Archives: Websites

eCommerce Websites

Smashbox

By Catalin Zorzini  /  August 28, 2017

WE LIVE FOR LIPSTICK. Get excited about primers. But most of all, we love sharing our makeup secrets with you. Why? Because we are a beauty brand born out of a real photo studio—the legendary Smashbox Studios in L.A.—and creating gorgeous looks is what we do here.

SmartWool

By Catalin Zorzini  /  September 11, 2026

Smartwool is a merino wool apparel brand selling socks, base layers, sweaters, fleece and accessories for Women, Men and Kids on a Shopify storefront. The catalogue is organised by activity as well as by category, and product copy repeatedly points to ZQ-certified Merino wool as the material behind the comfort and odor-resistance claims. Prices run from about 18 dollars for socks up toward 200 dollars and higher for outerwear.

Website Design

Poppins as the single typeface. Every typography variable, accent, body, display, heading and subheading, resolves to Poppins, giving headlines and body copy the same rounded, geometric letterforms rather than a serif and sans pairing.

A wide accent palette on a neutral base. Alongside a warm grey neutral scale from near-white f7f7f7 to black, the theme defines named accent colours, a teal-leaning blue 007c92, a mustard green b2bb1e, a burnt orange ff6c10 and a stonebeige f5f5dc, giving different product lines their own colour without a single dominant brand hue.

Activity photography over studio shots. Category and hero imagery favours people hiking, running or skiing in the products rather than flat lay or plain-ground product shots, keeping the site closer to an outdoor lifestyle brand than a lab-coat performance one.

Shopping Experience

A Sock Finder tool. A guided questionnaire helps shoppers pick a sock by activity and fit rather than browsing the full catalogue directly, addressing the size of the sock range on its own.

Gender and age as the primary split. The top-level navigation separates Women, Men and Kids before activity or product type, so a shopper picks who the product is for first.

Material called out at the product level. Listings state “ZQ-certified Merino wool” directly in the copy, for example “Go farther in ZQ-certified Merino wool hike socks,” tying the material claim to the specific product rather than a general About page.

Brand Storytelling

Merino 101 as an education hub. A dedicated section explains the wool itself, separating material education from the sales copy on individual product pages.

Second Cut as a named recycling programme. The site offers a “Recycle Your Socks” option under the Second Cut programme, giving the sustainability claim a specific, named mechanism rather than a general statement.

Sourcing traceability as a repeated detail. ZQ certification and New Zealand growing regions appear across product descriptions, keeping the wool’s origin part of the everyday copy rather than confined to a sustainability page.

Notable Features

Kids’ lines mirror the adult range. Socks, base layers and apparel are offered for Kids alongside Women and Men rather than as a narrower add-on category.

Activity-based landing pages. Run, Hike, Train, Bike and Snow each function as their own entry point into the catalogue, cutting across the Women, Men and Kids split.

Store locator and live chat support. Alongside the online catalogue, the site offers a store locator and live chat, pointing shoppers to physical retail as well as online purchase.

SmartWool Shop Category page example

SmartWool Product page example

SmartWool Checkout page example

SmartWool footer example

GAMETEE

By Catalin Zorzini  /  September 11, 2026

Gametee sells gaming-themed t-shirts, hoodies, tabletop accessories, art prints, dice, stationery and digital gaming maps under the line Unusual and Beautiful Products for the Discerning Gamer Since 2013. It is a UK-registered company (Gametee Ltd, Tamworth) running on Shopify, with free UK shipping over 50 pounds and international pricing switched by a full country and currency selector.

Website Design

A warm, muted palette. Shopify theme variables define a background family running from a light tan (#e7dfd3) down through darker bronze tones (#b19770, #89714b), with a soft sage green (#a5cfaf) set as the accent color, a departure from the darker gothic look of the brand’s older catalogue photography.

A script logo against a serif body. The stylesheet loads two custom fonts by name, Pacifico, a rounded script, and Platypi, a serif, giving the wordmark a handwritten feel against more formal body type.

A deep, categorized mega menu. Navigation splits into Clothing and Special, Board Games, Art and Books, Accessories, Stationery and Digital Content, each expanding into further sub-lists such as Lucky Socks and Foot Clothes, Sharp Edge and Premium Dice Sets, and Digital Gaming Maps.

Shopping Experience

Free shipping stated as a standing perk. A dedicated banner promises free UK mainland shipping on orders over 50 pounds, distinct from the promotional bars used on some peer sites.

A full localization layer. The currency switcher lists well over one hundred countries with matching local currency symbols, from Afghan afghani to Zambian kwacha, alongside a standard login and account creation flow.

Recommendation modules on product pages. Product templates carry both a Recommended for You and a Recently Viewed row beneath the buy box, plus a Customer Reviews block and delivery information organized into expandable Processing Times, Returns, Manufacturer and Sustainability sections.

Brand Storytelling

Craft stated as a value proposition. A homepage column headed Masterfully Crafted repeats the tagline Unusual and Beautiful Products for the Discerning Gamer Since 2013, framing the shop around design quality rather than price or speed.

Licensed and original lines side by side. The catalogue mixes officially licensed merchandise, Oddworld, SOMA, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Failbetter Games, with in-house lines such as Lucky Socks and a Crystal Talismans range, without separating the two visually in navigation.

Notable Features

Water-based, plastic-free printing named on the product page. A t-shirt listing states the garment uses 100 percent water-based printing and recyclable packaging, with the claim written directly into the product description rather than a general sustainability page.

Digital goods alongside physical stock. The Digital Content menu offers 3D models, digital gaming maps, printables and adventure modules for direct download, extending the shop beyond physical merchandise.

A currently valid trading footer. The footer states the current year copyright, Powered by Shopify, and the company’s registered UK address and company number, tying the storefront to a formally registered trading entity.

GAMETEE Shop Category page example

GAMETEE Product page example

GAMETEE Checkout page example

GAMETEE footer example

carhartt

By Catalin Zorzini  /  August 17, 2017

Carhartt Work In Progress (Carhartt WIP) forms a division of the American brand Carhartt, one of the first company’s to pioneer workwear in the USA. Founded in Europe in 1989, 100 years after Hamilton Carhartt established his business in Detroit, Carhartt WIP has been carefully adapting and modifying Carhartt’s core product characteristics for a different audience of consumers who value refined design and quality while still remaining true to Carhartt’s brand origins.