How 2 designers and AI rebuilt Fern's marketing site

Over a five-week period, Mathieu Legault and Kapil Gowru, two product designers, developed and launched a new site for Fern with a focus on integrating AI into the design process. They utilized AI tools for the middle stages of design, while human input was essential at the beginning and end for taste and polish. The project incurred a Claude Code spend of approximately $4,225 between the two designers. A significant shift in their approach was moving from using Webflow to a code-native stack with Next.js, Tailwind, and MDX, allowing for more bespoke, interactive demos. This transition not only reduced hosting costs but also streamlined the workflow, enabling all team members to contribute to the marketing site. The project was driven by key customer needs, including unified documentation and SDK generation, smooth migration from existing platforms, and enterprise-grade security and compliance. The newly designed site emphasizes a connected developer experience, showcasing Fern's capabilities through interactive product demos and a unique brand picker feature. AI played a crucial role in design iteration and marketing, with specific skills and guidelines set up in repos to ensure consistency and scalability in content creation.