From CSS Master to Shopify Theme Creator: The Whisk Journey with Brenda Storer
“I’ve miraculously made a career out of being really good at CSS.” In this interview, we talk with the creator of the Shopify theme Whisk, Brenda Storer, about their journey from agency life to launching a successful Shopify theme and what’s next in the evolving world of ecommerce.
Intro & Background
Can you tell us a bit about your background? What were you doing before you got into Shopify theme development?
I started out as a graphic designer over 15 years ago, which quickly transitioned into web design, and then transitioned into front-end web development when I fell in love with CSS. I spent my formative years at thoughtbot working on client projects of all sizes, where designers were also responsible for UX research and design, UI design, and the front-end code. I’ve miraculously made a career out of being really good at CSS.
What led you to the world of web design or ecommerce? Was it a gradual evolution or a sudden leap?
My first big web project in 2009 was an e-commerce store on Magento. Magento was rough, but e-commerce was inspiring. I‘ve always been a bit of a shopaholic, so it felt like a space I already had a good grasp on.
Getting into Shopify & Themes
How did you first discover Shopify? What drew you to the platform?
I had heard about Shopify when I was working at thoughtbot, and I was dying to get placed on a Shopify based project, but I didn’t get an opportunity until 2018. I got to help build out a custom theme for mylola.com. I’d worked with several other e-commerce platforms at that point, and also helped build custom Ruby on Rails stores. With Shopify, everything made sense and it was empowering. Not being as strong with back-end development, my skill set was perfect for building themes with liquid.
What made you decide to build a Shopify theme? Was it a personal challenge, a business opportunity, or something else?
It was both a personal challenge AND a business opportunity! I was confident I could pull it off, and I was feeling burnt out from a decade+ of client work. I had been ready to move forward in my career for a few years, but wasn’t sure which direction to go. The traditional paths were to either become a manager or continue on as an individual contributor, but none of those options were inspiring. I’ve been enjoying the challenge of starting my own business.
Your theme Whisk has been in the official Shopify Theme Store for a while now. Looking back, what was the journey like getting it approved and launched, and how has it evolved since then?
It took me a year working on Whisk full time to get it launched in the theme store. The theme was originally rejected on its first submission, at around the 8 month mark. The design was deemed too similar to Dawn. Looking back, I’m proud of how I handled that. I was disappointed for sure, but I took the feedback as an opportunity to make it even stronger for launch.
I was very focused from the start on getting the theme in the store as an MVP, with a smaller feature set so I could get feedback from real users and iterate from there while starting to make money from it as soon as possible. I was completely bootstrapped and lived off of my savings and some loans to get it done.
Since the launch, I’ve grown it a lot and added a ton of features. I think that was the right approach for me at that time with my first theme, but for my next theme, I want it to be more robust from the start.
Creative Process & Philosophy
What’s your approach when designing a new theme? Do you start with a visual idea, a user need, or something else?
I started with what I knew: Food & Drink merchants. I had just finished working on a custom theme for a sustainable grocery store brand, and so I was very familiar with that space and industry. I also wanted to have a design point of view and personality that worked for that industry and beyond, and also made the theme unique.
Do you have a specific type of merchant in mind when designing, or do you aim for versatility?
For Whisk, I was building more for the small to medium merchant — one that doesn’t have a developer or designer on staff, but has grown out of a free theme. Three years ago, there was data from Shopify that showed that these types of merchants were the ones that most often bought paid themes.
I also felt like it would be hard to compete with the established theme partners that have themes that developers and agencies use over and over again. I did build the theme off of Dawn though, hoping that it would be familiar enough for developers to want to work off of. My values also aligned closely with Dawn’s values and approach.
Is there a feature or detail in your theme that you’re particularly proud of? Something people might overlook but you feel makes a big difference?
I’m pretty proud of the way the border shapes fit together seamlessly between sections. I have never received a support ticket where someone was confused about how that works and needed assistance, so I feel really good about not only building something that looks and works great, but that was easy to understand and implement for non-technical merchants.
Shopify & The Ecosystem
What has your experience been like working with the Shopify review team?
Very positive! I was able to go to Unite in 2022, and they had office hours where you could sit down with members of the review team and ask questions and get direct feedback. It was super useful and would be great if Shopify allowed that kind of access again.
