Brand & Shopify Redesign
One design system across 3 channels and 4 product lines.
Roman Hessary
Founder @ Hours
"Nice and efficient to work with. Also, a good eye and understanding of other strong websites (like Acne, etc.)"
Shopify Plus Redesign
X% increase in DTC Shopify conversion
Chris
Co-founder @ Godspeed NYC
"Nice and efficient to work with. Also, a good eye and understanding of other strong websites (like Acne, etc.), so there is a certain level of trust."
015_Forms
5.9% conversion with 12.9% email sign ups
013_Little_Otter_Health
$9.5M+ raised during our ongoing partnership
017_APOC
2x conversion and +14% AOV on 6,000 products
039_Buttz
2x conversion and +14% AOV on 6,000 products
Brand
Category
Stack
Shovel’s core principles
Be water
Every website we build is not a website. It’s a scalable design system that carries across every channel a brand lives in
The details are not the details
Great digital experiences don't choose between functional and memorable. The perfect interface must be easy to use and impossible to forget
Absorb what is useful
Good design listens to data first, then trusts the eye to go further
Stay foolish
Honest feedback at the start costs less than polite silence at the end
For the teenage self
The work should always technically, visually, and strategically hold up after go-live. More importantly there’s always a dash of child-like imagination included
A thousand nos
Do fewer things well than many things mildly
Resources & tools
Sign up for Gravel
Weekly notes for creative operators. Get the tools we use for ecomm design and studio work. Learn Figma systems and content ops w/ Blaze
Ecommerce Design System (Figma)
Year 1 in business (Notion)
Ecomm Photography Brief (Figma)
A plug and play photography brief template built for brands shooting product imagery
Book recommendations (Notion)
Shovel Radio (Spotify)
Nice words from partners :)
Meet w/ Blaze
I've been posting videos since I was 12. YouTube first, then whatever platform came next. The content was always about whatever I was building at the time. Skateboarding, streetwear brands, video games.
Web design took over around 2020. The hobby eventually became the job. The audience followed the work and the work got better because of the audience. Running a studio co-exists with being a creator.
By 2024 that loop had a name: Shovel.
The studio runs on a contractor model with senior international talent across design and development. Over 100,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok watch the work happen in real time.