TL;DR
I developed a comprehensive brand and art direction project for a product design company, creating a cohesive visual identity that exudes sophistication and elegance through a custom-designed logo, striking black and white visual aesthetic, custom imagery, and digital brand guidelines.
The brief was straightforward enough: take Contextual from 0 to 1, setting the core interaction patterns and visual system while making a decidedly technical server‑side data product feel clear and approachable for non‑technical e‑commerce marketers.
[Client]
Oak Mont
[Industry]
Fashion
[Service]
Brand Identity
[Year]
2025
Context
In a post-iOS14 world, Shopify merchants were "flying blind." Ad blockers and privacy updates were stripping 30-50% of their data, causing their ad costs (CAC) to skyrocket. This creates a negative feedback loop where weak data steadily makes everything else worse.
The technical solution—Server-Side Tracking—already existed, but it was accessible only to massive enterprises with dedicated engineering teams. Our challenge was to take this complex, developer-heavy technology and package it for the average DTC merchant.
[My core design question]
How do you make an invisible data infrastructure feel tangible, trustworthy, and simple enough for a non‑technical marketing manager to set up in minutes?
Design Strategy:
“Bulletproof” Simplicity
We weren't just building a tool; we were building a "source of truth." My design philosophy focused on three pillars:
[01]
Radical Transparency
Since the product is about data, the UI had to be rigorously clear. No black boxes.
[02]
Visualizing Value
Users don't care about "API Calls"; they care about "Revenue."
[03]
Trust by Default
The aesthetic needed to feel established and secure, distancing us from vaporware and "growth hacky" tools.
The Process
The "No-Code" Onboarding Flow
Setting up a reverse proxy usually means editing DNS records and touching code—an intimidating task for most merchants.
After mapping the technical requirements, the setup was redesigned as a guided, step-by-step onboarding wizard with all required credentials and access clearly outlined.
However, the original checklist approach proved fragile in testing, as merchants could mark steps “complete” even when tasks like DNS configuration were done incorrectly, creating confusion for the merchant later in setup when they couldn’t identify the error.
To fix this, I designed in a live CNAME check before the DNS step can be completed or the flow can finish. If verification fails, the UI shows clear, human-readable error states, reminders that DNS propagation can take up to 48 hours, and common troubleshooting tips. Additional design details—copy-to-clipboard controls, slide-out help drawers for providers like GoDaddy and Cloudflare, status indicators, and confirmation messages—reduced friction and gave merchants more confidence throughout setup.
Design Strategy:
“Bulletproof” Simplicity
We weren't just building a tool; we were building a "source of truth." My design philosophy focused on three pillars:
[one]
Radical Transparency
Since the product is about data, the UI had to be rigorously clear. No black boxes.
[two]
Visualizing Value
Users don't care about "API Calls"; they care about "Revenue."
[three]
Trust by Default
The aesthetic needed to feel established and secure, distancing us from vaporware and "growth hacky" tools.
