Web · Shopify
There is NO Store
From an Etsy shop to a store of her own, with all the attitude intact.
The brief
An Etsy shop that wanted a home of its own.
The client sold hand-drawn fan art of reality TV: cards, mugs, lighters, stickers and ornaments, all through an Etsy shop. She wanted to run her own website on Shopify, with her name on the door, her colours on the walls and her customers on her own list.
Etsy gives every shop the same shelf. The new store had to keep everything people loved about the shop, the humour above all, and give it a place that looks like nobody else’s.
- Her own front door.A store with its own address, its own look and its own customer list, instead of one listing page next to everyone else’s.
- Shop by show.Fans look for the show they watch, not for a product type, so the store is organised by show first and by product second.
- Keep the voice.The jokes, the puns and the attitude of the Etsy listings had to survive the move, and get louder.
- Say the shipping promise early.Free shipping on cards and worldwide delivery from Los Angeles are announced at the top of the page and again further down.
The idea
Etsy sells listings. This site should sell a point of view.
Fans of these shows don’t browse a catalogue, they gossip. So the store was treated like the tabloid rack at the checkout line: loud cover lines, a different cover for every show, and product photos pinned up like clippings.
Everything is ink on cream with one hot magenta and a yellow highlighter, the palette of a gossip magazine, and the copy talks like a friend who has seen every episode.
The Tabloid Rack
Not affiliated with anyone. Obsessed with everyone.
The design
Three decisions that make a storefront feel like a magazine.
-
A tabloid palette with one loud colour
Ink, cream, a yellow highlighter and a single hot magenta. Magenta is kept for the one word in a headline that should be shouted, and for the main button, so it never turns into decoration. Buttons and cards carry a hard offset shadow, like a sticker slapped on the page.
Ink#16110FCream#FFF7F2Tabloid Yellow#FFD23FHot Magenta#C8106A -
Three voices of type
Anton in capitals for headlines, loud and condensed like a cover line. Work Sans for everything that has to be read. Instrument Serif in italic for product names, captions and quotes, like handwriting on the back of a photo.
-
A front page that changes with the show
The hero is not one banner. It turns through the audiences: a card for the sender, a controller for the gamer, plural wives for Sister Wives fans. Each has its own headline, button and three tilted product Polaroids. Below it, Shop by show gives every show its own numbered cover in ink, magenta or yellow.
Every card ships freeSend a card they'll screenshot.
Shop cardsHoliday gifts
The finished site
What shipped.
On a phone the hero stacks, the Polaroids fan out below the buttons and the newsletter box fills the width.
The voice
Even the small print has attitude.
Microcopy is part of the design here. Section titles, labels and footers all talk like the person who drew the art, and each one is set in the same loud type as the headlines.
Cards ship free. Always.
The reviews are in. They’re unhinged.
Get the tea first.
I appreciate you allowing me to harvest your American dollar. Thank you so mauch for terrorizing me with your support!The footer sign-off, as it appears on the store.
Under the shelf
Her store, on her terms.
- HersAn address and a customer list of her own, not a listing on a marketplace
- CustomA made-to-measure Shopify theme, not a template off the shelf
- By showEvery show has its own collection, cover and colour
- FreeShipping on cards, stickers and magnets, said at the top and again below
The listings from the Etsy shop became products in the new store, and Shopify handles the cart, checkout, shipping and payments. That left the design time for the parts customers actually see and remember.
Every show already has its own cover, colour and place in the grid, so a new show slots in without redesigning anything.