Archives: Websites

Dark Horse is a Cape Town outdoor living brand selling firepits, braais and outdoor kitchen fittings alongside hand-finished fire and pizza tools. The range is organized into the Sonny firepit collection, the Cole outdoor kitchen and standalone Fire Tools and Pizza Tools lines, aimed at homeowners furnishing an outdoor entertaining space. The site is built on Shopify.

Website Design

A black, white and steel palette. The interface carries no color of its own beyond a black top banner and black navigation text on white. Product photography in brushed steel and timber supplies the warmth, with a single gold or tan color swatch appearing as a material option rather than a UI accent.

System fonts throughout. Both headings and body text load the operating system default font stack rather than a custom typeface, so the site reads as plain and utilitarian instead of designed. Category names sit in a light serif-looking system font layered over full-bleed lifestyle photography in the hero band.

Full-width photo banners. Each category page opens with a wide lifestyle photograph, such as a kitchen island scene for Fire Tools, with the category name centered in white over the image.

Shopping Experience

Filterable category grids. The Fire Tools page lists six products in a grid with sidebar filters for in-stock status, price, series and usage, and each card shows a “From R” price and, where reviewed, a star rating.

Accordion product pages. A product page such as the Fire Spade shows the price, a Payflex buy-now-pay-later pill, an Add to Cart button, then three collapsed accordions: Description, Specs and Responsible Design. Color and quantity selectors sit above the accordions.

Standard Shopify checkout. The checkout carries the Dark Horse line-drawing logo at the top, a plain contact and delivery form, and three payment methods: Stitch (covering Apple Pay, Google Pay, Capitec Pay and card), Paygate and bank deposit. The Pay Now button is solid black.

Cross-sell block. Product pages close with a “You may also like” row of three related items before the footer.

Brand Storytelling

Durability as the pitch. Product copy leans on phrases like “The last spade you’ll ever buy” and “Made to last a lifetime,” positioning the range against disposable outdoor gear.

A South African craft note. Copy references the pieces being “Made in Cape Town” and built by hand, with a “Responsible Design” accordion on product pages addressing materials and sourcing rather than burying it in a separate policy page.

Notable Features

Flexible payment at the product level. The Payflex installment option is surfaced directly under the price on product pages, ahead of the Add to Cart button, rather than only appearing at checkout.

Promotional banner and testimonial copy. A rotating top banner runs a shipping discount code, and category pages close with a short block of promotional copy addressing the shopper directly, for example inviting them to shop ahead of a dinner party.

Minimal footer. The footer holds a single Quick Links column (Search, Contact, Shipping, T&Cs) and three social icons, with no newsletter signup or secondary navigation.

Dark Horse Shop Category page example

Dark Horse Product page example

Dark Horse Checkout page example

Dark Horse footer example