WordPress Web Designer in Chicago

I’m John Schuster — a freelance WordPress designer and developer based in Chicago, creating custom themes and fast, secure websites for local businesses. You get a site that’s designed around your brand, built on the platform that powers a huge share of the web, and easy to update long after launch.

For more than 25 years I’ve designed and built websites for Chicago businesses, and I build the vast majority of them on WordPress, because it gives you ownership, flexibility, and room to grow without locking you into a closed platform.

WordPress services for Chicago businesses

Custom WordPress design — a layout and theme built around your brand and your customers, not a stock template with your logo dropped in
WordPress rebuilds and redesigns — moving a slow, dated, or hard-to-edit site onto a clean, modern build without losing your content or your rankings
WooCommerce stores — product pages, checkout, and payments set up so selling online is simple for you and your customers
Maintenance and updates — core, theme, and plugin updates tested before they touch your live site, plus backups and fixes when something breaks
Speed, security, and SEO basics — fast pages, sensible structure, and clean markup so search engines and visitors both get what they need

A site you can edit yourself

The point of WordPress is that you shouldn’t need a developer to change a phone number or publish a post. Every site I build is handed over with the editing tools set up for the way you work: pages you can update visually, reusable sections, and a short walkthrough so you know where everything lives. When you do want help, you call the person who built it.

Recent WordPress work

Figure 8 Painting

A contractor site built around lead capture, turning local searches into quote requests.

Phenix Chicago

A fast, image-heavy site for a Chicago salon-suite business that stays quick even with rich visuals.

The Wristwatch Concierge

A polished, detail-focused build for a specialty retail business.

Why hire a freelance WordPress designer instead of an agency

With an agency, your project passes through a salesperson, a project manager, a designer, and a developer, and the invoice covers all of them. With me you work directly with the person designing and building your site, from the first conversation to launch and after.

Direct communication — you talk to the person doing the work
Faster turnaround — no hand-offs or internal queues
Fixed quotes — you know the full cost before work starts
Still here after launch — updates, fixes, and new features from someone who knows your site

Pricing without surprises

Every project is quoted up front, so you know the cost before work begins. See web design pricing or request a free estimate and I’ll scope your project.

Need custom functionality?

If your project is more about integrations, custom features, or fixing a site that can’t do what you need, see my Chicago web developer page. Thinking about a decoupled front end? Read about headless WordPress.

Let’s talk about your WordPress site

Tell me what you have and what you need, and I’ll come back with a plan and a free quote. Call 312-380-5745 or request an estimate.