Shopify website design for a brand new restaurant concept, from a client we've worked with for over six years.
The Relationship
We've been working with Cousins Maine Lobster for more than six years. So when Jim and Sabin decided to launch their next concept, a New England style fried seafood truck called Cousins Fried Seafood, starting out in Louisville, Kentucky, they brought it to the team that already knew their business inside and out.
Projects like this one are why we do what we do. A founder we trust, a blank page, and a brand with plenty of room to grow.
The Brief
A food truck brand lives or dies on whether people can find it. So this had to be more than a menu online. The Shopify store needed to introduce a brand new concept to people who had never heard of it, and it needed to keep working as trucks roll into new cities.
The branding phase had already produced a strong identity. The lighthouse badge, the illustrated lobster, the hand drawn New England character. Our job was to expand that foundation into a full brand world, then turn it into a Shopify store that works as hard as the trucks do.
The Work
Art direction
We took the brand system well past the original identity, with custom illustration, badge and iconography treatments, and a visual language that feels like a Maine dockside stand landed in your neighborhood. You'll find it in every section of the store, from the animated truck down to the lobster holding a phone in the email signup block.
Custom Shopify theme development
No templates here. We designed and built a fully custom theme for this brand alone, with a homepage that introduces the concept, shows off the menu, and gets people to a truck.
Restaurant website design
Food trucks have different needs than a typical Shopify store, and we built for them. Location and schedule pages tell customers where the trucks are serving next, city by city. The menu showcase was designed around platters and sandwiches rather than a product grid. There's catering and truck booking, a careers page, and online ordering through Toast, integrated cleanly with the Shopify store.
Built to scale
Louisville is the first market. We structured the store so new cities, new schedules, and new menus can be added as the concept grows, without rebuilding anything.
The Outcome
Cousins Fried Seafood launched with a Shopify store that makes people hungry, tells them where to find the truck, and makes a brand new concept feel like it's been around for years. As the trucks expand into new neighborhoods, the store is ready to grow with them.
Conspire is a Shopify Plus agency in Los Angeles. This was our sixth year working with the Cousins, and year one of their next big thing.
