Marije Rottier.
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Case 07 / 07 · E-commerce · Brand

Haul & Stash

A vintage web shop that feels like discovering something, not scrolling a catalogue. From brand and homepage to a system that lets one person run the whole shop.

Role
Founder, brand, UX/UI, build
Type
E-commerce, identity
Timeline
May to July 2026
Status
Launching February 2027
A tilted collage of Haul and Stash: the homepage, the brand guidelines, the wordmark and the colour study
Brand guidelines, wordmark, colour study and the homepage, all made by one person.
Problem

Selling vintage online without the catalogue feel of Depop and Vinted, as one person with no studio and no budget.

What I did

Three months of brand work, two homepage versions, and a listing system where Claude drafts and I review every product.

Outcome

A brand and a site ready for a February 2027 launch. Not yet tested with shoppers.

01

Context

The challenge

Selling vintage online without the catalogue feel

Selling vintage online means fighting commodity pricing, algorithms and the sameness of Depop and Vinted. Haul & Stash sells at most 20 pieces at a time. Scarcity is a choice here, not a problem. And everything had to work for one person: no studio, no photographer, no budget.

Design a shop that feels like discovering something, not scrolling a catalogue.

Research

What others do, and why it doesn't fit

  • Depop and VintedGrids full of prices, no voice of their own.
  • Big CartelTemplate feel. Fine for crafts, wrong register for curated vintage.
  • Farfetch and VestiaireLuxury and editorial, but cold and transactional.

Insight. Good editorial sites slow you down and make you look. Buying vintage should feel like that, so the design had to resist efficiency on purpose.

02

Process

Brand

Brand first, screens second

Three months of brand exploration before a single product page existed: six colour directions, a wordmark where one character does all the work, and guidelines for voice and use.

Haul and Stash brand guidelines
The brand guidelines. Voice, logo, colour and touchpoints in one document, so every future product page stays consistent.
Colour study with orange and blue at different strengths
The colour study. Six directions on the same orange and blue axis; terracotta won over bright orange because it reads warm, not loud.
Haul and Stash wordmark on white and on midnight blue
The wordmark. Widely spaced capitals, and an italic ampersand that does all the work.

Identity

Warm, not clinical

Bone#F4F0E9
Midnight#0E1E3A
Terra#C45030
Sand#E5DCCD
Stone#A89F92

Cormorant Garamond italic for editorial moments, DM Sans for navigation, prices and labels.

Design decisions

What changed, and why

  1. A full-bleed photo, text bottom left

    The homepage behaves like the opening pages of a magazine.

    WhyThe eye rests bottom left after scanning a large image. The photography gets to lead.

  2. Image 58%, products 42%

    Below the opening, a large image next to a short product list.

    Why50/50 suggests both matter equally. The image leads, without the list turning into a sidebar.

  3. Navigation that expresses intent

    To Wear, To Keep and To Come instead of Clothing, Objects and New.

    WhyYou choose what you want to do, not which box something sits in.

  4. Sold pieces stay visible

    Everything that has sold lives under Gone.

    WhyMost shops hide sold items. Here they're proof of quality and pace: honest scarcity, because every piece really is one of a kind.

Iteration

From version 2 to version 3

Version 2 was a clean 50/50 opening: image left, text right. Beautiful, but too static for a shop.

What worked in v2

  • Clear typographic hierarchy
  • Minimal, confident navigation
  • The brand tone landed from the first screen

What didn't

  • No products visible above the fold
  • The text column felt underloaded
  • Nothing pulled you further down the page
03

Outcome

The shop

Ready for launch

A homepage that opens like a magazine, with the shop one scroll away.

Haul and Stash homepage with a full-bleed photo
The homepage. Bottom left, “Found things worth keeping” sits where the eye rests after the photo.

AI in my process

An AI feature with a human in the loop

No Shopify, no developer. A system I designed, built and kept testing until it ran the same way every time.

  1. Step 1

    Photo

    Product photo edited and dropped into a set folder.

  2. Step 2

    Copy

    Claude drafts a product description in the brand's voice.

  3. Step 3

    Payment link

    A Stripe payment link is created per piece.

  4. Step 4

    Review, then live

    I read and edit every listing before it appears on the site.

Every product must have a name, era, origin, condition, size and price, so no listing slips through without context.

Where it stands

Delivered

  • A complete brand: logo, palette, typography, voice and guidelines
  • Two homepage versions, with the trade-offs documented
  • A site ready for launch, with no hosting costs
  • An automation system from product photo to a product page with payment link, ready for review
04

Reflection

What I'd do differently

  1. Put shoppers in front of it earlier

    Version 2 showed no products above the fold, and I only saw that after building it. Next time I'd test each homepage version with a few vintage buyers before building the next one.

  2. Question my own popup

    The newsletter popup opens by itself after four seconds. On a site designed to slow you down, that may be exactly the interruption it argues against. I'd test it against an inline signup before launch.

  3. Draw the line on scarcity in writing

    Scarcity is honest here because each piece is unique. I'd write down where that stops, so countdowns or fake “only 1 left” labels never creep in later.