hi, we are

darksky design

A one-person design studio in Flagstaff, Arizona by Ethan Fortner.

I’m always open to good conversations: whether you’ve got a project in mind, or you’re a team looking to hire someone who cares about the craft.

hard work that is people focused

I didn’t come into web design through a bootcamp or a four-year program. I came into it the long way around. Through curiosity, late nights, and a joy for turning clients ideas into reality.

What started as messing around with HTML turned into building real sites for real businesses. Somewhere along the way it stopped being a hobby and started being a career path.

I started DarkSky because I noticed something working with clients: most small businesses don’t get seen. And their only hope was to hire a major design agency to market them, design their site, for way more than the ROI was worth.

I try to meet those clients in the middle. So that’s what I build. One project at a time. With the kind of attention the little guys deserve, with the price tag that is reasonable.

The name is a nod to Flagstaff, the world’s first International Dark Sky City. A place where you can still see the Milky Way. It felt right for what I’m trying to do here: cut through the noise and make something worth looking at. Turn down the lights, and illuminate what matters.

Local Business First

Transparent Pricing

Personal Service

Real Results

how I work, what i deliver

A few principles I keep coming back to:

Ask one more question than you think you need to. Most bad design decisions trace back to an assumption nobody checked. I’d rather take an extra fifteen minutes upfront than rebuild something later because we skipped the conversation.

Clean code is a kindness to the next person who opens the file. Whether that’s me six months from now, a client trying to make an edit, or a future developer — well-organized code costs the same to write and pays dividends forever.

A website is a tool, not a trophy. Pretty matters. But pretty without a purpose is just decoration. Every section, every word, every image should be earning its place by either building trust, removing friction, or driving an action.

Strategy before pixels, always. Design without strategy is guessing in public. I want to know who your customer is and what you need them to do before I open Figma.

Done well beats done fast — but done beats perfect. Perfectionism is a procrastination disguise. I aim for excellent, ship on time, and refine in the wild.

A Note for Hiring Teams

If you’re here scoping me out for a role: hi!

I run DarkSky because I love building websites and I love working with clients directly. But I’m also genuinely interested in joining a team that’s doing great work. somewhere I can sharpen my craft alongside other thoughtful designers and developers, contribute to something bigger than my own studio, and keep learning at a faster pace than I can on my own.

If that’s the conversation, the contact page works the same way for you as it does for clients. Just let me know in the message that you’re reaching out about a role and I’ll get back to you within a business day.