A shop window that never closes.
Most new customers meet SONNWERK online before they ever see the farm. The website is the shop window on the busiest street, open day and night. A cluttered window loses the passer-by; a clear one brings them inside.
From the field to the bottle
SONNWERK × Rustam · Work, Value & Collaboration
From the field to the bottle.
From the work to the offer.
What has been built. The decisions behind it. What is still missing before launch. And how we bring the one-time payment and a future revenue share together.
01 / Why design pays
Design is not decoration.
It is how a shop sells.
A website is judged in seconds, long before anyone reads a product description. Three comparisons from everyday business explain what the design work is for.
The label on the bottle.
The same oil sells differently in a better package. Design is the packaging of the whole brand: it signals quality and care before a word is read, and it supports the price.
A salesperson who never sleeps.
Every page either answers the buyer's next question (what is it, where does it come from, why this one, how do I buy it) or loses them. Good structure is a good sales conversation, written down.
What research on other companies measures
+32 pphigher revenue growth over five years for the quarter of companies strongest in design, compared with their industry peers, and +56 pp higher shareholder returns.McKinsey, The Business Value of Design, 2018
+8.4%more retail purchases when a mobile site loaded just 0.1 seconds faster (37 brands, 30 million sessions). Order value rose 9.2%.Deloitte for Google, Milliseconds Make Millions
70%of online shopping carts are abandoned on average (70.22%). A clear, trustworthy path to checkout wins back part of them.Baymard Institute, average of 50 studies
These are results measured at other companies. They show a pattern, not a promise for SONNWERK, and they explain why companies treat design as an investment rather than a cost.
McKinsey Design · 1:15
A 75-second interview with Benedict Sheppard, who leads McKinsey's product development and design practice in the UK and is lead author of the study behind the first figure, on design's responsibility to create business impact. Watch on YouTube
02 / Walkthrough
The design in four chapters.
The motifs tell origin, craft, product and orientation. The AI-produced narrative scenes are marked as such and are not documentation of the production. Two of them will change before any advertising: the field and, above all, the harvest clip show the hemp plant, which ad platforms reject.
Consequence: the website keeps its story, and advertising gets a second, ad-safe media set: product-forward, farm-forward, the process without the bud, no leaf silhouettes. The Control Room estimates about 32 hours for regeneration, reselection and a compliance pass against each platform's imagery rules. This is launch work, covered by the €18,000.
From the presentation · The four design decisions
One continuous story.
Four deliberate decisions.
The website should make what is special about SONNWERK easy to understand: origin, work on the farm and the products belong together. The design is built around that order.
A film you drive yourself.
The image sequence responds to scrolling. The visitor sets the pace from the drop of oil to the bottle and can jump straight to the content. The motion explains a connection; it does not stand between the reader and the offer.
The scenes are AI-produced narrative images. They do not document the farm's actual production processes.
Typography with character.
Fraunces gives the headings a distinct, editorial voice. Space Grotesk keeps explanations, navigation and numbers calmly readable. Large titles open a chapter; finer rules and smaller labels order the content.
From origin to product.
Field, harvest, extraction, bottle: the four chapters connect the start of the story with the visible offer. The gallery invites exploration, and product and category pages then lead to concrete information.
Restraint on purpose.
Warm paper, deep green and a single gold accent form the base system. Real product images stay recognisable. Thin rules, clear spacing and a few recurring shapes give the story room.
03 / Scope of work · counted again
More than four pages.
One coherent presence.
The original presentation described four pages. The current build contains 25 regular page routes. The error page and this negotiation area are not counted. Product and category pages use shared templates; 25 routes do not mean 25 independently designed layouts.
11Product pages
5Category pages
6Main and functional pages
3Legal-text pages
What was delivered, and where to check it
| Delivered | In plain words | Check it yourself |
|---|---|---|
| 25 page routes: home, farm, horse work, gallery, shop, 5 categories, 11 products, cart, 3 legal pages | The whole shop front, built from scratch. Product and category pages share templates, so 25 routes are not 25 separate designs. | Page code on GitHub Live preview |
| Design system: colours, type, spacing, components | One set of rules, so every page looks and behaves like the same brand. | Design specification |
| Scroll-driven film hero and draggable gallery | The opening film moves as you scroll, like a flip-book under your thumb; the gallery can be dragged in every direction. | Flip-book engine |
| 4 AI film chapters, stills, 582 frames → 652 web images | Field, harvest, extraction, bottle: directed, generated, selected, then cut into sizes for phone, laptop and large screens. | Work register Clips in the walkthrough above |
| 68,300-word strategy pack | Brand system, channel plan, funnel, regulatory brief, competitor teardown, platform-eligibility matrix, copy and evidence audits. | Shown at the joint review (not public) |
| 16,169 words of planning and specifications | Design spec, developer handoff and fix plans: the blueprint the build follows. | Specifications on GitHub |
| Automated quality checks | Scripts that photograph every page at three screen sizes and flag errors, broken links and contrast problems. | QA scripts Build log |
The same work, in business terms
One general contractor instead of 15 trades.
