Rebuilding Fueled.com was more than a facelift. It was a chance to put years of systems thinking to the test and push forward on new ways of working.
Nearly every part of the project showcased a progressive approach to building websites in 2025. From design to content strategy, we applied refined workflows and meaningfully integrated generative AI—workshopping copy with custom LLMs, generating icons and illustrations, and exploring new ways to collaborate. While we hope to share more about the design and content strategy behind Fueled.com in future posts, as technical leads on this project, we’re going to zoom in on the engineering foundation.
Over the past several years, we’ve invested in reusable components, refined internal tooling, and explored how emerging technologies like generative AI can help us build smarter and faster. This project gave us room to lean into that evolution: applying our mature homegrown toolkits and pushing harder on AI-assisted workflows. The result is a modern, performant site built in under two months, without compromising on craft.
Efficiency by Design: The Starter Toolkits Behind the Build
Building great websites quickly starts before you write a line of code – it starts with the approach.
For years, we’ve been building and refining internal tools that help us move faster by doing less of the repetitive work, and spending more time where it counts. For modern WordPress sites like Fueled.com, that meant starting from a strong foundation:
- A block based (full site) starter theme built internally on WordPress core tools and patterns, empowered us to quickly stand up a site structure (e.g. headers, footers, layouts) while giving editors control over nearly every part of the site.
- A reusable custom WordPress block library designed around real-world needs we see again and again: tabs, accordions, modals, carousels, and more. Unlike many third-party options, our custom components are built with performance, accessibility, and editorial usability in mind. And because we use them across projects, they’re not only reliable, they’re composable, maintainable, and ready to slot into place.
- A Figma-to-WordPress export tool, built in-house, that translates design tokens—typography, color, spacing—into theme configuration, accelerating visual setup and front-end alignment.
Combined, this approach empowered us to move swiftly from early design direction into live builds, providing space to focus on custom features, polish, and thoughtful decisions that elevate the experience.
Building in the Browser, Together
Like most projects, our work started in Figma, with key page designs that set the visual language and tone for the site. But we didn’t treat those mockups as immovable blueprints. Instead, we moved quickly into browser-based iteration, using our theme and block framework to prototype and refine layouts in real time.
Designers, engineers, and content strategists worked directly in the WordPress content management system (CMS) to shape the final pages, returning to Figma only when visual designers wanted to quickly mock up alternative art direction or concepts for specific components. That collaborative, in-browser approach let us make design and copy decisions in context, resulting in better decisions, made faster.
Unlocking Velocity with Generative AI
We’ve been exploring how generative AI can support our engineering workflows—testing where it adds efficiency without compromising quality. Fueled.com gave us an opportunity to push that work further.
While our internal components and tooling handled much of the foundational setup, we turned to AI to accelerate the more complex, custom features. Tools like Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and ChatGPT helped us scaffold first drafts of advanced blocks and utilities, solve targeted engineering problems, and explore implementation approaches faster.
Roughly 60% of the custom code powering those advanced features began with AI-assisted scaffolding—helping us cut development time for those features by about 50%.
As always, every line was reviewed by our expert engineers and held to our rigorous standards. AI didn’t replace the craft—it gave us more time to apply it where it mattered most.
From Time Saved to Experience Delivered
The time we saved by accelerating custom development wasn’t just a win for the timeline—it was a win for scope and quality.
With more space to focus on refining and polishing custom requirements, we were able to bring features to life that might otherwise have been cut due to budget or timeline. These weren’t small enhancements—they were technically complex, performance-sensitive, and central to what makes the new Fueled.com feel intentional and unique.
3D Illustration Block. Designed to bring motion and storytelling into the page, this custom WordPress block lets editors insert animated 3D shapes that are rendered in-browser using a performant canvas-based system. The block offers a selection of pre-defined shapes, each with fluid animation, and displays a live preview in the WordPress editor. The engineering challenge here wasn’t just in rendering 3D content—it was in optimizing performance. We avoided large video files by using lightweight image sequences and smart rendering logic, only triggering animations when the block is in view. It’s a feature that looks deceptively simple to site visitors, but involved precise engineering.
Advanced Custom Blocks with Built-In Semantics and Accessibility. Several WordPress blocks on the site—tabs, modals, accordions, and more—were adapted from our internal toolkit. These weren’t off-the-shelf Gutenberg plugins, but carefully crafted components built to meet accessibility standards out of the box. Where needed, we extended them, adding elements like progress indicators or advanced filtering states, to match the design vision without compromising usability.
Features like these, fully polished and uncompromising in quality, were made possible by the time we gained through AI-accelerated development.
A Launch That’s Also a Starting Line
Fueled.com is live—but it’s not done. And that’s by design.
We don’t think websites should be treated like static deliverables. Truly impactful websites—sites that perform, evolve, and stay relevant—are treated as products: launched with purpose, then improved continuously. That means starting with a strong foundation and a high bar for quality, while staying ready to iterate and grow.
We’re already building on our foundation, with plans to expand content, iteratively roll out new pages and sections, continue to refine layout and performance, and experiment with enhancements like AI-powered content recommendations. It’s the same approach we bring to every long-term partnership: thoughtful iteration, tight collaboration, and a mindset that values momentum over perfection.
As Steve Jobs put it, “Real artists ship.” Waiting for a perfect 1.0 means missing the opportunity to learn, evolve, and deliver value sooner. We launched when it was good, and we’re making it better every day.
What We Learned, What You Can Expect
If you’re planning a website rebuild—or building something ambitious from the ground up—this is proof that speed and quality don’t have to be at odds.
We’ve spent years developing internal tools and workflows that let us move faster without cutting corners. This project pushed that approach further: combining reusable systems, collaborative workflows, and AI-assisted development to deliver a modern, performant site in just eight weeks.
We don’t just build fast—we build with intention, balancing efficiency with craft. And we know how to apply those same practices across disciplines, partnering closely across design, content, and engineering to bring ambitious digital projects to life.If that sounds like the kind of partner you’re looking for, we’d love to talk.
