Identity and shop for a ceramics studio that sells out every batch in a day.
Client
Kiln & Co Ceramics
Role
Designer and developer
Year
2023
Team
Solo, with the studio
Kiln & Co
Small-batch stoneware, fired monthly in Porto
Bag000123456789
Batch 31 · fired 2 October
Moss bowl
€38
16 cm · holds 500 ml · dishwasher safe
Glaze
400123456789 left in this batchof 8
Add to bag
Next firing in 6 d 14 h · join the list
Kiln & Co wordmark above three glazed bowls
Fig. 1Kiln & Co wordmark above three glazed bowls
9 min
To sell out the launch batch
3,400
People on the batch waitlist
0
Plugins in the shop
Timeline
10 weeks, start to launch
Identity3 wk
Shop6 wk
Photography2 wk
First release1 wk
W1W3W5W7W9
The problem
The studio fires one kiln a month. Every batch sold out on Instagram in hours, and half the orders arrived as direct messages.
Approach
The shop is built around the batch, not the catalogue. Between firings it is a waitlist and a journal; on release day it is a single page of pieces, each one a photo, a glaze name and a price.
Each release is one page with a time on it, so the studio can announce it a week ahead.
Sold pieces stay on the page in grey. The batch reads as a whole, and you see what went first.
No accounts. The bag holds a piece for ten minutes, about how long a batch takes to sell out.
Fig. 2Release day: one batch, one page.
1Each release is one page with a time on it, so the studio can announce it a week ahead.
2Sold pieces stay on the page in grey. The batch reads as a whole, and you see what went first.
3No accounts. The bag holds a piece for ten minutes, about how long a batch takes to sell out.
Details
The wordmark is drawn from the studio's stamp. Glaze names are set in the same face, so a label on the shelf and a line in the shop match.
The stamp is pressed into every pot, so it had to hold up at 14mm in clay.
Glaze names match the labels on the studio's own buckets.
Fig. 3Wordmark, stamp and glaze labels.
1The stamp is pressed into every pot, so it had to hold up at 14mm in clay.
2Glaze names match the labels on the studio's own buckets.
“The shop sells out in a day now and nobody emails us asking whether a bowl is still there. The batch counter did that.”