Building this the usual way is like building a house with separate trades: an architect (strategy), a builder (code), an interior designer (brand), a photographer and film crew (media), an inspector (quality checks). An agency would staff it with 6–9 people plus an account manager. Here it is one contact, one price and no coordination overhead.
280 hours: seven full-time weeks, already done.
The delivered work is reconstructed at about 280 hours (range 235–325), seven weeks of one person working full time. About 180 more hours (145–215) were estimated to launch before the launch scope grew to include the B2B system, the US readiness plan, the Instagram system, training and stabilisation. All of it is covered by the one-time €18,000.
A strategy the size of four theses.
The research and strategy pack runs to 68,300 words. An average Austrian master's thesis has about 16,500 words, so the pack equals roughly four of them: market, competitors, channels, Austrian CBD advertising rules, brand, funnel and measurement.
Thesis length: bachelorprint.at
Many drafts behind the final version.
14,100 lines of code, content and specifications were added over 11 dated commits to arrive at the 2,682 lines of application code that run the site today, like a contract whose final ten pages come from many drafts.
Counted from the public Git history, 13 September 2026.
Tech words in one sentence
- Scroll-driven image sequence
- A flip-book you control with your thumb: the film advances as you scroll, not as a video.
- Responsive
- The same page laid out again for phone, laptop and large screen.
- WooCommerce and Store API
- The new shop window reads products, prices and the cart from the existing WooCommerce back office, so nothing is typed in twice.
- Automated QA
- A script that photographs every page at three screen sizes and flags errors before a customer sees them.
- Git and GitHub
- A dated logbook of every change to the project, open for anyone to inspect.
- Ad-safe media
- Pictures and film that advertising platforms accept: product and farm, without hemp leaves or buds.
See all 25 routes and how they are counted
Local production build, 8 September 2026. 26 generated pages including 404. The 25 regular routes are listed below. This is an inventory count, not a statement about completed live purchases or legal approvals.
//agb//arbeit-mit-dem-pferd//datenschutz//galerie//hof//impressum//produkt/bio-cbd-oel-19//produkt/bio-cbd-oel-5//produkt/bio-cbd-oel-7//produkt/bio-deocreme-rosenholz//produkt/cbd-balsam-kuehlend-stark//produkt/cbd-balsam-waermend-stark//produkt/cbd-gel-kuehlend-stark//produkt/cbd-gel-waermend-stark//produkt/cbd-oel-fuer-hunde//produkt/dusch-shampoo-bergkraeuter//produkt/tagescreme-nachtcreme-set//shop//shop/balsam//shop/gel//shop/kosmetik//shop/oel//shop/tierprodukte//warenkorb/
04 / Evidence
The work behind the visible result.
The mapping shows result and purpose first. Time figures are reconstructed ranges or self-reported, not a timesheet.
All website work is public on GitHub.
Every file of the new website is published with a dated history: 11 commits between 14 and 27 July 2026. Anyone can open a page, a specification or a test script and see when it was written.
01
Discovery, design specification & brand direction
Research synthesis, design specification and handoff.
So that decisions and the build share a common frame.
Method & evidence
Reconstructed · 20–30 hours. Estimated from planning documents, scope and documented review cycles. Open the public register
02
Website design & engineering
Website, commerce prototype, interactions and lower-barrier fallback paths.
So that products are understandable and the path to purchase is clear.
Method & evidence
Reconstructed · 90–130 hours. Estimated from the application, rendered pages, Git output and QA evidence. Open the public register
03
Journey media production
Four approved journey chapters and accompanying stills production.
So that origin and offer come together visually.
Method & evidence
Self-reported · 40+ hours. A stated minimum, supported by the approved clips and production records. Open the public register
04
Media pipeline
Extraction, crops and responsive delivery.
So that media work consistently in the right formats.
Method & evidence
Reconstructed · 20–30 hours. Estimated from scripts, frame sets and delivered assets. Open the public register
05
Market research & strategy
Channel, funnel, brand, regulatory and evidence work.
So that future measures build on checkable foundations.
Method & evidence
Reconstructed · 50–70 hours. Estimated from datasets, analysis workflows and the strategy pack. Open the public register
06
Project direction, review & documentation
Decision history, planning, coordination and technical handoff.
So that scope, decisions and next steps stay traceable.
Method & evidence
Reconstructed · 15–25 hours. Estimated from the build log, handoffs, correction plans and review cycles. Open the public register
Scope · who pays for what
Done, then launch, then growth.
