# UrbanSoil

By Munawar Khel / Big Drop Inc / 2013–15 / 2 min read

Published at https://munawarkhel.com/work/big-drop-inc/urbansoil/

Pitch, not delivered.

An online grocery store built around **provenance**.

- Company: Big Drop Inc
- Timeline: October 2013 – October 2015
- Platform: Responsive website
- Category: E-commerce, organic and farm-to-table grocery
- Status: Pitch, not delivered

## 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.