( By Munawar Khel / Big Drop Inc / 2013–15 / 2 min read )
UrbanSoil
An online grocery store built around provenance.
Pitch, not delivered
Generated schematic, not a screenshot. Real imagery to follow.
( The pitch )
The proposition
An online grocery store built around provenance. Rather than listing produce as commodities, every product card names the farm it came from, and the top-level navigation splits the catalogue by sourcing standard (organic, local, conventional) before it splits by product type. That structure makes the buying decision an ethical and quality one, not just a price one, which is the entire positioning of the brand. The strapline, "made with love for a healthy lifestyle", sets the tone in the utility bar.
Design direction
Warm and editorial, closer to a food magazine than a supermarket. Produce is photographed on rustic weathered wood in natural light, and those photographs do the heavy lifting on a clean off-white ground. A sprout mark and soft green accent carry the brand. Prices are set in large numerals with superscript cents, a grocery convention borrowed and made elegant. Promotional badges sit as folded ribbon corners on the product cards rather than as loud stickers.
What was designed
- Utility bar with brand strapline, store search, login, and sign-up
- Header over produce photography with the sourcing-led navigation (featured items, organic, local, conventional) and a basket showing item count
- Category switch between fruits and vegetables, with a full sub-navigation across seasonal produce, citrus, greens, herbs and chilies, alliums, mushrooms, squash and root vegetables, farm boxes, and specialty
- Product grid by section, each card carrying produce photography, product name, the supplying farm, and price
- Merchandising badges for value size, buy-more-and-save, and staff picks
- Promotional bars cross-selling adjacent categories between product sections
- Repeating section pattern down the page for each produce category, plus a separate landing page treatment
What it demonstrates
E-commerce design where the information architecture carries the brand argument: sorting by sourcing standard rather than by department is a structural decision that makes provenance unavoidable. Also shows product-grid and merchandising systems (badges, promo bars, supplier attribution) and photography-led art direction applied to a high-volume catalogue.
The full record
- Timeline
- October 2013 – October 2015
- Platform
- Responsive website
- Category
- E-commerce, organic and farm-to-table grocery
- Status
- Pitch, not delivered