The one-time €18,000 pays for everything up to and including launch. Everything after launch is paid only from a share of online sales: no sales, no share.
Already done
Visible and evidenced.
- Discovery, audit of the old site, brand direction
- Research and the 68,300-word strategy pack, including Austrian CBD advertising rules
- Design system and 25 page routes
- Scroll-driven film hero, draggable gallery, motion
- 4 AI film chapters and 652 web images
- Specifications, build log, automated QA
Covered by the €18,000
Before launch
Make the shop ready to sell.
- WooCommerce integration: cart, the existing checkout connected and styled, payment and shipping tested
- Ad-safe launch media set
- Launch SEO: sitemap, redirects, structured data, Search Console
- Analytics and cookie consent
- Instagram content direction and visual system
- B2B acquisition system and US readiness plan
- End-to-end QA, go-live, 30-day stabilisation, training and handover
Also covered by the €18,000
After launch
Grow, paid from the share.
- Social media and Instagram posts
- SEO development and content
- AI content and creative production
- Campaigns, funnel and conversion improvement
- US market extension
- B2B expansion strategy
- Website maintenance and a quarterly plan review
Paid only from the online-sales percentage
Ad spend and other hard costs are separate. Advertising budget, AI-generation credits, tools, hosting, certification and fulfilment are paid by SONNWERK directly and never marked up. A US launch itself depends on a viable legal, product and logistics route.
From the presentation · Continuity in the shop
A new presence.
A familiar back office.
The proposed integration path keeps WordPress and WooCommerce as the place of administration. Products and prices would continue to be maintained there. The new interface would read the shop data it needs. This connection is a completion point, not an already confirmed production integration.
- 01 · Administration
WordPress / WooCommerce
Products, orders and existing business processes.
- 02 · Connection
Store API
An agreed data exchange, cart and checkout link.
- 03 · Interface
SONNWERK website
New presentation, orientation and access to the range.
Viva Wallet, vouchers, affiliate features, customer accounts and other existing extensions are checked individually for compatibility. "No migration" is the goal of this approach; uninterrupted operation and full compatibility are only confirmed after testing.
Three ways to checkout — a deliberately chosen launch scope.
Connect the existing checkout
The purchase is completed in the existing environment. The focus is on passing cart and customer steps cleanly. This path still needs tests of prices, shipping, payment and order confirmation.
Checkout in the SONNWERK style
Colours, typography and controls are adapted to the new presence. This matches the recommendation from the presentation, subject to a technical review and agreed effort.
Custom checkout
A bespoke implementation extends the technical responsibility. Scope, maintenance, payments and testing need a separate budget and their own schedule after a stable launch.
What has to be settled before launch
- Access and inventory. Confirm owners, secure working access, a test environment, data sources and active extensions.
- Integration and content. Bring together product data, prices, stock, shipping, the payment path and approved copy.
- Testing and acceptance. Work through test orders, error cases, mobile views, keyboard operation, metadata, redirects and a sign-off round.
- Handoff and operation. Set responsibilities, documentation, open points and the first shared review rhythm.
The earlier presentation mentioned two to three weeks. That does not create a new schedule or revision commitment. We set the launch date after access, an integration review and final scope approval.
Marketing roadmap · the growth phase after launch
First a strong foundation in Austria.
Planned sequence · not a revenue forecast
- 01
Austria: infrastructure
Check access, recovery and status of the Instagram account; assess profile, highlights, product goals and measurement readiness only after an audit.
- 02
Content & engagement
Proposed pilot format: two short AI-assisted commercial concepts, two product/farm promos, weekly stories and a permissible giveaway concept — subject to scope and budget.
- 03
Measure & improve
Report monthly from reach through qualified visits to enquiries, orders and repeat purchase. Capture baselines first; one variable per test.
- 04
USA: test demand
Only after the Austrian foundation and a product/channel review: country-specific concept tests and a transparent interest list, with no order and no shipping promise.
- 05
Decide on market entry
Only with viable demand, law, import/fulfilment, payments and contribution margin. Otherwise keep learning or postpone.
Derive the decision together from real margins and fixed costs.
↺ Learning loop: insights from step 5 feed back into step 3 "Measure & improve".
A US interest list is not activated in this UI. Product and channel eligibility are checked before content and paid distribution; optimising Instagram does not imply any automatic permission to advertise CBD. Ad budget, prices, shipping, creator fees and generation subscriptions are separately agreed expenses.
05 / What it would cost
About €129,000 at agency rates.
Offered for €18,000 plus a share.
What would an average Austrian full-service agency charge for the same scope, from discovery to a launched shop? Two independent answers: a calculation from published Austrian rates, and AI assistants you can ask yourself below.
