All the hats?
I've worn 'em.
You deserve to work with a designer who’s been in your shoes, walked the walk, and lived to tell the tale.
I swear this isn’t about dress-up, though I do think an outfit can be transformative (see: my Studio uniform, a closet full of jumpsuits I hand-embroidered with my name).
It’s about being intentional about who you work with, because you know short-term fixes don’t lead to long-term success. And we all know how fleeting the high of a fast fashion purchase is.
Meet studio owner Allie Pisarro-Grant
Hi, I'm Allie
I’m who founders choose to work with after they’ve done their DIY due-diligence, learned as much HTML as they could without losing their sanity, or (in a number of unfortunate but not-uncommon instances) overpaid for a generic designer who delivered the bare minimum.
They choose me because as a former NYC brick & mortar shop owner I’ve been the one building the shelves, creating and curating inventory, selling the products, cultivating community, and staying late to reset for the next day.
I’m not guessing about what customers need to see and feel before they buy; my experience has taught me. I know—and actually…so do you!
You just need someone like me to help you verbalize it & translate that into something your customers can experience through their screen.
CURIOUS TO HEAR THE WHOLE STORY?
Before Alcove Studio, I built Alcove Shop
I wish I had one of those sparkly-glowy, remember-where-you-were-standing moments in which I decided once and for all I was going to quit my 9-to-5 and start my own business.
But it was really more of a foggy-path, one-foot-in-front-of-the-other kind of thing.
📚 Read the saga
I had managed to pick the least commercially-promising major+minor combo (Painting & Printmaking) at the country’s most prestigious design school (RISD), graduating at the start of the Great Recession, but scored an art grant that paid my first few months’ rent in Bushwick while I found my first underpaid internships in Chelsea.
Gallery installation work turned into museum bookstore work, and I woke up nearly 10 years later with a Manhattan career in art publishing, a Brooklyn career in partying, and a creative sense of self that was stuck somewhere between the New Jersey Turnpike and nowheresville.
So I got sober, hired a career coach who was wildly out of my budget, and started experimenting with second jobs and volunteer work.
At first, I thought food was my calling.
By the time my husband Alex and I decided to open a high-design head shop in the Lower East Side in 2018, I had chef-catered at the Storefront for Art and Architecture, served my take on bibimbap to Chloë Sevingny at Brooklyn’s first (and best) Dead Nite, and baked thousands of cakes for Christina Tosi at Milk Bar HQ in Williamsburg.
Pivoting to create an artisan-focused Smokeware boutique on the ever-shifting eve of legalization was strategic and personal to my husband and I (a longer story for another time).
And it was a hit.
It was also by far the most difficult thing I’ve ever done.
When we closed the storefront during the height of COVID madness (I remember the day we drove over the Manhattan bridge to get every single piece of inventory out and stuffed into our apartment, because we thought they were closing traffic between the boroughs indefinitely) and transitioned to being online-only, I had no idea what to expect.
It turned out to be a crash course in ecommerce, and I fucking LOVED IT.
It activated tons of my past experience, like learning to code as a teenager, trafficking publishing data to Amazon (yes, it’s really called trafficking 😅), and creating campaigns for limited editions at Art Basel Miami Beach.
Since then, I’ve actively created within nearly every facet of digital marketing: social media, product photography, email marketing, paid ads, SEO, influencer campaigns.
But my expertise is at the crossroads of web design & development, branding & brand strategy. And my passion is helping small business founders hit that next level of growth. That’s why I started Alcove Studio.
My competitors would tell you I do too much.
For one thing, most web designers are not also web developers. But having one person do both gives you a site that looks amazing, sells successfully, and is a breeze for you to maintain.
Even fewer (if any) Shopify-specific designers deliver the kind of turnkey projects I do, with strategic navigation design, image curation, smart infrastructure, and conversion copywriting baked right in.
And I certainly have not met a single other Shopify designer who started her design biz after having her own Shopify store (if you’re out there—let’s be friends!)
So, if you’re ready to translate the real-life version of your brand—its texture, details, and point of view—into a digital experience that’s clear, compelling, and built to sell better…
What it's like to work with me
I’m not here just to make things look nicer (though that is a natural outcome of the process).
I’m here for founders who are building something exceptional and want an online experience that finally measures up.
A refreshingly calm process.
Clear steps, clear decisions. No chaos for sport.
A steady lead from start to finish.
I don’t leave clients hanging. I stay with you until it’s right, so you don’t have to micromanage or chase endless revisions.
Respect for the product.
I’m a production geek and a craftsperson myself; we’ll be speaking the same language.
Taste and strategy, together at last.
Design choices that are rooted, not random. I’ll explain the why so you stay in the driver’s seat long after we wrap.
Don't take my word for it...
"It's soooo perfect
I'm obsessed with the copy writing
You're so good"
"Allie knocked it out of the park with our Shopify redesign."
"We saw an immediate improvement to our conversion rate. Our mobile interface is much cleaner and simpler to update and operate, and that efficiency is something we really value."
"Loving our new website! It's cleaner and easier to navigate, and it's easier for me to manage inventory on the fly."
"You are the design whisperer! You have managed to encapsulate my vision so well."
"I can't say enough good things about working with you!"
"You were a dream to work with and I hope to do it again in the future!"
Not strictly relevant…
but maybe worth knowing anyway...
FIRST JOB EVER:
Jamba Juice smoothie master (my husband says my Razmmatazz is still off the chain.)
HOW I ACTUALLY STAY ORGANIZED…
I’m a Notion diehard / power user
DESK SITUATION:
minimalist, but not in a cute way, unfortunately.
FANCY PANTRY STAPLE:
Luxardo Maraschino Cherries. If you know, you know.
CURRENTLY READING…
Soup: A Global History by Janet Clarkson