The Sugar Coated Cult is nominated at the CSS Design Awards

The custom Shopify store we designed and built for The Sugar Coated Cult is now a nominee at the CSS Design Awards, one of the longest-running juries for web design and development. Since 29 October 2026 the site is in the running for Website of the Day, and the public vote is open: if you like the work, you can vote for it here. It takes a few seconds and no account.

Update, 3 November 2026: the store went on to win Best UI Design, Best UX Design and Best Innovation at the CSS Design Awards. Read how Odduel became an award-winning agency.

Last updated: 3 November 2026.

What is the CSS Design Awards?

The CSS Design Awards (CSSDA) is an international showcase that reviews websites submitted by studios and developers from all over the world. A panel of judges scores each nominee, and the public can vote alongside them.

• Website of the Day goes to the nominees with the highest average score from the judges, who have 96 hours to review each site.
• Public awards are given by visitors’ votes in three categories: UI Design, UX Design and Innovation. A site needs at least 20 votes in a category, and a solid score from the judges, to earn one.
• Votes and scores update live on the nominee’s page, and every visitor can vote once per category.

What did we build for The Sugar Coated Cult?

The Sugar Coated Cult is a brand of objects for the well-dressed habit, with an identity built by Odduel. For its online store we did not adapt a ready-made template: we wrote the Shopify theme ourselves, from the first line, with no third-party app.

The CSSDA entry sums it up as a custom Shopify theme with halftone animations, bold editorial type and a cinematic scroll that turns shopping into a show. In practice that means:

• Halftone animation taken from the brand’s printed identity, so the store feels like the brand and not like a store template.
• Editorial typography at poster scale, with product pages that read like a magazine spread.
• A cinematic scroll that stages each product, while the cart and checkout stay fast and familiar.
• Everything editable by the client in the Shopify theme editor: texts, pictures and products, without touching code.

You can see the full project in our case study of The Sugar Coated Cult and the live store at thesugarcoatedcult.com.

Why build a custom Shopify store?

Shopify gives a brand hosting, security, payments and a checkout that customers already trust. A custom theme adds what a template cannot: a store that looks and behaves like the brand, and nothing it does not need.

	Template theme	Custom Shopify theme
Look and feel	Shared with thousands of stores	Built on the brand’s own identity
Speed	Carries code for features you never use	Only the code the store needs
Apps	Often several monthly apps to fill gaps	Features written into the theme
SEO	Generic structure	Clean headings, structured data and fast pages from the start
Editing	Theme editor	Theme editor, with sections designed for the brand

For brands that sell on character, the store is often the first place a customer meets them. A custom Shopify store turns that first visit into an experience people remember and share, which is exactly what juries such as the CSS Design Awards look for.

How can you vote?

1. Open The Sugar Coated Cult on the CSS Design Awards.
2. Scroll to the public vote and score the site for UI Design, UX Design and Innovation.
3. That is all: no sign-in needed, one vote per category.

Thank you to everyone who votes and shares the link. And thank you to The Sugar Coated Cult for trusting us with a store that dares to be different.

Questions people ask

Planning an online store that people talk about? Tell us about your brand through our e-commerce service and we will be in touch.