Price history
Discount pressure creates urgency. The history shows whether a price is good right now or whether waiting pays off.
Case Study
KDM Klassische Designmöbel
How two people build a magazine that works like a publishing house.
A small team can build a product that works like a large one. When UX, system and automation are planned together from day one.
- Role
- Product, UX concept, design system, typeface, engineering
- Timeline
- Since February 2026
- Team
- Two people, a few hours a week
- Tools
- Figma, WordPress Block Theme, Claude Code, n8n, Google Search Console
02
The question
How do two people with a few hours a week build a magazine that holds its own on Google next to large retailers?
Large retailers have range, budget and an editorial team. KDM has pieces we own, first hand experience and a clear stance. The task was to turn that into a product that builds trust and grows with little upkeep.
03
Strategy
I kept KDM deliberately narrow: Scandinavian and international design classics, nothing else. Instead of broad categories, it answers the questions people ask right before they buy. The result is the design classics magazine zeitlosesdesign.de.
- Is it the original?
- Which size fits?
- Does it suit my home?
“Buy rarely, but buy right.”
04
UX and components
Each component solves exactly one user problem.
Size comparison
Dimensions in centimetres say little. The comparison shows every size of a model side by side and to scale, on desktop and mobile.
Spot the original
Fakes are a real issue with classics. A grid with our own photos shows the details that identify the original, here on our own Tolomeo.
Buy box
Product, price and selected specialist retailers at a glance. Which retailer comes first is decided by price and availability, not by preference.
3D model
Some classics only make sense from below. The model loads after a click and can be rotated, in every colour the maker offers.
In your home
The last question before buying is rarely technical. The module shows which rooms and styles a piece suits. Live on every product page.
05
My own handwriting
The personal note on KDM is now literally in my hand.
Until October, notes, verdicts and kickers were set in a Google Fonts typeface. It looked handwritten, but it wasn’t ours. So I turned my own handwriting into a font. It has been live on the website since 23 October 2026 and on Instagram since 26 October.
Type your own. Lowercase letters turn into small caps by themselves.
- 88 %Lowercase letters appear as small caps at 88 percent of cap height. The first letter only stands out slightly.
- 11°The marker stroke leans to the right, bold with a slightly rough edge. That is how I write.
- Å ØThe font covers German and the Nordic designer names, plus figures and punctuation.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ ÄÖÜÅØ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz äöüåøß 0123456789 &?!:;,.()
Technically it is a 42 KB WOFF2 file, self hosted. Every new version gets its own file name, because WordPress serves fonts without a version parameter. That way nobody sees the old hand after an update.
06
Design System
The theme is the source, the design system its mirror.
Tokens and more than 50 components come straight from the live CSS. Each component is a block in the editor with fields instead of free layout. Fifteen rules hold the system together, for example: no accent colour, colour comes from the product image. Every component has exactly one primary action.
At KDM, consistency is not luck. It is maintenance.
07
Motion
A handful of curves and durations carry every movement on KDM.
Motion should explain what happens, not entertain. That is why it is part of the system, like colour and spacing. Both examples below run on the real values from the theme.
Page transition as a fan
Click a card. The old page leaves to the left in a stagger, the new one fans in from the right. The header stays put. Going back runs mirrored.
Designklassiker des Monats
Leuchten, die nicht blenden
Out 0.18 s, 15 ms offset · In from 0.08 s, 0.26 s, 25 ms offset · Distance 48 px
Four roles for links
Every link on KDM has exactly one role. They all share one language: the line fills and moves closer to the text, arrows travel 4 px, images zoom slowly and slightly. Hover or tap to try.
A Text link
The price history shows whether waiting pays off. View price history and judge for yourself.
B Navigation
C Card
PH5 in the living room
D Icon link
Show details08
Engineering and quality
I removed Elementor because page builders can’t be automated.
KDM now runs on a custom block theme. Everything is built from components. When I change a component centrally, it changes on every page. New components start in the design system and are integrated into the theme from there in an orderly way. I carried out the migration with Claude Code, faster than planned.
Consistency log
Every decision is recorded in the design system with date, before, after and the widths it was tested at. Anyone asking in three months why something is the way it is will find the answer.
Two build steps
One script builds the minified files the website serves. A second one writes the tokens into the design system. Nobody maintains values in two places.
09
Automation with judgement
What is routine is automated. Prices come from partner retailer data. If a product has a 3D model, the theme places it above the price history by itself. AI images carry their label as required by the EU through a switch on the image, never by hand. n8n analyses Search Console and shows which topics have potential.
Since 15 October 2026 a pipeline prepares Instagram posts. The feed is the website at 1080 px: same typefaces, same colours, a fixed grid.
Recommendations, photos and approvals don’t come from AI. We decide those ourselves.
- SourcesPartner data, Search Console, our own photos
- n8nPrices, reports, draft posts
- ApprovalPeople decide what gets published
- PublishingWebsite and Instagram
10
Results
+210 %
Google clicks per day, late July to late October 2026
+130 %
Google impressions per day, same period
Until now, SEO was KDM’s only channel. Growth came without an ad budget, purely from pages that answer one specific question. Since 15 October 2026 we have been building Instagram as the second channel.
11
Learnings and outlook
- 1A page wins more traffic when it answers exactly one question.
- 2A design system pays off even for a team of two.
- 3AI saves hours, but it doesn’t replace the judgement of whether a layout works.
- 4Your own handwriting says more about a brand than any colour.
Next is more depth rather than more pages. Expanding existing guides, reusing components, extending automation where it saves time.
A product that works like a large one with a small team?
Let’s talk about it.