July, 2026.- The companies with the strongest reputations are not necessarily the ones with the best websites. They are the ones showing up consistently in all the right places. Their website, press coverage, social presence, awards, and wider industry relationships all reinforce one another. Mike Harmer, Co-Founder of Eyeballs, spent almost a decade at Shots designing websites and platforms across the creative advertising landscape. He saw the same problem from multiple angles: companies investing in individual activities without connecting them into a coherent whole.
In this interview, Harmer discusses the gap he identified with his co-founder James: not a lack of talented website designers, PR companies, or social teams, but the lack of someone looking at the whole picture—understanding how reputations are built in this industry and making sure everything works together. Eyeballs combines website design, PR, social, awards, and positioning into one connected strategy.
Harmer also addresses the single biggest mistake creative companies make with their websites: over-designing the experience and allowing the website to compete with the work it is supposed to present. Creative companies understandably want their website to feel distinctive, but too much movement, complicated navigation, or unnecessary interaction can make it harder for someone to do the thing they actually came for: understand the company and watch the work. A strong website can be memorable without constantly demanding attention. It is about getting the balance right: the design feels confident and distinctive, while the experience itself feels almost effortless.
On ambition, Harmer explains that ambition is often communicated through confidence—not by making everything bigger, louder, or more complicated, but through restraint, clear decisions, and a strong point of view. Companies who are confident in their ambition are not trying to be everything to everyone. They make deliberate choices about what to emphasize and what to leave out. Designing for ambition also means understanding where the business wants to go, helping it present the version of itself it is becoming.
The biggest failure when disciplines are managed separately is that nothing compounds. A piece of press might land, but it never reaches the website. A strong project gets posted on social once and then disappears. An award win is celebrated briefly but does not become part of the company’s longer-term reputation. Eyeballs ensures a shared plan: what matters, who the company needs to reach, which stories and work support its reputation, and how each channel can reinforce the others.
1. From Shots to Eyeballs: You spent almost a decade at Shots, designing many of the websites and platforms that became familiar across the creative advertising landscape. What made you leave to build something new with James, and what gap in the market did you see that no one else was filling?
Moving on from shots gave me the space to think more openly about what I had learned over the past decade and what I wanted to build next.
What I kept noticing was that the companies with the strongest reputations were not necessarily the ones
with the best websites. They were the ones showing up consistently in all the right places. Their website, press coverage, social presence, awards and wider industry relationships all reinforced one another.
I still believe a great website is one of the most powerful tools a creative company has, but it is not a silver bullet. Even the best site will have limited impact if everything around it is inconsistent or disconnected.
When James and I started talking, it became clear that we had been observing the same problem from different perspectives. The gap was not a lack of talented website designers, PR companies or social teams.
It was the lack of someone looking at the whole picture, understanding how reputations are built in this industry, and making sure everything works together.
That is the opportunity we saw with Eyeballs: to combine James’s industry knowledge and relationships with my background in design, technology and digital products, to help creative companies build visibility as a whole rather than through a collection of separate activities.
2. The Website as First Meaningful Interaction: You said a website is often “the first meaningful interaction someone has with your business.” What’s the single biggest mistake creative companies make with their websites that undermines their reputation before they even get a meeting?
The biggest mistake I see, particularly with video portfolio sites, is over-designing the experience and allowing the website to compete with the work it is supposed to present.
Creative companies understandably want their website to feel distinctive, but too much movement, complicated navigation or unnecessary interaction can make it harder for someone to do the thing they actually came for: understand the company and watch the work.
The design should give the work context, create a sense of personality and make the company feel considered. But it also needs to know when to get out of the way.
A potential client or agency producer may only give you a few minutes. They should be able to find the right director, project or capability quickly, watch it properly and form a clear impression of the company behind it.
A strong website can be memorable without constantly demanding attention. It is about getting the balance right: the design feels confident and distinctive, while the experience itself feels almost effortless.
3. Design That Communicates Ambition: A website should communicate “personality, ambition and the quality of your thinking.” How do you design for ambition—something intangible—through layout, typography, and interaction?
Ambition is often communicated through confidence.
That does not mean making everything bigger, louder or more complicated. More often, it comes through restraint, clear decisions and a strong point of view.
