CMS patterns we reuse on every build
9 min read · June 2026
The same handful of content structures cover most of what a marketing site needs. We stopped reinventing them.
The rule underneath all of them: one record per thing, and never make the client think about layout. If adding a case study requires deciding where images go, the model is wrong.
One record per thing
A book, a project, an episode — everything about it lives in one entry. Retailer links, covers, excerpts, all of it. Adding a new one is filling in a single form, not assembling a page.
If publishing requires a layout decision, you have shipped a page builder, not a CMS.
Patterns worth keeping
A single reference field for category rather than free-text tags.
Optional metric fields on case studies, so the outcome shows when it exists and the layout survives when it does not.
Draft and scheduled states from day one — retrofitting them is worse.
None of this is clever. It is just what stops a client emailing us to publish something two years after launch.
Nelson Abalos Jr.
The build half of That One Couple. Front-end, CMS architecture, apps, and search.