David Gemmell is a South African mental health speaker and author. His work is direct about depression, resilience, and the conversations organisations often avoid until they are forced to have them. His first book Joost: The Man in the Mirror is out; his second, There are no depressed people on a sinking life raft, is on the way. Corporate keynotes, school talks, community sessions.
The brief was a website that carried David’s voice honestly, gave HR and CSR bookers a clear next step, and treated a serious subject with the seriousness it deserves.
Challenge
Sites in this category tend to fall into one of two traps. Either they get precious and abstract – soft photography, cautious language – and stop the buyer from understanding what David actually offers. Or they lean too hard on business-speak – productivity, retention, ROI – and lose the human being behind the talk.
David’s edge is that he can hold both. He speaks plainly to a boardroom about workplace mental wellness as a strategic priority, and he does not sanitise the subject. The site had to hold that combination – gravity and clarity, personal voice and business relevance – without leaning into either extreme.
The work
We anchored the site on David’s line – Giving a voice to a silent pandemic – and let the rest of the writing be as direct as he is on stage.
Anchor language – A candid look at depression – and what to do about it. / Mental wellness is no longer a personal issue. It’s a strategic priority. One line for the human context, one for the corporate context. Same voice.
The Talk – the keynote given its own section. 45–60 minute presentation, interactive session, leadership discussion – what David offers, how long it takes, what the room walks away with. Enough for a booker to know if it fits their agenda before they email.
Writing – books, articles, and the ongoing pieces David writes. Joost: The Man in the Mirror front and centre; the next book already introduced. A place for the audience that finds David through the writing to keep reading.
Book David – the primary CTA, front-loaded on every page. A short, direct enquiry form – event date, audience, context – so the reply from David is already a real conversation.
About – David’s own story, told in his voice. Not a stock bio, not a highlight reel. The reason he speaks the way he speaks.
Built in Astro – hand-composed inside Claude Code so the site loads fast on any connection, ships lean, and stays easy for David to extend as the writing and speaking schedule grows.
If your work matters and your website makes it hard to reach you, that gap is the problem worth solving. Talk to us about the site that gets out of the way.