Kougou Stationery is a business focused on selling stationery specifically for business women. The online storefront utilizes Shopify’s theme framework, Timber, and is written in HTML, CSS, Liquid, and Javascript.
I wanted my customers to feel confident and proud when using my products, just like an Empress. Therefore, I named the company Kougou, which means “Empress” in Japanese. When creating Kougou’s logo, the design was based off of the official seal of the Emperor of Japan and uses the Japanese characters for Kougou as the center. To complement Kougou’s characteristics, I chose bold colors and elegant typefaces that exuded confidence.
I created a line of high-end notebooks because there are hardly any options geared towards business women in the current market space. Notebooks created for these business women are too embellished and immature for a professional setting and the unisex options are too bland. Thus, my goal was to create simple, elegant designs that business women could confidently use in any type of setting.
I extensively researched the Japanese Imperial Family, particularly the royal symbols and artifacts, for design inspirations. For example, the Kikuya design is modeled off of the chrysanthemum flower because the flower is recognized as the emblem of the Japanese imperial family.
When designing the layout of the website, the main focus was to create an effortless experience for a user to view and purchase items. Using a side navigation bar with an accordion menu for product categories allowed fluid transition between pages and easy access to the shopping cart. Having a shopping cart slider removed unnecessary navigation and gave users the ability to quickly review their cart items.
The final eCommerce website was built on Shopify’s theme framework, Timber, and developed with Shopify’s template language, Liquid, HTML, CSS, and Javascript. I did not have any prior experience to Liquid nor Javascript. However, I was able to work with the framework to build the website. This project was definitely a great accomplishment and building Shopify themes is something I could get into.
