A Fractional Shopify Developer for Turtle Fur

Why Turtle Fur Chose Fractional Development for a Custom Theme Brand Refresh

TL;DR Turtle Fur, an outdoor accessories brand, was rolling out a brand refresh across their custom Shopify theme and needed a developer who could work from Figma specs, communicate clearly about implementation trade-offs, and collaborate closely with both their freelance art director and e-commerce team. Storetasker matched them with Logan Gelzer, who worked across multiple phases including typography and color scheme updates, badge restyling, PDP improvements, and a custom hero carousel with animated hotspot tooltips, slide-level color scheme control, and responsive disclaimer positioning. The site in August as planned.

About the Client

Turtle Fur is an outdoor accessories brand operating a custom Shopify theme built by an external agency. Their brand refresh required careful implementation directly into the existing codebase via GitHub, working across a team that included Sean Berry as Ecommerce Growth Manager and Monica Gussow as a freelance Sr. Art Director providing design direction through Figma.

The Core Tension

Turtle Fur needed a developer who could implement precise design changes in a custom codebase while managing a three-way collaboration across design, development, and e-commerce stakeholders.

Why working in a custom codebase required care: Turtle Fur's theme was built by an external agency and managed through a GitHub repository. Changes needed to be made against the right branch, pushed to a WIP theme for review without overwriting content changes the team was making in parallel, and coordinated carefully to avoid conflicts. This isn't the environment where a developer can work loosely. Changes needed to be deliberate and scoped.

Why the collaboration required genuine responsiveness: Monica was providing design direction through Figma and iterating in real time. Sean was reviewing implementation from an e-commerce perspective. Logan needed to field feedback from both simultaneously, clarify requirements before executing, and turn around changes quickly enough to keep a mid-August launch on track. The volume of back-and-forth in the project thread reflects how actively engaged all three parties were throughout.

What was at risk: Turtle Fur's brand refresh had a fixed launch date tied to marketing activity. A developer who couldn't keep pace with iterative feedback or who introduced regressions in a complex custom theme would have pushed that date out.

The Work

• Updated font classes and color schemes across the theme to reflect the new brand direction
• Connected font color and body color controls in the theme editor for flexibility
• Restyled product badges to pill shape across PDPs and collection pages
• Updated PDP B-Corp card background color
• Fixed collection page headline clipping on mobile
• Separated product title color from headline color settings to allow independent control
• Built custom hero carousel with animated product hotspot tooltips (ease-in/ease-out) anchored per thumbnail
• Implemented slide-level color scheme control with arrow color inheriting font color
• Added optional disclaimer text with responsive positioning logic adapting to arrow visibility and hotspot count
• Made all text elements optional and added rich text support for body copy
• Resolved button style conflicts caused by light/dark content scheme interactions
• Fixed image border radius rendering against color scheme backgrounds
• Addressed mobile text crash scenarios through collaborative problem-solving with Monica and Sean
• Delivered preview theme builds for review at each iteration

Results & Impact

• Delivered brand refresh implementation on schedule for launch
• Built custom hero carousel functionality that didn't exist in the original theme
• Maintained clean separation between content changes and code changes throughout
• Navigated complex three-party collaboration without losing momentum or missing the launch window

"Storetasker matched us to a partner we could trust. The process was simple, the work was excellent, and Logan quickly became a go-to resource for both strategic improvements and execution."

‍— Sean Berry, Ecommerce Growth Manager, Turtle Fur

Why Storetasker

Brand refresh implementation in a custom codebase requires a developer who can work precisely, communicate clearly about trade-offs, and keep pace with iterative design feedback without introducing regressions. Most brands don't need a full-time developer for a defined refresh project, but they need expert support who treats the launch date as seriously as the team does.

Ready to implement your brand refresh without agency timelines? Explore how Storetasker can connect you with the development expertise your business needs.