Free masterclass
From Shopify-curious to Shopify specialist
For web designers who love product-based brands, have very particular opinions about typography, and want Shopify to become the thing they’re known for.
Become the “oh, you HAVE to hire her” Shopify designer.
Become the Shopify girl in a group chat full of Showit designers. I’ll show you my method for getting custom, “wait, YOU built that?” results on Shopify and making it a profitable specialty for your solo studio (yes, even if your last attempt looked suspiciously like the theme demo).
Taught by Julia Dennis
Founder of Bungalow Creative, Shopify Select Partner, designer behind stores for brands featured in Vogue, Vanity Fair & Glamour, + fellow solopreneur with extremely strong feelings about spacing.
Can we talk about how everyone’s a web designer now?
You open Instagram and wonder if everyone took the same “make $837,594 from your couch with web design” course.
Meanwhile, AI and the college student down the street who just discovered Canva Sites are getting a little too comfortable doing the simpler five-page services sites you used to get hired for.
So you’re wondering what to get known for, beyond being another designer with excellent font taste and a “now booking” Instagram story.
And in reality, just being "really good" at web design is getting to be less and less of a reason to book you.
Especially when everyone’s services page says some version of “strategic websites for heart-led brands”.
So now's the time to start taking the specialty thing seriously. And you know what's a specialty? Being the go-to person who builds really high-converting, really cute Shopify stores for their dream clients.
This free class is for you if…
- It's not your first time at the web design rodeo: you've got at least a few client projects under your belt, and you understand web design basics pretty well.
- You've been drooling over all the cute product-based brands out there and dreaming about the day that you get to work for them.
- Perhaps you've had experience with some half-baked solution like Squarespace Commerce and it was...lacking to say the least
- You want your Shopify builds to look like your work, with all the thoughtful layouts and picky little details you’d bring to a Showit or Squarespace site.
- You're ready for better-paid projects, and want to scale your studio, but not necessarily in a way that means "build out a whole agency and scrap the design work to be a people manager"
If you’ve done the whole five-page services site thing and keep wondering “okay, what’s next?”, this is your next step.
And here's my little note of encouragement: you may have heard (or experienced) that Shopify kinda sucks to design on after getting used to the freedom of something like Showit, but in this class I'm going to show you otherwise.
Because nothing's more painful than coming to a platform with design taste that's on point and then...not being able to execute on that vision. 🥲
Inside the workshop…
First, you're going to have a "eureka" moment when you understand WHY Shopify might seem so intimidating to really get into at first, and the (weirdly straightforward) antidote to it.
This part is going to give you a permission slip (and explicit how-to) for jumping into the platform in a way that 1. makes you say "oohhhh, that makes so much sense" and 2. won't let your first eCom clients down (because I know we're all people pleasers here).
Then, you're getting my secret sauce for designing in Shopify in a way that's as fun as Squarespace or Showit (and I weirdly see like NOBODY in the industry using?!)
I'll walk you through the exact method that I use to break free of what I lovingly like to call Shopify's "theme jail", speed up your Shopify process so that your projects become insanely profitable, and deliver super-custom, agency-quality Shopify stores to your clients that beget a whole lot of growth and goodness for your studio.
And you’ll walk away with a really clear, actionable path to making Shopify a specialty of yours.
Once we've covered building on the platform, we'll chat all about selling and delivering your services on it. I'm giving you the exact way I structure my Shopify packages and proposals for maximum repeatability while still accounting for the variation in what eCom clients need. This approach = an easy-breezy, low-overhead way of offering Shopify.
I’ll even show you the specific things that make clients happy to click "Book Now" on solo Shopify projects worth $8k–$30k.
Because if you’re picturing a five-page services site with an Add to Cart button layered on top, we should probably have this conversation.
You'll get a lot out of this if…
- You’re already a brand or web designer, and you've been flirting with the idea of really taking Shopify seriously.
- You’ve never built on Shopify OR you’ve done a few projects on it and thought, “UGH, why was that so soul sucking?".
- You pride yourself on the quality of your design...and kinda get really frustrated when something inhibits that design taste.
- You want practical guidance on the design and the business side of Shopify, because thinking about sending a proposal when you barely know the platform kinda makes you nauseous.
