Now, normally https certificates need to be purchased—and renewed—from an external registrar every three months. However because I always setup independent cloud servers through Digital Ocean, I was able to install a serverside system capable of generating free https certificates automatically.

Client: The Portland Peppermill Company makes handcrafted peppermills using beautiful salvaged woods from the Pacific Northwest coupled with the finest grinding mechanisms in the world.

Project Description: Create a clean, responsive e-commerce site for the Portland Peppermill Company.

The Inside Scoop

One of the goals from the outset of this project was to use a minimalist design that would showcase the Portland Peppermill Company’s handmade wood products without upstaging them.

Toward that end I chose a color palette of black, white, and grey to create a subdued appearance which wouldn’t compete with the products on display. However, at the end of the day, pure monochrome didn’t feel fleshed out enough, so I borrowed a touch of brown from a photo of PPC’s beautiful maple wood grinders to add a subtle touch of warmth to the design.

For the cart functionality, I setup a seamless checkout system using PayPal Pro. Of course, to ensure a secure checkout procedure, I added an https protocol to the site.

Now, normally https certificates need to be purchased—and periodically renewed—from an external registrar. However because I always setup independent cloud servers through Digital Ocean (afflink), I was able to install a serverside system (Let’s Encrypt) capable of generating free https certificates automatically.

This is just one of the many reasons why independent hosting is crucial to professional websites.

In addition to the design, I also edited all the text for the site, assisted with image placement, page layouts, and search engine optimization.

I call it a job well done.

My Favorite Part

The way product images change dynamically when selecting options from the drop down menu, so you can see exactly what you’re putting in the cart immediately.

See the results:
www.portlandpeppermill.com