Role
E-Commerce UX Designer | Visual Merchandiser | Product Strategist
Year
2021 - 2023
Applications
Figma, Shopify, Adobe Lightroom, PS, Google Analytics, Excel Sheets, Slack
Brief
Atelier New York is a luxury multi-brand boutique known for its curated avant-garde fashion. Rooted in a culture of limited drops, it offers exclusive pieces in a timely, intentional manner. I joined the team to align collection launch flows with drop schedules, ensuring that high-heat releases were discoverable, visually prioritized, and seamlessly shoppable.
Overview: A Quiet Pursuit of Exclusivity
Atelier New York is an avant-garde, multi-brand luxury boutique known for its sharp selection of conceptual designers and refined craftsmanship—like Rick Owens, Comme des Garçons, and Boris Bidjan Saberi—catering to a global community of fashion collectors who see clothing as cultural identity.
Operating with the principles of drop culture, Atelier offers exclusive capsule collections and hard-to-find releases in its own quiet, restrained approach, aligning with customers who appreciate scarcity and quality while seeking a calm, elevated shopping experience. My goal was to empower Atelier’s global audience to engage seamlessly with product drops while reinforcing the emotional resonance that makes each purchase part of a larger cultural narrative.
Challenge: The Tension Between Urgency and Calm
Atelier’s core audience spans:
Western collectors who seek storytelling, exploration, and an editorial browsing experience, along with
Asian shoppers who value speed, detailed product information, and high-resolution imagery.
The challenge was to design an experience that preserved Atelier’s quiet, timeless identity while accommodating for distinct shopping behaviors supported by the urgency and clarity associated with drop culture.
How do you build a platform that feels like an intimate discovery for Western audiences while delivering the efficiency and precision expected by global shoppers—without compromising the brand’s integrity and intellectual aesthetic?
Design Approach: Restrained Structure for Intentional Browsing
To support drop culture while addressing distinct user needs, I clarified the user journey across product discovery, evaluation, and purchase by restructuring collection flows, PLPs, and PDPs within Shopify’s framework.
Visual System: A Gallery-Like Experience
To reflect Atelier’s sophisticated tone, I developed a gallery-like visual system across color, typography, imagery, layout, and mobile experience.
Color Palette:
Monochromatic (black, white, gray)
Occasional beige or muted neutrals for warmth
Creates a sense of calm, exclusivity, and timelessness
Typography:
Clean, sans-serif fonts (simple, unobtrusive)
Medium to light weight, reflecting a modernist, intellectual aesthetic
Generous white space around text, emphasizing spaciousness
Photography & Product Display:
Flat, neutral backgrounds (often white or gray), focusing solely on the garment
No distracting props or colorful backdrops
Images emphasize texture, drape, and silhouette over styled lifestyle shots
Occasional editorial photography with artistic lighting, shadows, and layered textures to convey mood
Layout and Visual Rhythm:
Spacious, consistent grid preserves a calm, contemplative browsing experience
Large, high-resolution product images act as focal points for storytelling
Consistent aspect ratios and clean alignment maintain rhythm across pages
Subtle hover states reveal alternate angles without disrupting flow
Tone and Content Strategy:
Understated copywriting, focusing on garment construction, material, and designer philosophy
Avoids overt sales language, aligning with the brand ethos
Occasional feature of editorial content or look books, presented quietly to maintain product focus
Mobile Experience:
Mobile site mirrors desktop minimalism with swipe-friendly layouts
Prioritizes product visuals and add-to-cart functionality without clutter
Result: Timely Exclusivity with Contemplative Browsing
The redesign transformed Atelier’s digital presence into an intimate, curated gallery, capturing a restrained yet agile, high-craft user experience that supports high-intent global shoppers in discovering, contemplating, and connecting with garments as objects of cultural and artistic significance.
High-resolution imagery and editorial presentation allow for a deeper appreciation of craftsmanship, material, and silhouette, ensuring each drop becomes a moment of individuality and self-expression.
Key Outcomes:
+18% increase in click-through rate (CTR) on curated hero modules, indicating effective guidance into seasonal collections and designer capsules
+25% faster sell-through rate on limited drops within 48 hours post-launch, driven by prioritization of exclusive drops
+25% faster sell-through rate on limited drops within 48 hours post-launch
Reflection: Quiet Impact
Designing for Atelier reinforced the importance of aligning brand identity with commerce functionality. I learned how design decisions at the micro level—image hierarchy, content rhythm, and subtle indicators—cumulatively shape the macro experience of a brand, demonstrating that urgency and discoverability can coexist with minimalism.
This project also deepened my practice in tailoring design for global audiences with distinct browsing behaviors, balancing editorial discovery for Western collectors with the efficiency and precision valued by Asian shoppers.
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