You might not get as much out of this if…
- You’re a store owner looking for a tutorial on setting up your own shop.
- You’re starting from scratch with web design and need to learn the fundamentals first.
- You want advanced Liquid development or training in building Shopify themes from scratch.
- You’re looking for dropshipping tactics, product ideas, or advice on running an eCom brand.
Your bonus for showing up live
Let’s figure out what getting into Shopify looks like for your studio in particular.
Show up to the training live and you’ll get a free, casual, 30-minute Shopify specialization coaching call with me.
We’ll take a look at your experience, where your studio is at, and what’s currently making Shopify feel like a bigger leap than it needs to be.
Then we'll map out a plan that suits your unique strengths and goals so that you know where to best spend your energy on Shopify.
Hi, I’m Julia!
Shopify designer, founder of Bungalow Creative, and your new Shopify bestie.
I came to Shopify with a branding + generic web design background—and with REALLY particular design taste.
Today, I’m a Shopify Select Partner, I design stores for brands featured in Vogue, Vanity Fair, and Glamour, and I help other designers make Shopify a specialty in their own studios.
Over 7 years of offering Shopify, I’ve seen how super talented designers go through the same rigamarole: they open Shopify, say what the HECKY, why can't I make this look how I want it to look? Why is my client asking about if they need to charge VAT on candles being shipped to Norway?!
I’ve also seen what happens when they have a Shopify design approach that allows their creative juices to ~flow~, and a suite of Shopify services that makes scaling their studio stress-free.
I’ll show you how I build the “wait, YOU did that on Shopify?” stores, be really clear about what’s included in a project, and give people a reason to send their friend with the cute skincare brand my way. You can borrow all of it. Including where I draw the line (somewhere well before Norwegian candle tax).
A note from Julia
In 2019, I said yes to my first Shopify project with a picky designer’s eye and a very optimistic “whatever, I’ll figure it out” attitude.
I mean, I basically thought it'd probably be just like Squarespace with a shopping cart, right? (a bold theory, poorly researched).
I wanted to make my client a beautiful store. Buuuut I hadn’t quite clocked how many other things could easily get bundled into “a Shopify website,” or how quickly I’d find myself responsible for work I hadn’t properly understood (or scoped, or priced).
And then there was the whole issue of getting the thing to look how I wanted.
That was a lesson learnt. And over the years of building Shopify sites for clients, I've learned a LOT of things the hard way.
But then I eventually figured out a way of working on the platform that suited MY preferred way of working, and a way of offering Shopify in a way that multiplied the success of my little studio.
Within a year of that first project, my average web design rate and my referrals had both nearly doubled.
I REALLY wish someone had shown me this approach at the beginning.
If specializing in Shopify has been floating around on your “one day” list (or you’ve tried it and wondered why everyone else seems to be having a better time), come along. There’s a lot I’d love to show you.
Julia x
Let’s give your design friends somewhere to send their Shopify inquiries.
We'll be going through these key steps to make this a reality for you:
01. Know what you’re getting yourself hired for.
“A Shopify website” can mean wildly different things to different clients, and if you don't use the one little simple yet effective line I'm giving you in this presentation, you might end up on the hook for a whole lotta unexpected deliverables.
I’ll show you how to clearly define your part before someone casually drops “and a custom subscription engine” to the conversation.
02. Get your picky little design hands on Shopify.
So that you can bring your gorgeous design vision to life on Shopify (and charge accordingly). I'm showing you the approach that I wish I took on day one of designing on Shopify. Spoiler alert: side effects include not needing to shell out $400 for a premium theme, and not needing to email your client about how "we can only stick to this set of 20 layouts".
03. Get paid to do work for the clients you keep buying candles from.
Your portfolio might still be giving wedding photographers, but your next service doesn’t have to. But how do you get the inquiries first of all AND THEN send a proposal that makes you a little giddy about the project?
We'll abandon your "shooting from the hip" approach to specializing in Shopify in favor of one that's predictable, proven, and profitable.
Your design taste would look really good on Shopify.
Join the FREE masterclass From Shopify-Curious to Shopify Specialist and learn my method for designing and booking work in one of the most exciting web design platforms at the moment.
Join live and get your free, no-pitch, 30-minute Shopify coaching call with Julia.
