Luxury stationery for the post-bespoke era.

The problem

Decree Company made bespoke stationery. Letterpress and engraving on heavyweight cotton paper, run on century-old machinery in Raleigh, North Carolina. The product was physical craft — raised ink you could feel, paper with a weight you noticed before you read a word. The soul of the brand was in the tactility.

Translating that into a digital e-commerce experience meant solving a contradiction: how do you sell something defined by its physical presence on a screen? How do you make a product that resists digitization feel authentic and desirable in a digital storefront?

[Inferred — the specific problem framing is constructed from the company’s known market position and the e-commerce challenge of selling tactile luxury goods online.]

The process

Brand architecture

I built the brand around a concept I called “post-bespoke.” The idea: true luxury isn’t about customization for its own sake. It’s the deliberate, the considered, the made-to-last. It’s the Rolls Royce model — luxury that doesn’t shout. In a market saturated with mass-produced “personalized” goods, post-bespoke was a signal: this is different. This is quiet. This is expensive because it’s real.

[Inferred — the “post-bespoke” concept was confirmed by Griffin; the specific framing and execution details are inferred from the design challenge.]

E-commerce UX

The e-commerce flow needed to honor the craft without fetishizing it. I designed bespoke customization flows — paper weight, color, typography, engraving options — presented as an experience rather than a form. Visual storytelling carried the tactile quality: photography that emphasized texture, macro shots of the letterpress impression, the cotton fiber visible at the edge of the card.

Content strategy walked the same line. The copy was reverent but not precious. The product descriptions educated the customer about the craft without turning into a lecture. The brand voice was confident, warm, and specific — never luxury-cliché.

[Inferred — the customization flow and content strategy are inferred from the Creative Director and Content Designer roles; the specific screen designs are not captured in the Squarespace source.]

Agency context

This was a Smashing Boxes client engagement. Tight timeline, fast iteration, design-to-dev handoff under agency constraints. I wore four hats on this project — Creative Director, Brand Architect, Lead UX Designer, Content Designer — which meant the vision stayed consistent from brand strategy to pixel to word.

[Inferred — the multi-role context is from the Squarespace stub; the agency constraints are inferred from the Smashing Boxes timeline.]

The outcome

The e-commerce platform launched with a full bespoke customization flow. The brand was positioned as post-bespoke luxury in a market saturated with mass-produced “personalized” goods. Decree Company has since closed, but the work stands — an exercise in translating physical craft into digital experience, without losing the soul in translation.

[Estimated — the launch outcome is inferred from the scope of the engagement; the company closure is confirmed by web research.]