About
The Cornish Black Cat
Kathdhu is a small web design studio in Camborne, Cornwall, making bespoke, hand-coded websites for shops, bands and local businesses across the UK.
01The name
Kath dhu
In Cornish, kath means cat and du means black. Because kath is a feminine noun, the adjective softens after it: kath dhu, black cat.
We ran the two words together, softened dh and all, to make our name: Kathdhu. The longer version, The Cornish Black Cat Web Design Company, says what we do and where we are.
02The cat
Bonnie
Bonnie is a glossy black cat with amber eyes, a generous chest and strong opinions about where laptops should go.
Every cat on this site, including the one in our logo, was drawn from photographs of her. She appears on each page in a different pose, usually supervising. Tap her and she’ll dash off; switch her sound on and she’ll meow too.
03The place
Cornwall
We’re based in Tuckingmill, Camborne, in the old mining heart of west Cornwall.
We enjoy working with Cornish businesses and bands, and we work with clients anywhere in the UK by video call. Our colours come from here too: the deep blue of the sea at night, and the amber of a lighthouse lamp.
04What we believe
How we work
- a
Bespoke, not borrowed
Every site is designed for the business it serves. No themes, no templates, no mock-ups of imaginary clients.
- b
Plain English
No jargon, and straight answers to straight questions, including when the answer is that you don’t need us.
- c
Fixed prices
A written quote before any work starts, and no surprises at the end.
- d
Yours to keep
Your domain, design, code and content belong to you, with handover notes to prove it.
05Who’s behind Kathdhu
Jon Pennington
Kathdhu is run by Jon Pennington from Camborne, Cornwall.
Jon started out in graphics on the Mac, producing flyers and retail promotions. At Corinth Designs, a maker of bespoke high-end furniture for Laura Ashley and the Victoria and Albert Museum, he handled the catalogue photography and image editing: digitising photographs taken on film and setting the furniture against new backgrounds. He began building websites there around 2003, then did web and technical work for several tech companies.
After leaving Hydrapool he founded Hot Tub Repair Man and built its website himself. He built the e-commerce sites for hottubdiy.co.uk and grew it into a complete business, website, YouTube and social channels included, which he later sold. He has since built e-commerce sites for many other businesses, including Claire De Fleurs, and the website for the band Droskyn.
The black cat in the logo is Bonnie, his own.
Say hello
Whether you have a project in mind or just a question, we’d like to hear from you.