E-commerce website for ceramic artist Diane McCormick
A modern e-commerce website for ceramic artist Diane McCormick. Designed to showcase the artist's work and allow her to sell online, we created a modern, attractive and user-friendly website using WordPress and WooCommerce.
Diane McCormick in numbers
The challenge: selling one of a kind work
Diane McCormick makes ceramics, and selling them meant markets, galleries and direct messages.
Work that photographs beautifully was reaching a small audience, and commissions arrived by whatever route somebody happened to find. She needed a shop she could run herself between making things, not a system that wanted a developer every time a piece sold.
Ceramics are also hard to sell from a photograph. Scale, weight and glaze are what people respond to in a gallery, and a product page has to work harder to carry any of it.
Then there is stock. Most pieces are one of one, so a shop that lets two people buy the same hare is worse than having no shop at all.
Our approach: gallery, shop, commissions
A shop, a gallery and a way in for commissions, all of it manageable between making things.
The gallery carries the back catalogue, sold work included, because it is the strongest argument for a commission. The shop carries what is available now, grouped into collections so somebody can find a style rather than scroll past everything.
Photography is given room and shown large, with the detail that matters for ceramics: size, glaze and how a piece actually sits. Single edition work is handled as real stock, so a sold piece comes off sale the moment it goes.
WordPress and WooCommerce mean Diane runs the lot herself. Adding a piece, pricing it, listing a workshop date or taking something down are all jobs she does from a phone in the studio, which was the condition the whole build had to meet.
What we built for Diane McCormick
A working artist’s shop, which means quick to update and impossible to get wrong.
Online shop
Original pieces for sale, managed by Diane through WooCommerce, with stock handled properly so a one of a kind piece comes off sale the moment it sells.
Gallery of past work
A back catalogue that had never been online, sold pieces included, because finished work is the best argument for a commission.
Collections
Work grouped into collections, so a visitor can find a style rather than scroll one long list of everything.
Commissions
A route of its own for commission enquiries, which is where the larger pieces and the mural work come from.
Workshops
Workshop dates published and updated by Diane, with no developer needed when one moves.
Run from the studio
Adding a piece, changing a price or taking something down all happen from a phone, which was the condition the build had to meet.
Her own identity
The site follows Diane’s branding rather than a bought theme, so the shop looks like an extension of the work instead of a template with ceramics dropped into it.
The Tech-Spec
WordPress with WooCommerce, which puts stock, pricing and orders somewhere Diane can work without help. Single edition pieces are managed as real stock, so anything sold comes off sale immediately, and the front end follows her own branding rather than a bought theme.
HTML5, SCSS, CSS3, JS
WordPress
WooCommerce, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager
Services on this project
Most of our clients use more than one.
E-commerce
Shops for physical stock, digital products and gift cards, with payments taken securely and stock that stays in step with the shop floor.
→ 02Entry-level websites
A smaller, fixed-price start for a newer business that still has to be built properly, and can be grown into a full build later.
→ 03Maintenance
Updates, backups and security handled quietly in the background, so problems are dealt with before they become urgent.
→More work
A few of the other projects we have built.
