I owned the visual direction, design system, and feature-level execution of Shine — the third Shopify theme by SHT — and shaped its identity to serve both brand-driven merchants and scale-minded teams.

Shine was our third Shopify theme — and the first where we decided to build entirely in-house without external creative support. That also meant we needed to push ourselves further in terms of ownership, adaptability, and refinement.

This time, I stepped into a new level of responsibility:

I led the visual design direction of the theme — defining its tone, style, and expression from the ground up — while also building the underlying design system and delivering many of its key features hands-on.

The goal of Shine was to serve sophisticated brands (e.g. fashion, beauty, jewelry) who want to tell stories, convert visitors, and adapt layouts flexibly — without needing heavy customization or a developer.

I defined the visual direction of the entire product

• Created a visual identity that felt premium but neutral — flexible enough to adapt to fashion, beauty, or lifestyle brands
• Built contrast between two visual modes: bold (media-forward, expressive) and minimal (clean, product-focused)
• Balanced commercial UX patterns with editorial aesthetics to reflect the visual language real merchants expect

I designed and built the design system

• Built a complete design system that’s scalable, performance-friendly, and easy to manage by non-designers
• Developed consistent rules around spacing, components, typography, states, and reusability
• Ensured visual polish was baked into the system from day one — not added as a layer on top

I executed feature-level design hands-on

• Designed core product sections (e.g. PDP layout, promotional blocks, trust sections, product storytelling elements)
• Made UX-conscious visual decisions — adapting to multiple catalog sizes (small, mid, and high-SKU)
• Ensured the product felt coherent and usable across homepage, collections, and checkout

• Gained adoption across fashion and beauty verticals
• Became the most visually flexible theme in our portfolio
• Served as the design foundation for future theme customization models
• Helped refine our internal visual design standards and component consistency

Shine proved that visual flexibility + UX structure can coexist — if the system is thoughtful from the start.

• Leading visual direction = more than picking colors. It’s about aligning tone, scale, hierarchy, and reuse.
• A good design system saves time — a great one shapes perception. I built Shine’s system to do both.
• Designing alone doesn’t mean designing in isolation. I had to sync closely with the UX designer to keep experience and appearance tightly connected.
• Trust your taste — and back it with structure. This project taught me how to express creative judgment with confidence and logic.