The One Behind the Website
I make complicated web projects easier to build, use, and maintain.
I'm Rhonda, and I've spent my career working in visual communications, web design, UX/UI, content, and digital production.
Finish Your Web Project
Your Partner for All Things WordPress, Beaver Builder, & Web Design
For the last 10+ years, I’ve focused on WordPress—designing and building websites for businesses and organizations that need more than a pretty collection of pages.
And increasingly, I work behind the scenes for agencies, marketing teams, and developers who need someone they can trust to take the web design and WordPress production work off their plate.
That might mean owning the design and WordPress build for a client project. It might mean stepping into an existing project and getting it organized. Or it might mean working alongside a developer who has plenty of development work to do and would rather not spend their time wrestling with page layouts, content structures, responsive details, and WordPress production.
Whatever the arrangement, my goal is the same: Make the project easier for everyone involved.
I see the things underneath the thing.
I like to ask questions but not always immediately. Give me the project, the content, the requirements, the existing site, the weird spreadsheet, the half-finished Figma file—whatever you've got—and I’ll go look at it.
I need a little time with the actual thing. That's when I start seeing the connections.
Sometimes I'll come back with: “I think we're missing something.”
And sometimes the answer is, “Yep. You are.” That's fine. I'm much more interested in getting the project right than proving I was right.
If you've worked with me long enough, you'll probably hear me ask: “What am I missing?” I mean it.
I don't just design the page. I think about what happens after it.
A website doesn't end when the homepage looks good.
That's where my design and development work meet.
I can design the interface and build the WordPress system underneath it—including custom post types, taxonomies, custom fields, dynamic templates, structured content, forms, and the other pieces that make a site easier to manage as it grows.
The goal isn't to make the website more complicated. It's to put the complexity where it belongs so the people using the website don't have to carry it around in their heads.
That's one of the things I love about WordPress when it's done well: The people maintaining the site shouldn't have to think like web designers.
They should be able to do their jobs.
A combination is one reason agencies and developers bring me into projects.
I'm a designer who understands development—and a developer who cares about design.
I understand the visual side: hierarchy, typography, spacing, responsive behavior, brand standards, UX, and all the tiny details that determine whether something feels intentional or cobbled together.
I also understand what happens when that design meets WordPress.
The inevitable “Okay, but what happens when the client needs to add 47 more of these?”
I've worked independently for developers and agencies for more than a decade, so I'm comfortable being the person behind the scenes. You don't need to teach me how to be a contractor. You need to give me the problem, the parameters, and the information I need to do good work. Then, I do it.
What Matters
I know how to work with other people's clients.
When I'm working as a freelance partner, I'm not trying to become the agency.
I'm there to make the agency better at what it already does.
If you're the developer, you shouldn't have to spend your week explaining why a heading needs another 12 pixels of margin.
If you're the marketing director, you shouldn't have to become the unofficial WordPress administrator because nobody else knows how the site works.
If you're the agency owner, you shouldn't have to worry that bringing in a freelancer means creating another person you have to manage.
I communicate. I ask when I don't know. I flag problems when I see them. I can work independently. And when I finish something, I understand that you shouldn't have to wonder whether it got done.
That last part sounds ridiculously basic.
Apparently, it isn't.
There's a story, of course.
Why Fat Dog Creatives
The name started with a running joke about my dogs, a Friends reference, and a general appreciation for the fact that “Fat Dog” is considerably more memorable than another business named after someone or their initials.
The Shiner/Zack-inspired dog in the logo is a nod to the dogs who helped inspire it and the name.
But the bigger idea stuck: A good website should pull its weight.
It should do useful work, make someone's job easier, and hold up when the business grows. It shouldn't require everyone involved to chase their tails just to keep it running.
That's the kind of website I like to build.
A little more about me
I earned a BA in Communication from Sam Houston State University and an MA in Communication with Distinction from the University of the Incarnate Word.
Before becoming independent, I spent years working in web design, print, and visual communications. I've now spent more than a decade working independently with businesses, organizations, agencies, developers, and communications teams.
I've also taught design and UX/UI, including several years as an adjunct instructor.
My work has earned five HERMES Creative Awards over the last three years, including Platinum and Gold awards for web design.
But honestly, the work I'm proudest of isn't a trophy. It's the moment when a client who used to be nervous about touching their website says: “Oh. I can actually do this myself.”
That's the whole point.
I take the work seriously. I don't think that means we have to act serious all the time.
I like working with smart people who care about doing good work and don't need every conversation wrapped in corporate bubble wrap.
That's pretty much how Fat Dog Creatives operates: see the things underneath the thing.
Professional without being stuffy. Thoughtful without overthinking everything into oblivion. Thorough without making things unnecessarily complicated. Serious about the work without taking ourselves too seriously.
My Trusted Toolbelt of Resources
I believe in transparency. These are the tools I use to keep Fat Dog Creatives (and my clients) running like a well-oiled machine:
All of my projects are built using a reliable set of plugins (tools): WordPress, Beaver Builder, Fluent Forms, PODs, SEO Press, and WordFence.
Need a web partner who can think through the messy middle?
If you're an agency owner, marketing director, or developer looking for someone who can step into a project, understand the moving parts, and take ownership of the web design and WordPress work, let's talk.
You don't need another person to manage.
You need someone who can look at the problem, figure out what matters, build the thing, and tell you when it's done.
That's my kind of work.
Why San Antonio Businesses Trust Fat Dog
I’m not just a freelancer; I’m a strategist.
I don't just design for clients in New Braunfels, Boerne, or Spring Branch, I also served as adjunct faculty member teaching UX/UI design for a local bootcamp and design and layout at the Art Institute of San Antonio.
I don't just "make things pretty." I help executives-turned-entrepreneurs in Cibolo, Schertz, and Bulverde stop talking like corporate robots and start connecting with humans.
Ready to stop being the best-kept secret in Bexar County?
Whether you're a startup in Stone Oak or an established brand in Fair Oaks Ranch, you deserve a website that works as hard as you do.
I’m Rhonda Negard, and I’m ready to help you communicate a brand your clients will love.
Most web designers treat a website like a brochure. I treat it like a Sales Funnel.
If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting the same "Petunia Pig" results.
— (Mostly) Tony Robbins