30+ years.
Four eras
of the internet.
One owner-led team.
Founded in 1996 in an Atlanta apartment. We were building websites before Google launched, and we've adapted through every algorithm shift since. We survived the dot-com bust. Now we're reinventing the agency around AI search.
Print → Web → Search → AI.
Very few agencies can credibly say they've lived through all four. We can.
Catalogs, brochures, identities. The agency starts on paper, in Atlanta.
HTML, the browser wars, the dot-com boom. Websites become a core service.
Google grows up. We add SEO and stay through every major update since.
LLMs eat the search results page. We rebuild the agency around GEO and agents.
Receipts that took thirty years to print.
Continuous operation since 1996. Owner-led. No long-term contracts. Six numbers that make the rest of the story believable.
Years in business
Founded 1996. Continuously operating through every major shift the web has thrown at it.
Websites launched
Across dozens of industries — manufacturing, B2B, e-commerce, healthcare, nonprofit, technology.
SEO since Google's early years
Continuous through Florida, Panda, Penguin, Mobile-First, Core Web Vitals, Helpful Content, AI Overviews.
International awards
Hermes, MarCom, Communicator, Communitas, MobileWeb, Internet Marketing Association.
Owner-led, direct line
Direct access to Chris Hanna. No account-manager layers. No handoffs to junior teams after the sale.
Month-to-month, no contracts
Earn the next month, every month. We re-prove value continuously — instead of locking you in.
Why Atomic Design exists.
Technology changes constantly. Businesses still need the same things: more visibility, better systems, more customers.
Atomic Design exists because I genuinely love this work. After more than three decades, I still enjoy solving problems, building things, improving companies, and helping business owners grow.
If that excitement ever disappears, it will probably be time to stop. It hasn't.
Thirty years, year by year.
From an Atlanta apartment to an AI-native practice. The stops that matter.
Atlanta. An apartment. A printer.
Chris Hanna founds Atomic Design out of a one-bedroom apartment in Atlanta. First clients: NASCAR, Kellogg's, Microsoft, and the catalog for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games. We outgrow the apartment inside a year.
Web design becomes a service.
Most of our clients don't have a website yet. We start building them — first as one-off custom sites, then as a core, repeatable practice. The web becomes the spine of the business.
SEO joins the stack.
We add formal SEO services in Google's earliest growth years. We've lived through every major algorithm update since — Florida, Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird, Mobile-First, Core Web Vitals, Helpful Content, and AI Overviews.
The dot-com collapse — and what survived.
Most digital agencies that existed in 1999 didn't exist in 2003. We did. The ones that survived didn't believe their own hype. We kept shipping, kept billing, kept the lights on. The lesson stuck.
Rochester.
Chris returns home to Rochester, NY. Rochester becomes the operational center for years of design, development, and SEO work — and stays an active office to this day.
Tennessee.
Chris relocates the family. Franklin becomes headquarters. Rochester and Atlanta remain active. The agency is now operating across three U.S. regions with clients nationwide.
AI changes search. We rebuild around it.
Roughly 30% of traditional search clicks disappear into AI answers. Atomic Design rebuilds the practice around AI search visibility — Generative Engine Optimization, entity optimization, programmatic SEO, and AI automation woven through every engagement.
Five practices, one team.
A quick recap — the service pages go deeper.
Web design & development
Custom-built, fast, headless sites engineered to convert.
ExploreSEO & AI SEO
Rank in Google. Get cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews.
ExploreAI automation
Agents and workflows that ship work — intake, content, ops.
ExploreDigital marketing
Programs that move the number — paid, content, lifecycle.
ExploreBranding
Brand that holds up at scale — positioning, identity, messaging, visual systems.
ExploreFour principles. No exceptions.
Why clients stick with us for ten, fifteen, twenty years. These aren't slogans — they show up in every engagement.
Chris is your point of contact.
No layers of account managers. No bait-and-switch from senior pitch team to junior delivery team. The person who runs the agency is the person who runs your engagement.
Earn the next month, every month.
No long-term lock-ins. No twelve-month minimums. We re-prove value continuously — through performance, not paperwork — and you can walk at the end of any month.
Proactive recommendations, not task fulfillment.
We bring you the next move before you ask. Analysis, guidance, opportunities, competitive read — built in. We're not a ticket queue; we're a thinking partner with a build team attached.
Transparency on timelines, budgets, and reality.
Where you'll win, where you won't, what your competition is actually doing, how hard the work will be, and what's a realistic expectation for month three. No theater.
11+ international awards.
Design, marketing, digital. Recognized by the organizations that benchmark the work.
Creative Awards
Awards
Awards
Awards
Awards
Association
Three regions. Clients nationwide.
Franklin · Nashville, TN
Operations and leadership. The center of the practice since 2019. Middle Tennessee timezone, national reach.
Rochester, NY
Design, development, and SEO since 2004. Operational anchor for years of Northeast client work.
Atlanta, GA
Where it started in 1996. Still active. Southeast client base and the agency's first home.
// most client engagements are nationwide or remote
Common questions.
01 How long has Atomic Design been in business?
Since 1996. Continuously. Through the dot-com bust, the mobile shift, the social era, every major Google algorithm update, and the rise of AI search. The agency has never gone dark — it has only reinvented.
02 Who runs Atomic Design?
Chris Hanna — founder and president. The agency has been owner-led since day one. You won't be pitched by Chris and then delivered to a junior team. He's the person you talk to during the engagement.
03 What makes Atomic Design different?
Two things. First, longevity: thirty years across four eras of the internet means we've already seen which patterns compound and which were fads. Second, the operating model: owner-led, month-to-month, strategic-not-transactional. Most agencies pick one of those. We do all three.
04 Do you require long-term contracts?
No. All engagements are month-to-month. We earn the next month, every month, through results — not paperwork. If we're not moving your numbers, you shouldn't have to wait out a contract to leave.
05 What is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)?
GEO is the discipline of getting your business cited and surfaced by AI answer engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Overviews, Gemini. It overlaps with SEO but isn't the same: it requires schema, entity optimization, structured content, and an architecture the models can read and quote.
Roughly 30% of traditional search clicks have moved into AI answers. GEO is how you stay visible there.
06 Did Atomic Design survive the dot-com bust?
Yes. Most digital agencies that existed in 1999 didn't exist in 2003. We did. The ones that survived didn't believe their own hype, kept their costs honest, and kept shipping real work for real clients. That discipline is still part of how the agency operates today.
07 Where are Atomic Design's offices?
Headquarters is Franklin / Nashville, TN. We also operate from Rochester, NY and Atlanta, GA — the agency's original home. Most client engagements are nationwide or remote.
Thirty years in.
Let’s build what’s next.
Whether you need a website that gets cited by AI, a pipeline that compounds, or a partner who’s seen every algorithm shift since 1996 — start with a no-obligation conversation. We’ll look at where you are and show you exactly where the opportunity is.