Concept — Artist / Commissions
Northlight Studio
A one-person studio selling original artwork and taking custom commissions, where every finished piece is a single unit and every commission starts as a conversation, not a cart.
The problem
Stock store themes are built for restockable inventory. They oversell the last one, bury the details that matter to a buyer, and make a $2,400 original read like a $40 print.
- Next.js
- Commerce
- Commission intake
What it does
- Dark editorial grid where the artwork carries the page — every image is the actual piece, shot square and uncropped
- Per-piece stock caps enforced server-side, so an original cannot be sold twice
- Commission intake that captures size, medium, budget and reference images before a single reply is written
- Medium, dimensions, and framing stated plainly on every listing instead of hidden in a spec tab
The gallery
The artwork is the page.
Near-black ground, generous card padding, and a serif that treats a canvas like an object worth owning. Whitespace is the single biggest lever on perceived price, and stock themes spend all of it on badges.
Originals
One-of-one, handled correctly.
Stock caps live in the catalog and are checked server-side on every order, so the last piece cannot be sold twice. ‘Sold’ is a real state, not a marketing sticker.
Commissions
A brief, not a checkout.
Custom work starts with a form that asks the right questions — size, medium, timeline, budget, reference images — so the first reply is a real quote instead of four emails of back-and-forth. Deposit is arranged directly once the scope is agreed.
Light theme
The same gallery, in daylight.
One build, two themes, chosen from the visitor’s own system setting and overridable in the header. The dark ground flatters the work; the light one is what people actually browse on a phone outdoors. Both are designed, not inverted — spacing, borders and the gold accent are re-tuned so the light theme reads as its own room rather than a washed-out copy.
Next concept
Halo & Vine