Our History

When It All Started

Avallo Web Development was founded in 1996 by Julie Hamilton and Barb Dunham.

Julie had already spent more than a decade working in graphic design, advertising, and art direction and owned a graphic design business called Direct Design. Barb owned a tax business and worked with many business clients.

Interestingly, the original idea wasn't web development. Barb saw an opportunity in document archiving, helping businesses convert and store documents digitally. Julie had another idea: what about websites?

The internet was still unfamiliar territory for most businesses, but Julie saw the potential to combine this new technology with graphic design and marketing. And Avallo was born.

Bringing Design to Early Websites

Websites looked very different in the mid-1990s. Many were created primarily by people with technical backgrounds and tended to be text-heavy and visually simple. Coming from an art direction and advertising background, Julie believed a company's website should look like the company it represented.

Avallo began creating websites that used color, graphics, photography, and creative layouts to connect the website to the client's existing brand. Sometimes that meant stretching the available technology to make the design work.

In those early years, about 90% of Avallo's work was still graphic design and print, and only about 10% was web development. A surprising amount of time was spent explaining to clients what a website was and why their business might eventually need one. We don't have to explain that quite as often anymore.

A New Chapter

By the early 2000s, websites were becoming much more than online brochures. Clients wanted databases, searchable information, online forms, eCommerce, integrations, and functionality specific to the way their businesses worked.

In 2005, Julie became the sole owner of Avallo and began expanding the company's programming team. That opened up a whole new world of possibilities.

Instead of designing around the limitations of existing technology, our designers could work directly with programmers to create custom functionality around the client's needs. As websites became more sophisticated, Avallo's workload changed too. The original 90% print and 10% web eventually flipped to approximately 90% web and 10% print.

Building Our Own CMS

As websites became an increasingly important business tool, clients wanted the ability to update their own content without calling a programmer every time something changed. So we built a solution.

In 2009, Avallo launched Avallo Panel, our own custom Content Management System. It gave clients the ability to update and maintain their websites without needing programming knowledge. Developing our own CMS also gave Avallo greater control over how websites were built and allowed us to create editing tools around the needs of our clients.

The Next Generation of Websites

As web technology continued to evolve, so did the platforms we worked with. Today, Avallo develops websites using Craft CMS, WordPress, Craft Commerce, WooCommerce, Shopify, and other technologies based on the requirements of each project.

Our programming capabilities have also expanded far beyond traditional websites. We've developed custom web applications, searchable databases, transit applications, senior housing search tools, tracking systems, customer-facing applications, complex eCommerce solutions, integrations, and other custom technology.

We don't choose a platform first and make the project fit it. We look at what the client needs and determine the technology that makes the most sense.

Our New Location

Thirty years after Avallo began, we started another chapter. In 2026, Avallo moved its main office to Golden Valley, Minnesota, giving our team more room to collaborate and creating new opportunities to work alongside other creative and business partners.

Our services have expanded considerably since those first websites in 1996. Today, Avallo provides custom web development, web applications, branding and graphic design, SEO and AI Search Optimization, online advertising, social media marketing, hosting and security, accessibility services, eCommerce, print design, printing, signage, and more.

We've never tried to predict exactly where technology will go next. We've simply stayed curious, continued learning, and figured out how to use new technology in practical ways for our clients. Thirty years later, that's still one of our favorite parts of the job.