Typography can give a company character and authority. Layout establishes hierarchy and shows that it understands the value of its own work. The right balance of interactivity can introduce pace and energy.
But the companies who are confident in their ambition are not trying to be everything to everyone. They make deliberate choices about what to emphasise and what to leave out.
A large part of designing for ambition is also understanding where the business wants to go. You are not simply documenting the company as it exists today; you are helping it present the version of itself it is becoming.
That might mean being more selective about what work is shown, being clearer about the kinds of projects it wants to attract or creating a visual language that feels more established than its current perception.
4. Integrated Visibility vs. Disconnected Services: Eyeballs brings together website design, PR, social, awards, and positioning into one connected strategy. What’s the most common failure you see when these disciplines are managed separately, and what’s the first thing you fix?
The biggest failure is that nothing compounds.
A piece of press might land, but it never reaches the website. A strong project gets posted on social once and then disappears. An award win is celebrated briefly but does not become part of the company’s longer-term reputation. Each activity may be successful in isolation, but it does not build momentum.
When several separate providers are involved, the client is usually the person trying to hold the whole strategy together… whilst also doing their actual job. They brief each team individually, repeat the same context and hope everyone has understood the business in the same way.
In reality, each provider ends up with a slightly different picture. That becomes even more difficult when they do not specialise in the creative advertising industry and need the nuances of the company, its roster, its work and its audience continually explained.
The first thing we fix is not necessarily the positioning itself. Many companies already know who they are and what they want to be known for. The problem is maintaining that thinking consistently across every touchpoint.
We establish a shared plan: what matters, who the company needs to reach, which stories and work support its reputation, and how each channel can reinforce the others. Somebody needs to hold that complete picture in their head.
That is really what we built Eyeballs to do: give creative companies one team that understands their business, their industry and the full visibility strategy, rather than leaving them to connect all the separate pieces themselves.
5. The Commercial Advantage of Visibility: James said visibility is “a commercial advantage.” How do you measure the ROI of visibility for a creative company, and what metric tells you that your integrated strategy is actually working?
The biggest return is not simply more eyeballs. It is better conversations.
When visibility is working, people arrive with a clearer understanding of the company, the quality of its work and what makes it different. A potential client may have already seen a project, read an interview, noticed an award or followed the company’s thinking over time.
By the time a meeting happens, part of the business development work has already been done. The conversation can begin from a position of familiarity and trust rather than starting with a basic explanation of who the company is.
Of course, there are plenty of concrete things we can measure: website traffic and behaviour, search visibility, newsletter growth, press coverage, social engagement, audience growth and the performance of individual stories or projects.
Those metrics help us understand what is reaching people and what is resonating. But the strongest overall indicator is the quality and relevance of the opportunities being created.
Are more of the right people paying attention? Are inbound enquiries better aligned with the work the company wants to win? Are clients mentioning things they have seen before getting in touch? Are conversations beginning with a stronger understanding of the company’s value?
Strong visibility should be measurable, but it should also be something the business can feel in the quality of the attention and opportunities it receives.
6. Working Across the Creative Industries: Eyeballs is working with production companies, post houses, agencies, studios, music companies, and AI businesses. How does your approach differ when you’re designing for a production company versus a design studio versus a post house? What’s the common thread?
They are actually more similar than they first appear. Every creative company is ultimately trying to answer the same question: why should someone choose us rather than somebody else?
What changes is the evidence used to answer it.
For a production company, the director roster and the work will usually lead. The experience needs to help agencies and brands quickly find the right director, while also communicating the company’s culture, taste and point of view.
For a design studio, the thinking behind the work is just as important as the final image — the website needs to reveal more of the ideas, process and strategic intelligence that shaped the outcome.
For a post house, craft, technical capability and collaboration are central. The challenge is often making complex contributions understandable while ensuring the company receives proper recognition for its role in the finished work.
The same principle applies to music companies, agencies and emerging AI businesses. Each has a different balance of work, talent, thinking and capability to communicate.
The common thread is clarity. Someone should quickly understand what makes the company distinctive, why its work matters and what it might feel like to work with them. The design and content then need to make that understanding memorable.
