader growth program, rather than treating web design as an isolated creative deliverable. Solid Digital

I'd also ask all three for examples involving IT, technology, SaaS, cybersecurity, MSPs, consulting, or other technical B2B services. That's more revealing than their general portfolio.

If you tell me roughly your current website, company size/revenue range, and whether you're an MSP, VAR, cybersecurity firm, cloud/IT consulting firm, etc., I can narrow this to 3 agencies and give you a recommended RFP/budget range for the overhaul.

• Design In Chicago - 159 N Sangamon St Suite 200, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Orbit Media Studios - 4043 N Ravenswood Ave #316, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
• Brand Vision Marketing - Web Design & Branding - 30 N Michigan Ave #504, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Solid Digital - 100 N LaSalle St #1400, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Vault Innovation - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1200, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• ArtVersion® Creative Agency - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 1130, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• YourPortal - 2211 N Elston Ave Ste 208, Chicago, IL 60614, United States
• IDE Interactive, Inc. - 2945 W Peterson Ave Ste 103, Chicago, IL 60659, United States
• Allevi8 Marketing - 6127 S University Ave Ste 110K, Chicago, IL 60653, United States
• Chicago Website Design SEO Company - 10 S Riverside Plaza #875, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Doejo - 444 N Wabash Ave, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Operation Technology - 211 W Wacker Dr 3rd Floor, Chicago, IL 60606
• SITE IT NOW - 1016 W Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Chykalophia - 929 Michigan Ave Apt. 3, Evanston, IL 60202, United States
• Plan B - The Agency Alternative for the AI Economy® - 10 W Hubbard St #5w, Chicago, IL 60654, United States

If the goal is specifically “make a seed-stage startup look credible to investors and give prospects a compelling demo experience,” I’d shortlist these differently than I would for a generic Chicago web-design search.

My pick: Design In Chicago

Design In Chicago would be my first call if you want a Chicago-based team that can handle strategy → brand → landing page → development under one roof. Their offering explicitly includes branding, web strategy, UI/UX, landing-page design, and development.

The caveat: I’d want to see recent startup/VC-backed work before signing. Their public positioning is broader than “seed-stage startup specialist.”

The more interesting options

• Orbit Media Studios — Orbit Media Studios

Strong choice if the site needs to become a serious GTM/conversion asset, rather than just an impressive fundraising page. They emphasize strategy, UX, content, conversion and measurable business outcomes. Brightter

• Brand Vision Marketing — Brand Vision Marketing - Web Design & Branding

Worth considering if you need positioning + visual identity + website rather than simply a website build. Their Chicago operation combines brand strategy, identity, web design/development and SEO.

• Solid Digital — Solid Digital

I'd consider them if you're looking for a more mature design + engineering partner and expect the marketing site to evolve significantly after the seed round.

• Vault Innovation — Vault Innovation

Particularly interesting if by “demo site” you mean something closer to an interactive product prototype rather than a marketing page. They combine product design/UX with software development.

But there's one wildcard I'd seriously consider

For your exact brief, I wouldn't restrict the search to Chicago.

Key-Sprung explicitly targets pre-seed through Series A startups, with branding, positioning, websites, decks and prototypes, and frames its work around making startups “look fundable.” Key-Sprung

Likewise, Jointley is unusually aligned with fundraising: it describes itself as a 0→1 design studio for founders and offers a “Raise-Ready Sprint” combining an investor deck and landing page, with a stated seven-day investor-ready turnaround. Jointley

Those are closer to the job to be done than many conventional Chicago agencies.

What I'd actually do

I'd get proposals from 3 teams:

1. Design In Chicago — local, full-service option.
2. Orbit Media Studios — strategy/conversion-heavy option.
3. Key-Sprung or Jointley — startup/fundraising specialist benchmark.

And I would give all three the same brief, asking for:

• investor-facing landing page
• product/demo microsite
• messaging/positioning refinement
• light visual identity system
• interactive product mockups rather than a static “fake app”
• Webflow/Framer or equivalent implementation
• analytics + CRM/demo-request tracking
• mobile-first execution
• delivery in ~4–6 weeks
• ability for your team to edit the site afterward

Most importantly, don't ask them simply to “make us look investor-ready.” Give them your pitch deck, product screenshots, ICP, competitive set and fundraising narrative and ask: “What would you change about our story before designing the site?” The quality of that response will tell you more than their portfolio.

If you tell me your startup's category, rough budget ($10k / $25k / $50k+), and whether you already have branding, I can narrow this to 2–3 agencies and compare their likely fit, strengths, weaknesses and pricing.

1. Design In Chicago — local, full-service option.
2. Orbit Media Studios — strategy/conversion-heavy option.
3. Key-Sprung or Jointley — startup/fundraising specialist benchmark.

