OVERVIEW
THE OLD
When I launched, I modeled the site on the Photoshop asset stores that were popular at the time, like studioaaa.com and designsyndrome.com: a broad hub for every kind of design resource. As my own work moved toward analog textures and editorial layouts, the site stopped representing it. I didn't want a catch-all store anymore. I wanted a curated library of analog tools and textures, and the site needed to look the part.
Narrowing the focus also meant widening the audience. The site had to work for two very different buyers: freelance graphic designers making posters all day, and in-house product designers working at the forefront of tech. The first group buys on visuals, while the second expects a polished, trustworthy web experience before they'll spend. The redesign had to feature eye-candy graphics for one group without losing the premium experience that draws in the other.
I also gave myself a technical constraint: a fully custom Shopify build. I'd only ever worked inside Shopify's native themes, so building from scratch was new territory.
First was the visual direction. I knew I wanted to go simpler with the design, but still include signature elements like mono fonts and textured visuals. I also wanted to play around with a signature color, which ended up being the deep blue you see here. These elements mixed well with slightly off-white and off-black colors, editorial layouts, and clean fonts.
Each choice serves one of the two audiences. The textures and imagery catch a poster designer's eye. The restrained palette, clear hierarchy, and familiar e-commerce patterns (grid and list views, add-to-cart from the grid, a direct FAQ) give a product designer enough confidence in the store to buy.
The harder part was getting it live. I'd prototyped outside Shopify, so I needed a way to turn the designs into a working theme without starting over. Shopify's GitHub integration solved that. I used Claude Code to convert my layouts to Liquid and my animations to React, connected the repository to the store, and finished the final tweaks in the theme. Working from a repo also means future updates ship from the same codebase instead of being rebuilt by hand, which will make the process significantly easier.
Free product download section to collect emails.
Grid + list product views, built to convert.
Branded FAQ Section to increase buyer conversions.
