NOTE 1 · Cyan only fills
The brand cyan is unreadable as text on latte, so there it only fills buttons. On espresso brown it can carry words.
Receipt · Contrast: cyan on latte 1.8 to 1; cyan on espresso 6.3 to 1 (computed).
OUR OWN COMPANY · STORE
Grumpy Puppy Co.
My own dog-merch store: hoodies, coffee and nine grumpy dogs. It's open, and it hasn't made a sale yet.
grumpypuppyco.com · recorded 2026-09-25
The store takes real payments, so it's shown here as a recording.
Five notes on this site
— HALF A SCREEN LATER —
— 4 SCREENS LATER —
NOTE 2 · No sales, no stars
No orders yet, so the store shows no stars or reviews. It offers 30-day returns instead.
Receipt · The store's returns promise, live since 2026-09-24.
— HALF A SCREEN LATER —
— 4 SCREENS LATER —
NOTE 3 · A cast, not a catalog
Most merch stores look alike. This one has a cast: nine dogs with coffee orders, each given a job on the site.
Receipt · The store's cast file: nine dogs, each with an order and a grievance.
Swipe the dogs.
Nine AI-generated dog characters on tilted cards, each with a name, a breed, a coffee order and a complaint, from Bartleby the pug ("Quad shot. No foam. No eye contact.") to Tank the pit bull ("I look intimidating. I ordered a vanilla latte."). Swipe, or use the Back and Next buttons, to move from card to card.
— HALF A SCREEN LATER —
— 4 SCREENS LATER —
NOTE 4 · Meet, not Shop
Dogs without a hoodie yet say "Meet Sarge", not "Shop". A link to an empty shelf would be a small lie.
Receipt · The store's cast cards, 2026-09-24.
— HALF A SCREEN LATER —
— 4 SCREENS LATER —
NOTE 5 · Money before motion
The first audit's rule: fix the money before the motion. So only the server sets prices now, not the shopper's browser.
Receipt · The store's design audit, 2026-08-02.
— HALF A SCREEN LATER —
— 4 SCREENS LATER —
The challenge
Grumpy Puppy Co. is my own online store: dog hoodies, coffee, and a cast of grumpy dogs. When I audited it on 2026-08-02, it had three unrelated design systems, 18.8 MB of character art with the logo baked in, a checkout that took its price from the browser instead of setting it, and add-ons it showed but never billed. A store like this lives or dies on personality, and a merch store's personality is usually a logo on a product photo. It needed a voice nobody else could sell, and a checkout that charges exactly the price on the page.
What I built
The store is cast with nine dogs, each with a name, a coffee order, a grievance and a job on the site: Sarge guards the shipping promise, Peanut runs the newsletter, and Tank signs off the footer. They all come from one source file, so the voice stays the same everywhere. "The Morning Shift" walks the nine cards past as you scroll; it's a standard pinned scroll carrying original content, and I'd rather say so. Dogs without a hoodie yet say "Meet" instead of "Shop". The colors follow one rule: the brand's cyan fills buttons and bands but never carries text on the latte background, where it can't be read, so prices and headings sit in espresso brown. And following the audit's rule, fix the money before the motion, the checkout was rebuilt so only the server sets the price, and the catalog was cut to what actually exists.
My role
It's mine: the audit, the design system, the build and the art direction. The dogs, the coffee film and the product photos are AI-generated, and they're labeled that way here. The store runs on a content system, so products are added without touching code, and its checkout is Stripe's own hosted page.
- Role
- Audit, design, build, art direction
- Trade
- Online store: dog hoodies and coffee
- Town
- Ships across the US
- Status
- Store open · no sales yet
- Built
- August–September 2026
- Live site
- The store takes real payments, so it's shown here as a recording.
Honest proof
- Character art cut from 18.8 MB to about 1.0 MB; the hero film from 5.5 MB to 244 KB.
- The homepage's first byte arrives in about 0.2 s (measured 2026-09-25).
- Four hoodies at $45.00; embroidery adds $5.
- Prices are set on the server, never taken from the browser.
- Nine dogs, one source file: every card, badge and footer line reads from the same cast.
- No orders yet, so there are no reviews, sales or traffic numbers to show. No competing plans were drawn for this store.
Try it live
The store takes real payments, so it's shown here as a recording. Its link appears here once every order is recorded end to end, from payment to shipping.
Deleted scenes: what I threw out, and why
Every site starts as several competing plans, drafted and critiqued with AI tools. I pick one, and say why.
No competing plans were drawn for this store. What came off it instead:
- Demo products that weren't for sale.
- A "No Talkie" product drop, cut with the rest of the catalog that wasn't real yet.
- Claims about a bandana, mugs, coffee and a rescue donation that weren't backed yet.
- A spinning 3D coffee cup that never shipped.
From the store's audit and launch cleanup, August–September 2026.
Your turn. What's the problem your website has to fix?
Tell me what your customers need to do on your site — call you, book a time, get a price, see your work — and I'll show you how yours should work.
I read every one and reply by email.
yourbusiness.com · not built yet
No two alike. Yours won't be either.