CW Shelf

From Figma to Shopify: what happens before a site goes live

The Figma is approved and the project moves into development. For me that has never been where design ends and development begins. Here’s what actually happens between an approved design and a live Shopify store.

Three weeks of getting it wrong, then three hours of getting it right

Most case studies skip the part where the work does not land. This one is mostly that part. Three weeks going the wrong direction on Tivo, then a workshop and a live design session that changed how we work.

Skye's campaign was ready before the first bar was printed

Skye's packaging redesign was ready, but the launch needed a whole brand world: website imagery, campaign, social, ads. Here's how we built it before the first bar came off the line.

We don't have a house style. That might be making our job harder.

Most great studios have a house style. We don't, and every project starts from a blank page. The honest trade-off of building each brand's visual language from scratch, every single time.

The growth strategy most CPG brands still ignore

Why the fastest-growing CPG brands treat subscriptions as customer experience, not a checkout feature, and where most subscription programs quietly fail.

Beautiful does not mean it sells.

A beautiful website doesn't sell. Lessons from a wave of conversion-focused CPG clients on where design has to bend to make people buy.

Why stock photography is dead for CPG brands

Stock photography was designed to fill gaps, not to carry a brand. When CPG companies use it as their visual foundation, the cracks show fast.

Will Claude design kill designer’s job?

I’m not a designer. I’m a brand strategist. I spend my days sitting between founders and the designers who build their brands, which means I have a front-row seat to the work, but I’m not the one moving the pixels.

Why we let our designers design whatever they want

Why CreativeWise gives designers time to make whatever they want, and how that no-brief freedom shows up in client work.

Brand consistency is level one. Here's what grows a brand.

Consistency is the given. The harder question is how to expand a brand without breaking it.

What makes a good Shopify designer for consumer brands

The design looks incredible in the presentation. Then it gets built and something is off. Here's what separates a good web designer from one who just makes beautiful files.

How to build an AI photo campaign for consumer brands

One good prompt makes one good image. A coherent AI photo campaign needs a creative system. How CPG brands go from forty random images to a brand world.

My client uses AI (and I love it!)

When the client brings the AI references, the brief gets a glow-up. A designer's positive take on AI as a shared starting point, not a replacement.