The Valthakan Times
Visit live siteRedesigned and hand-coded a client's newsletter site, migrating it off Beehiiv's templates onto a custom Next.js build powered by the Beehiiv API
Timeline
3-week sprint · 2025
Team
3 UI/UX Designers + 1 Developer (me)
Role
Lead Developer & UI/UX Designer
Skills
HeadlessCMS, Next.js, Typescript, Tailwind CSS, Beehiiv API
Long story short
Moving a creator off a newsletter template and onto a site built entirely by hand.
Daniel Alexander runs The Valthakan Times, a fantasy-themed newsletter with over 1.7M+ monthly social media reach. The site was previously built on Beehiiv, which meant the design was boxed in by the platform's templates. Instead of relying on Beehiiv's hosted website, I developed an independent Next.js application that consumes the Beehiiv API, allowing the client to keep publishing newsletters through Beehiiv while owning a fully customizable website.
Migrated off Beehiiv's template system to a fully custom Next.js + Tailwind build, while keeping the client's entire archive intact via the Beehiiv API.
Led design direction across a 3-person UI/UX team and was the sole developer who implemented every screen — from Figma to shipped code.
Process
Problem
The client's existing website was tightly coupled to Beehiiv's built-in website.
Because the entire archive already lived in Beehiiv, nothing could be manually re-uploaded.
Every past edition needed to surface automatically in the new site through Beehiiv's API.
Project Goal
- Redesign the client's personal website
- Preserve the existing newsletter workflow
- Build a fully custom front-end
- Maintain seamless integration with Beehiiv
- Deliver the project through an iterative client feedback process
Client Research
Through three client meetings, we identified the client's primary goals:
- Increase newsletter subscriptions
- Better showcase articles
- Improve visual branding
- Reduce dependence on Beehiiv's default website
Solution
The solution was a fully custom Next.js application that consumes the Beehiiv API.
This allowed the client to keep publishing newsletters through Beehiiv while owning a fully customizable website.
Process
Information architecture
The existing site buried its most-read content — the Dear Crone advice column — under generic navigation. I reorganized the IA to put the site's biggest reader draw front and center, and planned the page structure around what the Beehiiv API could actually return: editions, tags, and paid vs. free content.
Design system
UI Design
Adaptive navigation
Over 80% of traffic arrives from mobile social platforms, so navigation was designed mobile-first — not scaled down from desktop. Mobile and desktop use genuinely different nav structures so both stay thumb-friendly and readable at their own scale.
Responsive
Every screen was built and tested at mobile scale first, since that's where the vast majority of Daniel's audience arrives from a shared social link.
