Marianne Ferguson on turning a creative calling into a Shopify theme business
Before launching one of the most refined themes on the Shopify Theme Store, Marianne Ferguson was leading Customer Experience at luxury fashion houses like Burberry. Her path into theme development wasn’t a straight line, but it was always rooted in creativity, empathy, and a deep understanding of what makes customers tick.
In this interview, Marianne shares how she taught herself to code, what drew her to ecommerce, and how co-founding Ultramarina with Nic helped turn a long-standing idea into Primavera — a Shopify theme designed with both elegance and utility in mind.
Intro & Background
Can you tell us a bit about your background? What were you doing before you got into Shopify theme development?
Before I taught myself to code in 2016, I led Customer Experience for luxury brands (Burberry alumni here!). I’d always seen myself as a creative at heart, but apart from playing in bands at weekends and dabbling in music production, I never thought I could turn creativity into a full-time career.
At first, web development felt worlds apart from customer service, but over time I realized how much those worlds intersect — empathy, attention to detail and obsession with user experience are all qualities that help me build better products. Now, designing Shopify themes for luxury brands feels like the perfect blend of both sides of my background: technical creativity with a deep understanding of what makes customers happy.
What led you to the world of web design & ecommerce? Was it a gradual evolution or a sudden leap?
It was definitely a gradual evolution. Like many developers, I got my start in the WordPress world. After a short course in HTML and CSS, I began taking on freelance work, building custom WordPress themes and working with agencies here and there.
Around 2018–2019, I started seeing more Shopify projects come my way. I began freelancing for a few Shopify agencies (one of which is where I met my now co-founder, Nic!), and by 2021, I launched my own consultancy, Ultrafine. That allowed me to work directly with clients across strategy, design, development, and CRO.
What really drew me to ecommerce was how alive and human it feels. I’m fascinated by consumer psychology, and in ecommerce, every design or code decision has a real impact. It’s fast-paced, measurable, and deeply creative — I love that blend.
Getting into Shopify & Themes
How did you first discover Shopify? What drew you to the platform?
I’d shopped on plenty of Shopify stores and was aware of the platform from a customer perspective, but it wasn’t until a project landed in my inbox around 2018 that I took a serious look at it as a developer.
At first, Liquid felt a bit daunting. I was still fairly new to development and it wasn’t clear how much flexibility you really had when building on Shopify. A lot of Shopify stores looked a bit “template-y,” and I didn’t understand where the creative boundaries were yet. But as I started working with it, I quickly realized how powerful and flexible the platform could be.
What made you decide to build a Shopify theme? Was it a personal challenge, a business opportunity, or something else?
Building a theme had been on my mind for over five years before Primavera. I’d always wanted to create a product — services are fulfilling, but a product feels like a longer-term investment, something you can shape and evolve over time. I’d actually gone through several design iterations over the years, but balancing consulting with building a theme wasn’t always compatible.
Then in August last year, I reconnected with Nic and shared what I’d been working on. She was excited about the idea of co-creating the theme, and that was the moment everything clicked into place. Having her as a partner brought fresh energy and momentum, and we formally founded our theme studio, Ultramarina, in order to release Primavera.
While we initially divided responsibilities based on our main strengths and interests, with Nic focused on development and accessibility while I led design and marketing, we naturally ended up collaborating across all areas. Nic contributed some brilliant design ideas that elevated the visual direction of the theme, and she brought tons of creative thinking to how we could market it effectively. It became a true partnership, and that’s what turned Primavera from a long-standing side project into a real, shippable product we’re both proud of.
Your theme Primavera 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?
We’d heard plenty of stories about how rigorous the Theme Store approval process could be, so we went in with our eyes open and prepared. A few generous theme devs like Brenda Storer (creator of Whisk) gave us great advice early on, which helped us set expectations. We also got lots of support from Taylor Page and the rest of the ShopDev Alliance community.
The launch itself was low-key — it happened on a quiet Friday afternoon. I’d braced for a wave of support requests, but it turns out that adoption takes time. Merchants and agencies often test themes over days or weeks, so it felt like a slow but steady build rather than a big bang. We held the coveted spot on the homepage for the first few days, which gave us an early traffic boost. Once that ended, we realized we needed to take our marketing seriously, so we’re focusing on steadily growing our audience and brand.
Since launch, we’ve released a couple of updates and were pleasantly surprised at how streamlined the update approval process was. One of the most rewarding parts has been getting feedback from merchants and agencies and being able to release those features quickly.
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?
Given my background in luxury fashion, we started with that audience in mind. We wanted to create a theme that would appeal to high-end brands — visually refined, but also grounded in best practices: strong UX, fast performance and accessibility.
A lot of our process was about finding that sweet spot, balancing design ambition with usability and technical quality. We had a lot of debates along the way. One example is our scrolling content section. Marquee text is a bit of an accessibility minefield, but as my co-founder Nic wrote in her article about launching the theme, “if merchants were going to use marquee text, we had a duty to build the absolute best marquee we possibly could.”
That really sums up our approach — not just avoiding risky patterns, but rethinking them to meet real merchant needs in a thoughtful way.
Do you have a specific type of merchant in mind when designing, or do you aim for versatility?
