By design

At Langlers WebWorks, head engineer and co-owner Daniel Bond makes it a point to get involved with, and reach out to, local businesses and nonprofits.

“I think the most important contribution to make is in your own community. That’s your home,” Bond said during a recent interview at The Axiom in downtown Oroville, where he shares conference space. “And for me, it’s much more fulfilling to get to sit face-to-face with a small business owner who I have more in common with, and [who] is also more interested in the community because it’s their home as well.”

Bond certainly has wasted no time getting to know his new community. Having relocated the Web design and development firm he owns with partner Heather Johnson to Oroville late last year, he immediately reached out to local businesses and nonprofits. Langlers WebWorks also got involved with the Oroville Area Chamber of Commerce and, in turn, Oroville Strong!—a group of local business owners, lawmakers and residents who are working to improve the image and vitality of Oroville following the dam incident in February.

Focusing on long-term online growth strategies—supplying a website and training employees on how to update and improve the site—is what initially set Bond’s work apart from that of other Web designers in San Francisco when he launched Langlers WebWorks in 2010. That’s still the company’s main focus: to create a strong Web presence for businesses and nonprofits that’s easy to update and incorporates up-to-date technologies, from online video to social media.

Business was going well, but after a few years, Bond and Johnson decided it was time for a break. They restored a 50-year-old sailboat, adding solar panels and a reverse-osmosis water purifier in the process. The two then sailed along the West Coast and down to the Sea of Cortez in Mexico, before returning to the Bay Area nearly a year later.

“When we came back to San Francisco, it sort of felt like too much,” Bond recalled. “We decided to find a slower pace, a smaller town. Plus, we had been working with larger, more corporate clients, and we wanted to be more involved with our community and smaller businesses.”

The two took a tour of the northwestern quarter of the country, visiting many small towns before choosing Oroville. Bond and Johnson moved to downtown Oroville on Thanksgiving Day 2016.

They run Langlers out of their home office. The two take care of most of the day-to-day operations, but keep an updated list of local contractors for when they need help with new projects.

“Oroville … it’s a gem,” Bond said.

“It was also one of the most welcoming places we visited. People here were genuinely thrilled to see new people coming to town,” he added, smiling. “It wasn’t that way every place we visited.”

—Josh Cozine