Since 1999
About Major Tom
Major Tom makes websites. Since 1999, from Ghent, Belgium. Not a marketing agency, not a full-service circus: just really good websites, web shops and web applications. And straight talk, hold the waffle.
Since 1999, and still on air.
In 1999 a mobile phone was the size and weight of a tall beer can, and a laptop could pass for a picnic cooler. Websites blasted music the moment they loaded, and you lunged for the volume knob. We were already at it. We built websites before the first smartphone existed, and web apps while everyone else was still playing Snake. We were Flash specialists back when Flash was the coolest thing on the web. (Remember Flash? Then we’re among professionals. Don’t? Congratulations on your youth.)
We even started before there was a degree you could get in it. Nobody could teach us, so we taught ourselves. The web has reinvented itself about ten times since. We survived every version, set a few trends along the way and did our bit for a cooler, more creative www. We’re still at it.
Websites. Or rather: web spaces.
That may sound old-fashioned in a world full of “digital ecosystems” and “brand experiences”. But your website is still the one place online that’s actually yours. It’s where your story, products, bookings, sales and sign-ups come together, without an algorithm deciding who gets to see it.
It’s just rarely “only” a site anymore: a web shop, a member portal, a booking tool, an application that eats half your paperwork. So we call them web spaces. And yes, that’s a wink too.
Built the way an architect would want it
We’re crazy about architecture, Le Corbusier first and foremost. Our team outings are architecture trips, and we’ve even slept in his monastery at La Tourette. His Modulor translated human proportions into buildings; we do the same with screens. Our design system revolves around the golden ratio (φ = 1.618), so everything we make has rhythm and calm.
And like any good architecture: foundations first, curtains later. Built to stay standing.
Not a marketing agency. And quite proud of it.
Plenty of agencies started out building websites and now sell branding, social media, Google Ads, content strategy, funnels and a workshop on your “brand purpose”. We don’t.
You’ve seen it happen: the new site barely works, and everyone’s already talking Instagram, TikTok and a campaign. Pouring traffic into a site that isn’t good enough yet is like filling a bucket with a hole in it.
We start with the foundation: an offer people understand, navigation that speaks for itself, a site that loads fast and is technically sound, and visitors who can easily call, buy, book or sign up. Then we watch what works. Maybe the next step is SEO, maybe advertising. Maybe the answer is: nothing, for now.
Marketing isn’t nonsense. It amplifies a strong foundation; it just can’t hide a weak one. We build the foundation.
Built light. For your visitors, and for the web.
You know that banner: Accept all, Reject, Preferences, 183 partners. Everyone clicks whatever makes it go away fastest. Hardly what you’d call consent.
Our question is simpler: why collect that data in the first place? Someone checking a restaurant’s menu doesn’t need an advertising profile. So wherever we can, we pick privacy-friendly analytics over Google Analytics, host fonts on our own servers, and skip tracking pixels that are only there “because everyone has them”. Being GDPR-compliant is the bare minimum, not a sales pitch. And if you don’t collect the data, you don’t need a banner begging for it.
Then something nice happens: fewer scripts make a lighter site. It loads faster, breaks less often and uses fewer resources. We won’t claim we’re saving the planet, because one website won’t. But small differences add up, especially multiplied by a few billion pages.
Work smarter, charge fairly
We work with today’s tools, AI included. What used to take days of typing now goes a lot faster. We don’t quietly pocket that gain by billing the old hours anyway.
Besides, the typing was never the real job. The real job is understanding what a client needs, spotting a bad idea early and deciding what not to build. Twenty-seven years of experience doesn’t make AI redundant. It does tell you when AI gets it wrong.
A day with us may cost a bit more than elsewhere. A project usually doesn’t. We’d rather sell you five days you actually need than ten days we could invoice.
Small team, long game
There used to be sixteen of us. Today we’re small on purpose, and we like it that way. Everyone who works here has been here fifteen years or more. Everyone. No revolving door, no junior handing your project to the next junior after three months.
Small doesn’t mean less, it means closer. No ticket numbers, no call centre, just a familiar face who knows your project inside out and picks up when you call.
Clients who stay
Our best reference isn’t in a portfolio, it’s in the calendar: clients who still call after all these years. Some have been working with us for 25 years. That kind of trust isn’t built on smooth talk. It’s built on being reachable, giving honest advice, and still picking up the phone long after launch.
Ground control, from Ghent.
We’re down-to-earth Ghent folk. No nonsense, no waffle. But every agency says “no nonsense”, so here’s what it actually means to us:
We don’t track anyone without a reason.
We don’t install technology nobody needs.
We don’t make a site heavier than it has to be.
We don’t spend ten days on something that takes five.
We don’t sell marketing before the foundation works.
We don’t recommend things just because we can invoice them.
We don’t hide behind jargon.
And if your idea is daft, we’ll tell you. Kindly, but clearly. An honest “let’s do this differently” costs less than an expensive detour.
Beyond the screen
We’re not just internet nerds. We’re also foodies who find a good restaurant faster than a 404, sporty types, culture lovers and architecture tourists who go and sleep in monasteries. That enthusiasm finds its way into everything we build.