The Shopify Story
Role: Design & Motion Lead
Client: Shopify
Defining Shopify’s DNA through a mixed-media film.
I led the visual direction for The Shopify Story, translating the narrative into a cohesive visual and motion language.
My responsibility was to unify twenty years of disparate material - archival footage, photography, merchant-generated content, and new motion - into a single authored expression. The source material spanned formats, eras, and fidelities: merchant UGC, screenshots and screen recordings, legacy footage from past Shopify films, product UI animations, newly captured live action, scanned newspaper clippings, and historical screenshots that required enhancement or partial reconstruction to hold up in a modern video context. Where the archive fell short, we designed new artifacts - including retro email interfaces and close-up code sequences to bridge gaps without breaking authenticity.
System
To bring coherence to our wide range of source material, the visual system prioritized authenticity over polish.
Hand-drawn marker underlines and shapes were physically scanned and animated, introducing a tactile, human texture that reinforced the film’s core values. Motion was intentionally punctuated rather than continuously fluid - favoring purposeful pops of animation to emphasize ideas, while reserving smoother motion language for moments focused on the product itself.
A consistent off-white matte and framing system was used throughout to normalize contrast, isolate artifacts, and allow radically different sources to coexist without competing.
Longevity
This film is not positioned as a retrospective or campaign moment. It lives at the front door of Shopify.
On Shopify.com’s homepage, directly adjacent to the primary Start for free call to action, the film is introduced with a simple prompt: Why we build Shopify.
Rather than leading with features or value propositions, the film establishes our belief first - grounding the product experience in purpose, conviction, and identity before asking users to engage.