Rod & Staff Media · the real site · draft 1 · October 1, 2026

What will be on the site.

The map, the way course one does it: the one person, her journey, everything that could be on the page, triaged. Then the shape, and the five things only you can decide.

"I really like it. How about we start working on a map to figure out what will be on the site, then we add on the next layer." Brandyn, 12:50 PM.

The one person

Dana, the curious builder. Runs her own thing or works in marketing, follows AI builds on LinkedIn, saw one of ours and wants to know how it's done so she can do it herself. Not a buyer. The owner who'd rather hire is a later reader and finds the same email.

Her story: a LinkedIn post about the build → your profile → the link → the site → the email. Curiosity → recognition → a surprise → trust → wanting in → wrote.

Everything that could be on it

★ Must. The story fails without it.

1. 01The declaration. Three lines: what gets built here, how, where. One thing at full scale, with the figure.
2. 02The Build Log. The latest entries by day and place. What she came from, and the proof the words are true.
3. 03The creed. Listen first. Guide, don't push. Prove, don't promise. The rod and the staff. Faith named plainly. The AI line.
4. 04Who's writing. Used to quote paver jobs, then built the systems behind the trades. Not a marketer by training. No settled name yet, said in print.
5. 05The door. The ask, what happens if you write, the address in plain text. Email only.
6. 06The work. Websites and small tools, most built for friends and family so far.
7. 07The film door. Very small, dark, to Last Light Pictures.

♥ Love to have. The delight and the trust.

1. 08The bones switch. The page shows its own map. The proof's signature, made for the builder.
2. 09The first scene. The three-second entry with the number.
3. 10A living detail. The Orlando clock from the type test. Each of your four reference sites had one living thing.
4. 11What I'm studying. The Academy courses as they're read, the reading shelf, one line each. Nobody else's site has this.
5. 12The Lab Report. The monthly newsletter, as a link to subscribe on LinkedIn. No form here.

👁 Only if it fits. Useful; can slow the story.

1. 13The bridge. "What happens if I write," three lines before the door.
2. 14What I build with. The stack, named once. Builders ask.
3. 15The log archive. Every entry, not just the last four. Needs its own page.
4. 16The work, at home. The portfolio as a page here instead of a separate site.

✕ Not on it. Your rules.

Services, prices, packages, "hire us." A contact form. Business names, counts, holding-company talk. Client logos or testimonials. The home address. A pitch close. Anything not measured.

The shape I recommend

Where it goes on the home page

Decided, 12:57 PM

1. 1Rooms. "I think rooms."
2. 2The Work is a room. "The work should be a room, I believe."
3. 3Name what we're learning, not who teaches it. The subjects and the shelf by title. No Academy, no course names, no links, unless there's a sponsorship.
4. 4The clock is in.
5. 5Keep it all; the big picture decides. "Whatever lands is what lands."

From 1367 Studio

Read live at 12:58. Under the hood it's close to what we're building: smooth scroll, GSAP with three eases, page transitions, one WebGL scene, split lines. What we take:

1. aThe opening as a pinned scene. Their figure is held for five screens while the scroll advances the scene, not the page. Ours: the figure held for two or three screens while the three lines arrive one per screen, then release.
2. bA sticky "Building from Orlando" section around the clock: one city, the live time, the last places the log was filmed. Their four cities become our one city and its places.
3. cThe ground changes as the act turns. They change colour every section. Ours stays bright, but act one can sit on the deeper cream and act three on card white, cross-fading between.
4. dQuiet type over a loud image. Their headline is 32 px against a full-screen figure. Ours is 84. The image can carry more if the words carry less. To test, not assume.
5. ePage transitions between the rooms, with the log day travelling into its entry.

Not taken: the services grid, the testimonial carousel, "trusted by," "book a call." Your rules. The dark ground stays theirs.

The next layer

The architecture: rooms. Home, Log, Work, with the film door out. Pages that swap without reloading, one canvas behind all of them, the transition that carries a log day into its entry, and the pinned opening. It's the floor from course three, so it's built once as the house boilerplate and the real site is its first tenant. Orla drafts the boilerplate from the architecture note; Maeve builds the rooms on it; you judge each room on your phone as it lands.

The five questions, as asked

1. 1Rooms, or one page? The Log as its own page gives the next layer somewhere to go. Or keep one page, and the next layer is something else.
2. 2The Work: a room here, or stay a separate site? Bringing it home is one more page to keep true.
3. 3"What I'm studying" on the site? It names the Academy and the courses. The most builder-shaped thing we have. In or out.
4. 4The clock. The living detail from the type test. In or out.
5. 5Anything on the proof to cut, or that must stay exactly as it is? The bones switch, the first scene, the figure bending.

Answer by voice. The map updates the same session, and the next layer is built on the answers.