Project Overview
Client: Family-owned natural skincare brand
Timeline: 3 weeks (June 2025)
Location: Created during military deployment in Cuba
My Role: Everything—branding, logo design, web design, development, and Shopify integration
Deliverables: Single landing page website with QR code functionality
The Brief
Wholly Cow Tallow is a small family business selling grass-fed tallow skincare products at farmers markets around the area. They already had a Shopify point-of-sale system for in-person transactions, but wanted something dead simple: a website where customers could scan a QR code at their booth and purchase online.
Here's the thing—they didn't want a massive e-commerce operation. They like being small. They like their farmers market community. The website wasn't meant to convince anyone to buy; if you're scanning the QR code, you already know about them. You're already sold. You just want to make a purchase without digging for cash.
So that's what I built: one landing page. Product card. Simple explainer. That's it. No blog. No elaborate SEO strategy. No email funnels. Just a clean, functional page that gets out of the way and lets people buy tallow.
The Design Approach
The design needed to feel natural, trustworthy, and simple—like the product itself. Grass-fed tallow isn't some high-tech innovation; it's been around forever. The branding needed to reflect that heritage while still feeling modern enough for 2025.
I went with earth tones, clean typography, and a soft felt texture that became the signature of the brand. That texture appears throughout the logo, the website, and the packaging—giving everything this handmade, tactile quality. The logo integrates the brand name directly into a playful cow illustration with hand-drawn lettering that feels approachable and fun.
The website itself is brutally minimal. Hero image, product card with Shopify Buy Button integration, a brief "what is tallow?" explainer section, and that's it. Mobile-first design because let's be real—everyone's scanning that QR code on their phone at the market.
Technical Implementation
Platform: Static HTML/CSS/JavaScript with Shopify Buy Button SDK
Why this stack? The client didn't need (or want) a full Shopify storefront with themes and templates. They just needed a simple page that could process payments. Shopify's Buy Button SDK was perfect—embed a product card anywhere, handle all the checkout/payment processing through Shopify, and keep the frontend dead simple.
Hosting: Deployed on Vercel with continuous deployment from GitHub. Fast, reliable, and way cheaper than maintaining a full e-commerce platform.
Mobile Optimization: The entire site was designed mobile-first since 95% of traffic comes from QR code scans at farmers markets. Touch-friendly buttons, large product images, and streamlined checkout flow.
The Branding Process
Starting from scratch with branding is always fun. The family had a name—Wholly Cow Tallow—which is honestly perfect. A little punny, memorable, and instantly tells you what the product is.
I worked on this entire project during my military deployment in Cuba. I'd get off work, head back to my dorm, and spend my evenings creating. Sketching cow variations. Playing with typography. Figuring out how to make a cow look friendly but not too cartoonish. The final logo integrates the brand name directly into the cow's body with playful hand-drawn lettering.
The key branding element that tied everything together was this soft felt texture. It appears on the logo, throughout the website, on packaging—everywhere. It gives the brand this tactile, handmade quality that perfectly matches what they're selling: simple, natural, traditional skincare.
Color palette was easy: earth tones with pops of purple and pink. Warm browns, soft creams, natural greens. The kind of colors you'd see at a farmers market. I created a simple brand style guide so they could maintain consistency across all their materials.
Challenges & Solutions
The client wanted minimal, but I still needed to include essential e-commerce elements: product info, pricing, add to cart, checkout. The solution was using Shopify's Buy Button SDK, which handles all the cart/checkout complexity while letting me keep the frontend clean.
Nearly all traffic comes from phones scanning a QR code. The site needed to load fast and be immediately usable. I optimized images, minimized JavaScript, and made sure every button was thumb-friendly. First Contentful Paint under 1.5 seconds even on slower connections.
Even though customers already know the product, they're still entering payment info online. I included subtle trust signals: ingredient transparency, a brief "our story" section, and clear product photos. Just enough to feel legitimate without cluttering the experience.
What I Learned
This was one of those rare projects where less is genuinely more. My instinct as a developer is always to add features, build systems, plan for scale. But sometimes the best solution is the simplest one.
The client didn't need a CMS. They didn't need user accounts or email automation or any of the typical e-commerce bells and whistles. They needed a single page that worked perfectly on mobile and got out of the way. That constraint forced me to really think about what was essential versus what was just...nice to have.
It also reminded me how much I enjoy the full creative process—starting with nothing (literally just a name and a product) and ending with a complete brand identity and functional website. Branding, design, development, deployment. The whole thing. There's something satisfying about that level of ownership over a project.
Plus, I got free tallow balm out of it, which I now use daily. So there's that.