AethrDesign 2025: year in review

A year in the practice

The most useful work of 2025 was not simply publishing more. It was improving the systems behind each website: how we structure content, develop components, and refine the details before launch. The figures below describe activity in Framer; they should not be read as a count of completed client commissions.

What we developed

• Top Creator Recognition: Our co-founder, Chevis (Zhengchen) Zhou, was officially recognized as a Top Framer Creator for 2025. A welcome recognition of the time spent working in Framer throughout the year.

• Reusable systems: Our work on design systems included 301 unique components and 216 variants. The purpose is consistency: making a site easier to extend without redesigning every new page.

• Work in use: The snapshot recorded ruriohama.com at more than 22,000 site views. Traffic is one part of the picture, not a measure of design quality on its own.

• Purposeful motion: We continued to work with Scroll Transform to shape pacing and transitions. The test is whether an interaction helps the content, not whether it draws attention to itself.

Looking Toward 2026

Three things we are working on in the new year:

1. A more considered process: Resolve the important questions early, with enough room for design decisions to be tested rather than rushed.

2. Distinctive, useful interactions: Use motion where it explains the product or supports the reading experience, with performance and accessibility in view.

3. Life beyond launch: Build content structures and design systems that clients can use as their businesses change.

Thank you to the clients and collaborators who trusted us with their work this year. The ambition for 2026 is not simply more websites, but more considered ones.