Santa Cruz Vibes ShopCustom Shopify storefront designed to extend the Santa Cruz Vibes magazine experience into ecommerce.
Extending the Experience
Our work with Santa Cruz Vibes has continued to grow alongside the magazine. After redesigning the publication’s website, the next opportunity was its online shop — an existing Shopify storefront that worked, but felt increasingly separate from the experience we had created for the magazine.
Rather than starting over with a different ecommerce platform, we built a custom Shopify theme around what was already there. The goal was to bring the two sides of Santa Cruz Vibes closer together, carrying the typography, color, and character of the magazine site into a storefront designed around merchandise, subscriptions, and whatever comes next.
When Off-the-Shelf Stops Being Enough
The existing Santa Cruz Vibes shop was built with an off-the-shelf Shopify theme that provided a straightforward way to sell merchandise and subscriptions online. It worked, but as the magazine website evolved into a much more distinctive experience, the shop increasingly felt like a separate destination.
The goal wasn't to change Shopify or rebuild what was already working behind the scenes. It was to create a storefront that felt unmistakably connected to Santa Cruz Vibes while still being designed around the needs of ecommerce.
Bringing the Vibes Into Shopify
The magazine website already had a visual language of its own, so the shop didn't need a new identity. It needed a thoughtful translation of the one we'd already created.
We carried the typography, color palette, navigation, and other familiar details into Shopify, then adapted them around a different kind of experience — browsing products, managing subscriptions, and moving through checkout. The result feels connected to the magazine without asking the two sites to be the same thing.
Built Around the Shop
A consistent visual language was only part of the job. The storefront also needed to make it easy to move from discovering a product to understanding it, choosing the right options, and making a purchase.
We designed the experience around the way Santa Cruz Vibes actually sells — bringing merchandise, magazine subscriptions, and related products together within a Shopify theme that remains straightforward for the team to manage as the shop grows.
The Services Behind This Work
Bringing the shop to life meant thinking beyond how it looked. Design, development, and ecommerce each played a role in creating an experience that felt like Santa Cruz Vibes and worked for the way the team sells online
Web Design
We translated the visual language created for the Santa Cruz Vibes magazine website into a storefront built for a different purpose, carrying familiar typography, color, and character into an experience centered around shopping.
Web Development
We developed a custom Shopify theme from the ground up, translating the new designs into a responsive storefront while integrating the tools and functionality Santa Cruz Vibes already relied on.
Ecommerce
We shaped the shopping experience around the way Santa Cruz Vibes sells online, bringing merchandise and magazine subscriptions together in a storefront that's straightforward for both customers and the team managing it.
Built Around What Makes You Different
Your website shouldn't feel like it could belong to anyone. We create thoughtful digital experiences around what makes your business distinct, from the way it looks to the way it works.