And I would give all three the same brief, asking for:

If the goal is a marketing-site redesign that becomes a growth-experiment platform, rather than just a prettier website, I’d shortlist these Chicago agencies:

My pick: Orbit Media Studios

Orbit Media Studios
Web
Address: 4043 N Ravenswood Ave #316, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
Phone: +1 773-348-4581

Best overall fit. Orbit combines website strategy/design/development with CRO, analytics, and A/B testing. Their process explicitly includes analytics setup, funnels, Google Tag Manager, heatmaps, and post-launch optimization—not just a one-time redesign. www.orbitmedia.comwww.orbitmedia.com

Why I'd choose them:

• Strong marketing-site redesign + implementation capability
• CRO and experimentation are integrated into their web work
• They emphasize research before design
• In-house web/design/optimization team
• Particularly appropriate if your primary growth metric is qualified leads/demo requests, rather than app-product experimentation

Orbit Media Studios

Strong alternative: Marcel Digital

Marcel Digital
Web
Address: 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
Phone: +1 312-255-8044

I'd put Marcel ahead of Orbit if your startup has a more complex B2B funnel or serious analytics/measurement requirements. They're unusually integrated across web development, CRO, SEO, paid acquisition, and analytics, with an emphasis on tying measurement to revenue. www.orbitmedia.comwww.orbitmedia.com

Best if experimentation is the core requirement: Invesp

Invesp
Web
Address: 222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
Phone: +1 248-626-2129

Invesp is more CRO/experimentation-centric than a traditional web-design agency. Their offering covers quantitative analytics assessment, research, experimentation, landing-page optimization and implementation. I'd consider them if you want the redesign to be driven heavily by a hypothesis → test → learn methodology. pilotdigital.com

Also worth interviewing: Solid Digital

Solid Digital
Web
Address: 100 N LaSalle St #1400, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
Phone: +1 877-899-9981

A good option if you want a polished B2B SaaS-style redesign with a substantial strategy/discovery component and ongoing digital-growth support. They're somewhat more design/build-led than experimentation-led.

One important caveat: I wouldn't hire an agency simply because it says "analytics" and "A/B testing." For your project, I'd make the RFP explicitly require:

1. GA4 + GTM instrumentation plan before redesign
2. Event taxonomy for activation/conversion milestones
3. Baseline funnel + current conversion rates
4. Research informing the new IA/messaging
5. Experiment backlog with hypotheses and prioritization
6. A/B-testing infrastructure (e.g. GrowthBook, VWO, or equivalent)
7. Post-launch dashboard/reporting
8. At least 2–3 experiments run after launch, not merely "analytics installed"
9. Ownership of all analytics/testing accounts and source code
10. A measurement plan tied to pipeline/revenue, not vanity metrics

For comparison, Chicago's Pilot Digital explicitly describes a cycle of analytics → hypothesis → A/B test → measurement → iteration, which is the sort of operating model I'd look for. pilotdigital.com

My ranking for a startup:
1. Orbit — best balance of redesign + CRO + analytics
2. Marcel Digital — best for B2B/complex measurement
3. Invesp — best experimentation specialist
4. Solid Digital — best design/build-oriented alternative

If you tell me your startup's type (B2B SaaS, consumer, marketplace, etc.), approximate site traffic, CMS (Webflow/WordPress/custom), and rough budget, I can narrow this to the one I'd actually hire and give you a suggested RFP/agency interview scorecard.

• Mabbly - 640 N La Salle Dr #540, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Designer and Gentleman - 2653 W Hollywood Ave, Chicago, IL 60659, United States
• ArtVersion® Creative Agency - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 1130, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Solid Digital - 100 N LaSalle St #1400, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Orbit Media Studios - 4043 N Ravenswood Ave #316, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
• Doejo - 444 N Wabash Ave, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Design In Chicago - 159 N Sangamon St Suite 200, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Concentric Design - 3130 N Rockwell St, Chicago, IL 60618, United States
• Flamingo Agency - 3752 N Southport Ave, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
• What A Great Website - 50 E Bellevue Pl, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Brand Vision Marketing - Web Design & Branding - 30 N Michigan Ave #504, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• SEOLEVELUP Website Design SEO Company Chicago - 355 N Laflin St Ste 101C, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Artversion - 205 N Michigan Ave 8th Floor, Chicago, IL 60601
• Chykalophia - 929 Michigan Ave Apt. 3, Evanston, IL 60202, United States
• SITE IT NOW - 1016 W Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Chris Depa Web Design + Branding - 1528 Robinhood Ln, La Grange Park, IL 60526, United States

If the goal is “create the brand and then turn it into a launch-ready website that actually helps us acquire users,” I’d shortlist these Chicago firms rather than treating this as a generic web-design search:

My top 3

1. Mabbly — best overall startup/GTM fit.
I'd put them first if you need someone to help answer “What should this brand stand for, who are we targeting, how do we communicate the product, and how does that become a site that generates demand?” Their capabilities span positioning, identity, UX research/product discovery, web and marketing.

2. Designer and Gentleman — best if brand + product experience are tightly connected.
Their combination of identity, UX/UI and digital-first design is particularly relevant if you're launching something where the website needs to feel like an extension of the product, not a separate marketing artifact.

3. Orbit Media — best if acquisition is the priority.
If you already have reasonably clear positioning and want the initial site to become a serious acquisition engine, Orbit's emphasis on SEO, CRO, analytics, content and ongoing optimization is compelling. It is likely a more structured/premium engagement.

One wildcard worth looking at

Concentric Design is worth investigating if you want a smaller, design-centric branding partner. Their positioning is specifically around bringing strategy into brand identity and digital experiences, which can be a nice fit for an early-stage company that doesn't want a giant agency process.

I would not choose solely based on portfolio aesthetics. For a startup, I'd ask each agency to show you 2–3 examples where they took a company from positioning/identity → launch website → measurable user acquisition, and ask exactly what they themselves handled versus what was outsourced.

If you tell me your startup type (B2B SaaS, consumer app, fintech, healthtech, etc.), approximate budget, and whether you already have a name/product, I can narrow this to the 3 Chicago agencies I'd actually contact first, with likely engagement level and what to ask each one.