I was getting ready to submit the updated version of Whisk after the initial rejection, and one of the reviewers there was the one that rejected my first submission, so I was able to receive very relevant feedback from someone with context. Since then, I haven’t had any direct communication with the review team, but updates have all gone very smoothly. It’s the first one that’s the hardest for sure.
If you could change or improve one thing about the Shopify ecosystem for theme developers, what would it be?
More opportunity for feedback from internal Shopify while designing and developing a theme for the theme store. It’s such a huge upfront investment and we don’t have any real opportunity for feedback along the way. I also think this would lead to better themes that are more relevant to merchant’s needs.
Is there something you’d love to see added to Shopify themes in the future, either technically or in terms of how they’re sold/discovered?
Hot off of the heels of Editions Summer 2025 and the launch of the new free theme Horizon, theme partners are struggling with how to incorporate all of the awesome new features like theme blocks into our current themes. The way things are now, it will break a lot of the theme during the upgrade and there isn’t a way to warn merchants beforehand and that this upgrade requires them to manually update things themselves.
It’s a really poor experience for merchants, and it puts us theme partners in a sticky situation where we have to manage confused and angry support tickets that are asking for help that is outside of our regular support policy. I’m really not sure how best to approach it, but it’s top of my mind as I think we have to incorporate these new features in order to stay competitive.
The Future
Where do you see your theme business going next? Are you planning more themes or exploring other things in the Shopify ecosystem?
I started a new theme last year before I really had a clear vision for it, waiting for the inspiration to come, and decided to put it aside when I got wind that big updates were on the horizon (no pun intended) for themes and the theme store, before we knew what they would be. I’m currently working on custom themes for clients, and also booked my first custom app project for the summer! I hope to get back to the new theme in the next few months, but I think updating Whisk is now going to be my first priority.
What excites you the most about the future of ecommerce right now?
It’s what has always excited me about e-commerce: giving individuals and small businesses the opportunity to sell online with an affordable and professionally designed and built website.
AI & Industry Trends
How do you see AI impacting theme design and development in the next few years? Are you already using it in your workflow?
I see AI as a tool to help humans work more efficiently, and not as a replacement. I had been using Co-pilot with VSCode for years, since it was in beta. I recently found it to be a little too eager with its suggestions – they were getting in the way more than they were helping. I’d like to try Cursor to see if their prompts are more useful.
I’ve also used Claude.ai to help me scaffold a few new features, and I’ve been amazed at how much time that can save. I’ve also used AI for demo store copy, and intend to use it for product imagery on my next demo store. I do not use AI for customer support. That’s a place where I think human interaction is really important.
Shopify recently announced ‘Horizon’ as its new flagship theme, built on a modular ‘theme blocks’ architecture, and introduced an AI-powered, prompt-based system for generating variations of these theme blocks and even entire store designs within Horizon. What are your thoughts on this development, and how do you think it might impact independent theme authors?
I have so many thoughts, and they are still forming, but I will try to narrow it down! As a theme partner, this will absolutely impact our sales, so I am immediately concerned with how to stay relevant and what my revenue might look like in the short term. The AI generation within Horizon will eventually work for any theme with theme blocks, and I’m thrilled that Shopify considered the big picture here and that we can all benefit from this cool feature as well.
Just like Dawn though, Horizon is intentionally generic to work across all industries and stores. Premium themes in the theme store can be more unique to appeal to a particular type of merchant that wants to stand out, or is looking for a unique feature. I built Whisk with that it mind, and I don’t think that has changed. There is still opportunity there.
There’s a tweet I read a few years ago that has stuck in my head whenever I start to panic about AI taking over my job. It said something like, “Until clients know how to ask for what they want, designers will never be out of work.” There’s more to good design than just execution of a command – there’s a human element of communication and experience in solving complex human problems that an algorithm that relies only on prompts can’t fully comprehend to resolve. With that in mind, I predict we’ll see merchants trying to get a result with AI in the theme editor, not getting what they want and not knowing what to ask for to get it, and then coming to designers and developers for help.
Quick Takes
Theme you admire (besides your own)?
The first one that always comes to mind is Shapes. It has such a strong design point of view and is built so well.
Favorite part of theme development: Design, coding, testing, or documentation?
Development 100%.
One piece of advice for someone thinking of submitting a theme to the Shopify marketplace?
It’s not enough to be a good designer or developer. You need to be product focused as once the theme is launched, you are going to become more of a product manager and do more administrative, marketing, and customer service work than design or development. You become a business owner and that should excite you!
