Fashion and accessories Manila
Not So Mundane Studios sells totes and caps from Manila around one clear idea: highlighting the ordinary things in life. It comes through in Instagram, customer photographs and collection names, yet the shop uses a standard template. We wanted a store its owner would prefer: instantly recognisable as the brand and ready to help someone choose and order a piece.
The direction comes from the brand itself: errands, coffee and slow afternoons. Courier Prime recalls receipts and shopping lists; VT323 evokes the 1990s screens behind its best-known collection. The photographs are the brand’s own, with a consistent colour treatment. Text sits over the imagery without being cut off, and labels without a purpose were removed.
Each stage addressed a specific problem. These are real screenshots of each version.
01 First homepage
A 3D ring of photographs sat beneath heavy italic type. It followed trends rather than the brand. One question settled it: would the owner prefer it to the current website? No.
02 Brand concepts
We drew six principles from Instagram and tried moods such as what’s your status today? and sunset at six. They had intent, but no functioning shop: buttons went nowhere and phrases needed decoding.
03 Complete shop
Homepage, filtered shop, product pages, bag and checkout used the real terms: GCash, Maya, bank transfer and J&T. A separate review scored it 7 out of 10 against references: competent and generic.
04 Generated sketches
Three AI-generated homepages featuring the real products showed the missing compositional level. But a brand built on authenticity needed real scenes. We kept the compositions and discarded the generated images.
05 Real photographs only
We rebuilt the homepage with the brand’s photographs and consistent colour treatment. Small photographs inside a sentence worked once; repeated throughout the page, they stopped adding meaning.
06 The reference board
A board held 35 sections from seven editorial templates and five typefaces, each justified by the brand. The final choice was specific: Courier Prime, VT323 and eight sections.
07 Final version
Courier organises the website like a receipt; VT323 marks the numbers. The shop becomes a collection guide, the product page a photo strip and the bag a receipt filled in as you go.
The opening photograph starts small beneath the brand name and grows to fill the screen as you scroll: ordinary things seen up close.
Each collection has one word over its photograph. Text gives the order and imagery supports it.
The shop is a collection guide on squared paper. Rows with an odd number of pieces remain centred.
The bag reads like a receipt: quantities, payment and shipping in typewriter text, with one black order button. Other action buttons share that same language.
On mobile, the city ribbon — from manila to tokyo, taipei and denmark — changes sizes and heights so the photographs keep their presence. Navigation stays on one centred line and the header changes colour to suit the background beneath it.
Tap a photograph within the opening sentence to enlarge it; close it with the X, Escape or a tap outside. Ordering steps type themselves like a receipt as they enter the screen. Changing bag quantities updates the order button total. Confirmation identifies the concept and directs real orders to @notsomundanestudios.