S.01
Design
Sites engineered to convert. UX research and conversion architecture set the structure; editorial layout and motion design carry it. Accessible, and under two seconds. See it built: Evergreen Property Care.
Built to be noticed.
Web design, branding, and SEO for businesses in Albany, the Capital Region, and Central New York.
01 · Position
The premise
Most websites are built to exist. Ours are built to be noticed.
Empire Designs is a web design, branding, and SEO studio run by Gianni Luce from Herkimer, New York. We build custom websites for small businesses in Albany and the Capital Region, Utica and the Mohawk Valley, Syracuse and Central New York, and for clients anywhere in the United States who work with us remotely. Every build is scoped and priced in the open: custom websites start at $5,500 with a fixed scope and a 4 to 8 week timeline, monthly care plans start at $110, and local SEO programs start at $650 a month. Strategy comes before design, and design, brand, and search are built as one system by one person, so nothing is lost between hand-offs. Two client engagements and three self-initiated concept studies are published on the work page, labelled as such, and every price on the services page is current as of September 2026.
A website isn't a brochure. It's infrastructure and a system your brand, your search presence, and your next customer all run on. We design that system end to end, so every part works toward the same outcome: a website is growth you can measure.
02 · The founder
One point of contact
Founder & principal
Gianni Luce
Empire Designs is run by Gianni Luce: designer, developer, and the single point of contact on every engagement. The person who hears your goal on the first call is the same person who positions, designs, builds, and measures against it. Nothing gets lost between hand-offs, because there are none.
He holds a B.S. in Communication and Media Design from SUNY Polytechnic Institute, formal training in how a message is built and carried. It is why Empire treats brand, build, and search as one job instead of three.
The studio grew out of one observation: small businesses rarely lose to better competitors. They lose to more visible ones. Everything Empire ships, from the brand system to the structured data underneath it, exists to close that gap.
More about the studio03 · Systems
Three disciplines, one build
Three disciplines.
One system.
S.02
Brand
Identities with a point of view. Positioning and art direction first, then identity systems and brand guidelines built to survive contact with the market and hold up for years. See it drawn: Longhand.
S.03
Search
Visibility, engineered. Technical SEO and structured data in the foundation, local search and content strategy on top of it, all from day one rather than bolted on after launch. See it shipped: Suncoast Ceramics.
04 · Work
Selected work
W.01 · Client case study · Ceramic coating & detailing
A finish worth a dark room.
Brand and site for a Gulf Coast ceramic coating studio: a slow, cinematic showroom where macro shots of the coating itself do the convincing.
Brand / Web
Read the case study
W.02 · Concept study · Pool design & build
Blueprints instead of brochures.
A pool design-build studio drawn like a construction set: cross-sections and line work instead of another photo gallery.
Brand / Web
Read the case study
W.03 · Concept study · Pilates studio
One page, one day, one studio.
A pilates studio built on a single idea: the page is a day. The site scrolls the way a member moves through a session, paced instead of listed.
Brand / Web
Read the case study
W.05 · Client case study · Lawn & property care, Utica & Rome NY
Curb appeal, starting online.
A lawn, landscaping, and snow company in the Mohawk Valley. A quote-first site built to earn a homeowner's trust in ten seconds on a phone, and to load fast enough on a rural signal to be worth the tap.
Web / SEO
Read the case studyClient case studies and concept studies, in full: see the work.
05 · Visibility
Engineered, not hoped for
Beautiful
is not enough.
Be found.
Eight million people, thousands of businesses like yours. The ones that win aren't the loudest. They're the most findable. Search is engineered into everything we ship:
- Load timeUnder 2 seconds
- AccessibilityWCAG AA
- Structured dataEvery page
- Local searchBuilt-in architecture
- Core Web VitalsGreen, and kept green
FAQ · Questions
Straight answers
The
fine print.
How much does a custom website cost with Empire Designs?
Custom builds start at $5,500 with fixed, transparent scope. No hourly surprises. Final price depends on page count, e-commerce, and brand work. Most projects run 4–8 weeks.
How long does a website take to build?
Typically 4–8 weeks from kickoff to launch, including a strategy phase, design, build, and a two-week SEO and QA hardening pass before going live.
What makes Empire Designs different from other web designers?
Strategy comes before design, we build design, brand, and SEO as one system, and we take only four projects at a time, so you get senior-level attention with zero hand-offs. No templates, ever.
Every question we get, answered in full: the fine print.
06 · Service area
Herkimer, NY / Everywhere else
Central New York born.
Findable anywhere.
Empire Designs works from Herkimer, New York, on I-90 between Albany and Syracuse, and builds for ambitious businesses across the Capital Region, the Mohawk Valley, Central New York, and nationwide. Local means we know your market. The system means geography never limits it.
- Capital RegionAlbany / Saratoga / Schenectady / Troy
- Mohawk ValleyHerkimer / Utica / Rome
- Central New YorkSyracuse & the I-90 corridor
- NationwideRemote · same system
Capital Region businesses: web design for Albany, NY.
07 · Contact
Worth
noticing?
Twenty minutes, no pitch deck. Tell us where the business is going. We'll tell you if we can get you there.
Book a discovery callcontact@getempiredesigns.com / (315) 542-8942