CANDID COAL PEOPLE · BRAND, E-COMMERCE DESIGN & BUILD
Charcoal first. Shop second
Candid Coal People needed a digital home that could sell artwork without feeling like an online store. I designed and built an editorial e-commerce experience around Derick Thompson’s charcoal drawings, music, and exhibitions, keeping the work visually dominant while building the systems underneath to actually run the business.
CLIENT
Candid Coal People
TOOLS
Figma, Wix, Wix Stores
TIMELINE
Sep - Nov 2026 · Live
TEAM
Sole designer and developer
ROLE
Brand direction
UX/UI design
E-commerce design
Wix development
01
THE DIRECTION
Make the store
disappear into the art.
The challenge wasn’t simply putting artwork online. It was creating a storefront without letting commerce take over the experience.
I kept the interface deliberately quiet: generous artwork, restrained typography, warm paper tones, charcoal neutrals, and a single rust accent. Shopping actions stay easy to find, but they never compete with the work itself.
Artwork gets the scale
Large imagery and generous whitespace make the drawings feel exhibited rather than merchandised.
Commerce stays secondary
Prices, product options, and purchase actions are present when needed, not scattered across every surface.
Personality lives in the details
Dry microcopy, imperfect textures, and restrained visual moments keep the site from drifting into generic gallery language.
Exhibition
The museum show set like a catalog entry: where, when, add to calendar.
DESIGN PRINCIPLES
“Art first” was a hierarchy rule, not just a visual direction.
Let the work breathe.
Avoid dense grids and excessive merchandising.
Make buying obvious, not loud.
Commerce should support the artwork rather than frame it.
Keep the voice human.
No luxury-gallery jargon. No generic e-commerce language.
Build for Derick, too.
The backend needed to stay simple enough to manage without a designer.
02
THE SYSTEM
Editorial browsing.
Real e-commerce underneath.
Wix’s default store architecture could handle transactions, but it didn’t create the browsing experience I wanted.
Instead, I designed custom Prints, Originals, and All Drawings pages as the visual storefront, while letting Wix Store products handle inventory, variants, cart, checkout, and fulfillment underneath.
PRINTS
An accessible way into the work, available in multiple sizes.
ORIGINALS
One-of-one drawings are treated as individual objects, not product variants.
ALL DRAWINGS
A complete view for visitors who simply want to keep looking.
One drawing, two different products.
Some artwork exists as both a print and an original.
Rather than treating “Original” as another size option, I separated originals into standalone products with inventory of one. That kept stock accurate, gave originals the appropriate weight in the experience, and prevented one product page from trying to do two very different jobs.
PRINTS
— Multiple print sizes
— Repeatable inventory
— Accessible price point
ORIGINAL
— Single artwork
— Inventory: 1
— Sold once
Why not use the
default store?
Because the goal wasn’t to make the site feel like a catalog.
The custom browsing layer controls the story and pacing. Wix handles the transaction once someone decides to buy.
03
BEHIND THE STOREFRONT
The storefront is
the easy part.
A polished front end means very little if the person running the shop can’t understand what happens after someone clicks Buy.
I built the operational layer alongside the website: order notifications, inventory logic, customer emails, newsletter signup, discounts, tax, shipping, tracking, and fulfillment.
The result is a system Derick can actually operate himself.
Order flow
01
ORDER PLACED
Customer checks out and receives confirmation.
02
PAID + UNFULFILLED
The order enters Derick’s active queue.
03
PRINT + PACKAGE
Artwork is produced and prepared for shipment.
04
ADD TRACKING
USPS tracking is added in Wix.
05
FUFILLED
Customer receives the shipping update and the order closes.
Email + subscriber system
The same visual voice carries into transactional and marketing touchpoints.
Order confirmation
Clear purchase details without unnecessary clutter.
Shipping notification
Tracking arrives automatically once the order ships.
Newsletter opt-in
Subscribers are added only when they explicitly choose to hear more.
Welcome email
A simple introduction rather than a marketing campaign.
04
THE LAUNCH
From portfolio to
functioning shop.
The site launched publicly in November 2026.
What had started as a place to collect Derick’s artwork became a working storefront immediately, complete with real customers, real fulfillment, and the beginnings of an audience beyond social media.
OUTCOMES
Live. Already selling.
Orders in the first few days
10
Of visits are on mobile
%
84
Designers needed to run it
0
Launched publicly in November 2026.
Orders, payments, email, and fulfillment work end-to-end.
Run day-to-day by the artist, not the designer.
DESIGN TRADEOFF
CHOSE
Platform
over
TRADED AWAY
Custom
A custom build could have pushed the design further, but Derick needed to run orders, inventory, and emails himself. Wix carries the transactions; the custom work stays where visitors can see it.
84% of visits happen on a phone. Designed on desktop, rebuilt for mobile, because that’s where the buyers are.
The artwork still feels like the point.
The commerce is simply there when someone wants to take a piece home.
