The Etiquette Website Built to Be Shared, and to Win

Why stop at one win when the same brand has more to give? Lu Hickman Creative Co. designed The Polite Society's identity, which won a 2018 American Graphic Design Award. Rather than treat that as the finish line, we kept building on it, extending the brand into a mobile-first website that won a 2019 American Web Design Award from GDUSA the very next year. Same brand, explored fully, delivering more exposure and a stronger return on investment (ROI) for the client with every extension.

And it is beautiful. The mobile-first experience is elegant, expressive, and unmistakably The Polite Society, the kind of design that earns a second look and a share. See for yourself below.

The brief was unusual in the best way. Most websites are built to inform. This one had to make manners education feel important, modern, and worth talking about. We led with mobile on purpose, because that is where people share, and the goal was an experience a visitor would actually want to post about. That meant designing the small screen first and letting the desktop site follow, rather than the other way around.

Etiquette carries some baggage. It can read as stuffy, intimidating, or quietly coded as something only women need. We designed against all of that. The custom illustrations make the subject feel welcoming and human rather than formal or exclusive, opening the material up to everyone. A dedicated mobile space offers motivational quotes that give the brand a daily, shareable presence, and a robust blog delivers tips written for different audiences, so a young professional, a parent, and a student can each find something meant for them. Throughout, the design pairs with strong, strategic copywriting, which is a large part of why the experience holds together as well as it looks.

Nothing here is decorative for its own sake. Every illustration, every quote, and every blog stream traces back to a content strategy built on the brand we had already established. The 2018 identity gave us the voice and the visual language. The 2019 website gives it somewhere to live and a reason for people to come back.

This is the kind of work we love. Lu Hickman Creative Co. builds digital experiences that are strategic underneath and genuinely beautiful on the surface, designed around how people actually behave rather than how a brand wishes they would. Good branding is an investment, and the smartest way to grow its return on investment is to keep extending it, letting one strong identity work harder across every place a customer meets it. When brand, content, and design are built together from the start, the result is a site that does more than exist. It earns attention.

FAQ

What award did Lu Hickman Creative Co. win?

A 2019 American Web Design Award, presented by GDUSA.

What was the project?

A mobile-first website and digital experience for The Polite Society, an etiquette and manners school in Chicago.

Who was the client?

The Polite Society, an etiquette and manners education company based in Chicago, Illinois.

What makes the design distinctive?

A mobile-first approach built for social sharing, custom illustrations that make etiquette feel welcoming rather than intimidating or exclusive, a dedicated mobile space with motivational quotes, and a blog with tips written for different audiences.

Did Lu Hickman Creative Co. also design the brand?

Yes. The Polite Society's brand identity, created by Lu Hickman Creative Co., won a 2018 American Graphic Design Award.

Lu Hickman Creative Co. is a certified MBE/WBE boutique design and marketing agency headquartered in Houston, TX, with presence in Chicago and São Paulo, serving clients across the United States. The firm holds WBE, MBE, Hire Houston First (HHF), HUB, and SBE designations and has earned six GDUSA awards in addition to two 2025 HBMA Lantern Awards.

Services include brand identity and guidelines, capabilities brochures and sales materials, proposals and RFP design, interactive presentations, and full marketing collateral systems, all built for firms that compete in technical industries.

luhickman.com