Themes @ Shopify

New blocks, design options, and quality of life features for Shopify's free themes.

ClientShopify
RoleDesign Engineer Intern
TimelineSep 2025 – Dec 2025
Team
Jhey Tompkins, Mentor, Staff Design EngineerOlivia Marcello, Senior Product DesignerArthur Demurger, Storefronts EngineerKaty Cobb, Senior Content DesignerStephanie Chou, Manager
LinkVisit project

PREAMBLE

Themes are merchants’ storefronts to the world

Horzion is Shopify's flagship theme. All 24 free themes offered by Shopify are built off of the Horizon architecture, where the site itself is built in raw HTML/CSS/JS and made functional using Liquid.

Coming to Shopify, I was riding the wave of a massive Horizon release where it was the focus of Shopify Editions Summer 25’. It replaces the outgoing Dawn theme, previously the default, and aimed to bring a new theme architecture that would allow both Shopify and Merchants to create better experiences.

Featured products section on the Horizon theme.
PROTOTYPING IN CODE

Prototyping the product hotspots section

The internship was split in two parts with the intent goal of (1) shipping a new section for the theme, and (2) on knocking out the backlog of smaller fixes our small team could finally find the time to work on.

The new Product Hotspots block I worked on, in action.
Prototype environment. Working on this was a huge learning experience for what it means to sweat the details, and selectively choosing constraints for a design tool.

Lots more I can't share!

Most of my work at Shopify is under NDA. I’m incredibly excited for my team, and the company, and I’ll update this page as more things are out publicly.