I had the pleasure of creating a fresh new website for publishers Wolsak & Wynn of Hamilton, launched in January of 2018. This indie publishing company had an existing website and database that was a challenge for them to upate, and while it had an online purchasing tool, this too was not comfortable to use. The site felt static and dated, and did not adequately highlight the gorgeous, award-winning cover art this publisher is putting out in the world.

Our solution was a hybrid site, really two sites built on two platforms: a main information site built on Squarespace, for news, events, and a complete list of authors; and a commerce site built on Shopify which makes all of their current books in print available for purchase online. While Squarespace does offer e-commerce on their platform, Shopify is far more robust and flexible, with customizable shipping options and deep ROI and accounting tools. The challenge as a designer was to make both sites look and feel — and function — as one.

I chose a bright and cheerful colour palette which sings with the vivid and varied cover designs coming out of the press. Working with alternating solid colour and white page backgrounds keeps things lively to look without setting up design complications between the two sites. Because the two platforms have very different design constraints, simplicity was key.

Book buyers and perusers report ease of navigation, search, and use, and book sales are up! A successful and satisfying project all around.