I built the Swift Saint website on Shopify using their native web builder, keeping the design minimal and black to let the colorful products stand out and reflect the brand's identity. The site was intentionally simple with essential pages: homepage, collection pages, product pages, checkout, and basic about sections.
Since this was a 6-month experiment, I didn't develop an extensive site like you would for a long-term lifestyle brand. Instead, I focused on flexibility, allowing me to quickly add and adjust products based on sales performance. I paired product images with lifestyle mockups and AI-generated visuals to effectively showcase the items.
Despite its simplicity, the website achieved a sleek, timeless aesthetic. It performed exceptionally well in speed and SEO metrics, driving organic sales alongside paid Facebook traffic. The clean design would have remained relevant for years without requiring updates.
For product development and all website mockups, I used Printify. This print-on-demand service provided blank clothing options while handling all printing, shipping, and order fulfillment.
I chose this approach because it eliminated inventory risk. I could maintain complete flexibility with product testing and design creation. When items didn't sell, there was zero financial risk. I could create anything, invest in targeted advertising, and if it wasn't profitable, simply move to the next concept.
This flexibility was crucial for the website architecture. I built the site to accommodate potentially hundreds of different products while maintaining clarity and simplicity. The seamless integration between Shopify and Printify allowed me to take designs from concept to live product within hours. This streamlined approach enabled me to create and test 72 unique products during Swift Saint's six-month operation.
All illustrations for Swift Saint were hand-drawn by me on my iPad using Procreate.
I focused on creating artwork in my own distinctive style, drawing inspiration from traditional tattoo art mixed with occult themes and medieval imagery. The approach was simple: create designs that resonated with my aesthetic and that I would personally want to wear.
The entire brand emphasized putting my personal artwork on products. I often saw shirts from other brands that I liked but didn't want to purchase because I knew I could create something better suited to my style.
Rather than searching for the perfect shirt, I created it myself. This authentic approach resonated with customers who connected with the hand-crafted quality and distinctive aesthetic of each design.
My design process was strategically streamlined. I began by gathering inspiration and validating current trends on Pinterest, then drew everything on my iPad in Procreate, refining concepts until I achieved the desired result.
Once completed, I brought the illustration into Adobe Illustrator to vectorize it using the image trace tool. Here I added any text or additional visual elements that I preferred not to illustrate directly in Procreate. After preparing the design for print production, I uploaded it to Printify, which instantly generated product mockups that I could seamlessly integrate into my website.
This efficient workflow allowed me to move from initial concept to live product in just hours, which was essential for testing different designs and maintaining a fresh product catalog.
I used Printify for all products with one primary goal: iterate quickly and launch designs within a couple of hours of concept development.
The illustration process was always the most time-intensive phase. I maintained a curated folder of competitor websites and design references, analyzing current trends and then creating my own unique interpretations.
Printify's extensive product catalog was invaluable. They offer everything from apparel like t-shirts, hoodies, and jackets to home goods including coffee mugs, pillows, blankets, and rugs—essentially any printable surface.
They also partner with multiple print suppliers, allowing you to source from different providers to find the optimal products for your brand positioning.
This was my first experience with clothing product design, so much of the process involved experimentation—determining what resonated with customers and learning how Printify's ecosystem integrated with my business model.
Below is a range of products I created and sold through Swift Saint.
Print-on-demand is straightforward: you upload your design to services like Printify or Printful, they digitize it, and print it onto your chosen products using digital presses.
The trade-off is that clothing quality (fabric, stitching) can be inconsistent since they handle all production while you focus on design and marketing. Additionally, cost of goods tends to be higher, making premium pricing challenging when product quality doesn't always justify it.
Despite these limitations, POD is ideal for concept validation. I've consulted with several lifestyle companies and emerging brands, and I consistently recommend starting with print-on-demand. It's the most effective way to deliver physical products to customers and test market demand before committing to inventory investment.
If you have illustration and design capabilities, you can launch a lifestyle brand with zero upfront capital. You can always transition to higher-quality production once you've validated what sells, but POD provides the perfect foundation for market entry.
Since I was launching Swift Saint with no budget, I developed creative solutions for lifestyle photography.
Instead of hiring models and photographers, I sourced stock images and created AI-generated photos of people in lifestyle settings wearing blank black shirts or hoodies. Since my brand aesthetic was already black and white, it was seamless to integrate my designs onto these garments using Photoshop.
This approach delivered professional-looking lifestyle photography for both my website and social media advertising without any monetary investment. I could execute everything in Photoshop, and it performed excellently across all marketing channels.
This resourceful strategy aligned perfectly with the experimental nature of the project—there was no justification for investing in expensive photography when product success was still uncertain.
In Photoshop, I mapped my vectorized illustrations onto the clothing in stock and AI-generated photos using distort and warp tools to naturally fold the designs into garment creases, even when those creases were artificially generated in AI images.
I then refined the lighting and shading using burn and mask tools to achieve maximum realism. Most of my final mockups were virtually indistinguishable from actual photography—certainly convincing enough for social media advertising.
This approach generated professional-grade product photography that required only time and effort as investment. The technical skills I developed creating these mockups have proven valuable for subsequent client projects as well.
