VISUAL IDENTITY / STRATEGY / MOTION GRAPHICSSmart Solutions
I was brought on as lead contract designer and strategist to solve a problem that outgrew the site's original build: the services read as a capable but disconnected list. A merchant evaluating the agency had to do the work of connecting platform, operations, and data themselves. My brief was to find the single idea that already ran underneath all six service lines, put it into words and a visual system, and build the growth-marketing structure (messaging, audience segmentation, channels, and a reporting framework) to carry it.
The engagement grew from there into an ongoing retainer: UX and design work as new pages and campaigns shipped, the sales sheets and ebooks that carried the positioning into sales conversations, motion graphics for social and event use, and the maintenance that kept the site and its content current between larger projects.
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Found the single thesis running underneath all six service lines and translated it into the site's positioning and messaging structure, "eCommerce Engineered for Growth."
Segmented the ideal customer profile into four verticals (tactical & shooting sports, B2B eCommerce, food & beverage, healthcare) and built the channel strategy and case-study framework around them.
Developed the strategy behind paid and organic social ads, motion graphics, ebooks, and sales sheets, extending the positioning into demand-gen and sales-enablement content beyond the site itself.
Built the visual system (grid, case-study templates, restrained color) as the designer half of the engagement, so the site's own execution argued the same precision the copy claimed.
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The agency's real differentiator, senior practitioners owning strategy through execution with no handoff, was true throughout the site but stated nowhere as a single claim, buried in one quote on the About page.
Six distinct service lines needed one throughline that could organize copy, visual system, and channel strategy without flattening real differences between them.
The case-study format had to scale across four verticals with very different buyers and risk profiles (regulated tactical retail, seasonal food & beverage, compliance-driven healthcare) while staying comparable.
Paid/organic social, motion, ebooks, and sales sheets had to be produced against a positioning that was still being defined, with no existing system to inherit.
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Shipped "eCommerce Engineered for Growth" as the structural spine of every service page, not a tagline bolted onto the homepage.
Replaced one generic pitch with a segmented go-to-market approach: four ICP verticals, each matched to its own proof point.
Rebuilt the case-study template used to migrate flagship stories (Langdon Tactical, Wicked Grips, Rheb's Candies) and scale future ones without looking improvised.
Extended the positioning past the website into paid/organic social, motion graphics, ebooks, and sales sheets, giving sales and demand-gen the same story the site was telling.
Situation
The eCommerce-agency category is crowded with two failure modes: pure technical shops that ship platform migrations without a growth thesis, and pure marketing shops that recommend campaigns their engineering can't support. Smart Solutions' actual differentiator — senior practitioners who own strategy through execution with no handoff — was true throughout the site but stated nowhere as a single claim.
Audience
Rather than market to "eCommerce businesses" broadly, I segmented the ideal customer profile into four verticals where Smart Solutions already had delivery proof, so every message could point at real, comparable work instead of generic claims
Tactical & shooting sports
Regulated, community-driven retail with high trust requirements. Proof point: Langdon Tactical.
B2B eCommerce
Complex catalogs, account-based buying, integration-heavy checkout flows.
Food & beverage
Seasonal demand, fulfillment complexity, brand-led storefronts. Proof point: Rheb's Candies.
Healthcare products
Compliance-sensitive commerce where platform stability is non-negotiable.
Positioning & Messaging
The platform/operations/data framing became the spine of every page: "eCommerce Engineered for Growth." Not a tagline bolted onto the homepage, but a structure — every service description was rewritten to state which of the three levers it pulled, so a prospect could see the whole system rather than a menu.
Underneath the headline claim, the real proof was operational: no strategy-to-execution handoff, senior practitioners named and credited by discipline (SEO, operations, engineering, client success), and a direct-partnership model. Naming the team on the site — rather than hiding behind a logo — became part of the positioning itself.
Channel Strategy
Channel selection followed one rule: prioritize what the agency could prove with its own methods before spending on anything it couldn't.
Turn the service inward. Smart Solutions sells technical SEO and AI-search visibility — the site itself became the flagship case study for that service
Proof-led content built from real engagements (Langdon Tactical, Wicked Grips, Rheb's Candies, Defenders of Wildlife, Webeyez), each structured the same way so results are comparable across verticals.
Platform-certified credibility. BigCommerce and Adobe Commerce partner status used as a distribution and referral channel, not just a badge.
Segment-specific outreach into the four ICP verticals, each pitched with the matching case study rather than a generic deck.
“Danny is one of those rare creatives who just gets it. His work is always top-notch, delivered on time, and he’s not afraid to try new things that push content to the next level.”
— Lyndsay Dean, Marketing Manager, Smart Solutions
Proof Points
+83%
Revenue increase
+73%
Conversion increase
+80%
New user growth
Rollout
Foundation
Land the "Engineered for Growth" thesis on the homepage and rewrite every service page against the platform / operations / data structure.
Proof
Rebuild the case-study template and migrate flagship stories (Langdon Tactical, Wicked Grips, Rheb's Candies) into the standardized format.
Scale
Stand up vertical-specific landing pages for the four ICP segments, each anchored to its matching proof point.
Compound
Turn the agency's own SEO/AEO service inward on smartsolutions.dev itself, treating the site as an ongoing case study.
Visual System
As the designer half of the engagement, I built the visual language to argue the same point as the copy: precision. A tight grid, consistent case-study templates, and restrained color meant every new client story could be produced quickly without looking improvised — so the design system itself became evidence of "senior-led, no handoffs," not just a claim about it.