We actually designed with two core audiences in mind. First, the merchants (typically in fashion, jewelry, beauty, or home) who are looking for a premium, elevated look and feel. And second, freelancers and agencies who need a flexible, well-structured theme they can rely on for client projects.
These two groups often want different things. Merchants are drawn to standout layouts and refined interactions. Developers, on the other hand, just want the fundamentals done right — clean code, strong performance, and no unnecessary bloat that slows them down (or the storefront).
It was a balancing act. Merchants may not care about granular heading line height controls, but designers do — and they don’t want to ping a dev every time they need a small tweak that could live comfortably in a setting.
Our goal was to make something that looks great out of the box, but is also easy to deconstruct, customize, and extend for those who want to go deeper.
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?
One feature we’re especially proud of is that Primavera was one of the first themes built around Shopify’s new theme blocks architecture. It’s unlocked an entirely new level of modularity — honestly, we feel like we’ve only scratched the surface of what’s possible with it!
Another big one is accessibility. Nic is not only an incredibly talented developer, she’s also an accessibility consultant — so it was a non-negotiable for us to bake accessibility best practices into the theme from day one. It’s not just about ticking boxes; it’s about giving merchants the tools to create inclusive, user-friendly experiences for all their customers.
Shopify & The Ecosystem
What has your experience been like working with the Shopify review team?
The review process was as smooth and efficient as we could’ve hoped for, especially given how complex Shopify themes can be. The guidelines were clear and the communication was responsive and constructive throughout. We were particularly impressed by how quickly subsequent updates have been reviewed — it’s made iterating and improving the theme feel much more agile than we expected.
If you could change or improve one thing about the Shopify ecosystem for theme developers, what would it be?
I’d love to see more clarity around what drives visibility on the Theme Store, or more tools that help smaller or newer theme authors gain traction.
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?
I’m really interested in the future of theme updates, especially for merchants and developers who’ve heavily customized their theme. I’ve seen a few developers suggesting something like the WordPress parent/child theme architecture — there could be potential there. Curious to see how this evolves over the next few years.
I’m also interested in how we can better enforce theme licenses. We’ve seen our theme pop up on unauthorized sites at heavily discounted prices, and installs on stores that haven’t purchased the theme yet. It would be great to have a process guide for theme developers — something that outlines how to monitor for misuse and report violations effectively.
The Future
Where do you see your theme business going next? Are you planning more themes or exploring other things in the Shopify ecosystem?
Right now, our focus is on making Primavera the best it can be. After that, potentially another theme or maybe even an app. We’re open to where the ecosystem takes us!
What excites you the most about the future of ecommerce right now?
There’s a lot of buzz around AI, and with good reason — I think it’s going to reshape the landscape in ways we’re only just starting to understand. There’s a real chance that the concept of the storefront itself could change dramatically. But at the same time, AI could democratize creativity, making design and development tools accessible to a much wider range of people. That’s exciting to me as it opens the door for more diverse and creative people and brands to succeed.
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 touched on this earlier, but I genuinely think AI is going to change everything — from how themes are designed to how they’re marketed and supported. In some ways, it’s a risky time to launch a new theme, but in others, AI is actually accelerating our ability to build and grow.
Right now, I use AI daily: editing social media posts, proofreading support emails, refining YouTube scripts, researching tools, and — maybe the biggest win — creating high-quality imagery for our demo stores. It’s still imperfect, but it’s become an integral part of my workflow.
Shopify recently announced an AI-powered prompt-based system that generates variations of the Dawn theme. What are your thoughts on this development, and how do you think it might impact independent theme authors like yourself?
Dawn is a fantastic theme but third-party themes exist to fill the gaps Dawn doesn’t cover yet. Things like advanced layout options, specialized sections, design flourishes. As long as Shopify’s AI system is generating variants of Dawn, I think there will still be plenty of space for independent theme authors.
That said, it would be exciting if Shopify’s AI eventually extended to include third-party themes, helping merchants unlock more from the products they’ve purchased and ideally driving more visibility and sales for creators like us.
However, if an AI model were ever trained on third-party themes and the product of that started being used without attribution or compensation, that would raise some real concerns. I’m not sure what the solution looks like, but I do wonder how we’ll protect the work of independent creators as these tools evolve. Hopefully, it’s something the right people are already thinking about.
Quick Takes
Theme you admire (besides your own)?
I’ve made no secret of admiring Prestige. I’ve used it on client projects for years and even wrote an article about why it’s so well executed — flexible, reliable, beautifully built. I haven’t explored Maestrooo’s newest theme, Stretch, in depth yet but from what I’ve seen, it could be my next favorite.
Favorite part of theme development: Design, coding, testing, or documentation?
That’s a tough one — I genuinely enjoy most of it, except testing! It can feel never-ending, especially with a big release. But overall, it depends on the task. I love building new features, but if I never had to fix a Safari bug again, I’d be absolutely fine with that.
One piece of advice for someone thinking of submitting a theme to the Shopify marketplace?
Keep going. If you’re doubting yourself, it probably means your standards are high, and that’s a good thing. But also keep an eye on the bigger picture, especially with how fast AI and the ecosystem are evolving. It might take 6–12 months to design, build, and submit a theme, so try to plan ahead and future-proof your concept as much as you can.