€129kAgency calculation, net · range €103k–155k
€108–185kAI estimates so far, net (Gemini, ChatGPT)
€18kRustam's one-time price for the same scope, plus a share of online sales
The calculation, area by area
| Work area (done and before launch) | Agency hours | Rate, net | Cost, net |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discovery and audit of the old site, brand, shop and customer journey | 30 | €180/h · strategist | €5,400 |
| Market, competitor, channel and CBD advertising-rule research | 100 | €130/h · agency average | €13,000 |
| Brand positioning, messaging and art direction | 50 | €180/h · strategist | €9,000 |
| UX/UI and design system for 25 routes on shared templates | 120 | €120/h · web designer | €14,400 |
| German copy and content structure | 50 | €95/h · graphic designer | €4,750 |
| Custom front end: film hero, gallery canvas, motion, responsive | 180 | €120/h · web designer | €21,600 |
| WooCommerce integration and checkout testing | 70 | €120/h · web designer | €8,400 |
| 4 AI film chapters, stills and the ad-safe media set | 80 | €95/h · graphic designer | €7,600 |
| Media pipeline: 582 frames to 652 web images | 30 | €95/h · graphic designer | €2,850 |
| Technical SEO, analytics, consent, Search Console | 40 | €120/h · web designer | €4,800 |
| Go-to-market, Instagram strategy and visual system, KPI framework | 60 | €180/h · strategist | €10,800 |
| B2B acquisition system and US readiness plan | 50 | €180/h · strategist | €9,000 |
| QA across devices and the full purchase path | 40 | €95/h · graphic designer | €3,800 |
| Launch, 30-day stabilisation, training and handover | 30 | €120/h · web designer | €3,600 |
| Project management and client communication (about 12%) | 110 | €90/h · account manager | €9,900 |
| Total | 1,040 h | ≈ €124/h blended | €128,900 |
How to read it. The hours are our estimate of what an agency team would book for each area. They are not a quote and not Rustam's timesheet. The range assumes 20% fewer or more hours (€103,120 to €154,680). At the plain Austrian agency average of €130/h, the same 1,040 hours cost €135,200.
Rates, net of 20% VAT. Role rates from einfachmarketing.at, 2026 : strategist €180, web designer €120, graphic designer €95, account manager €90. Austrian agency average about €130/h: agenturfinder.com, 2026 . For comparison, the Vienna median for concept and consulting work is €110/h: WKO Vienna / IFES, 2024 .
Why this is higher than the Control Room's earlier €63,000 (1 September): that figure priced Rustam's own reconstructed ≈ 460 hours, before the launch scope grew to include the B2B system, the US readiness plan, the Instagram system, training and stabilisation. An agency also splits the work across 6–9 specialists who brief, hand over and review each other, and that coordination is paid for.
What AI assistants estimate
| Assistant | Date | Recommended total, net | Range, net |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini (Google) | 13 Sep 2026 | €108,100 | €82,000–135,000 |
| ChatGPT (OpenAI) | Sep 2026 | €185,000 | €135,000–240,000 |
| Average | €146,550 |
Both answers came from an earlier, longer version of the price question. The corrected question is below; this table will be updated with its answers. An AI answer is orientation, not a market quote.
The gap between roughly €129,000 and €18,000 is not a discount. It is value Rustam puts at risk and earns back only through the share of online sales, together with all the growth work after launch. If SONNWERK does not grow, Rustam loses, not SONNWERK.
06 / A second opinion
Not just my estimate.
Ask any AI yourself.
The question below describes the whole scope up to and including launch: the work already done plus the work still to come, priced at average Austrian agency rates. The QR code opens ChatGPT with the question filled in, and you decide there whether to send it. You can also copy it into Gemini, Claude or any other assistant.
Or click the QR code directly.
The full question
Estimate what an average Austrian full-service agency would charge to deliver this project as a greenfield engagement (net, excl. 20% VAT; also show gross). Old site: sonn-werk.at (template WordPress/WooCommerce shop of an Austrian organic CBD farm). New product, built by one person: rustamg16.github.io/002-sonnwerk One-time scope, done + remaining, up to and including launch: - Discovery; audit of old site, brand, shop and customer journey - Market, competitor, channel and Austrian CBD advertising-rule research (68,300-word strategy pack) - Brand positioning, messaging, art direction, design system - UX/UI and German copy for 25 page routes (11 product and 5 category pages on shared templates) - Custom front end: scroll-driven image-sequence hero, draggable gallery canvas, motion, responsive - 4 AI-directed film chapters with stills, 652 optimised web images, plus an ad-safe media set - WooCommerce integration: existing back office, cart, checkout, payment, shipping - Technical SEO, analytics, consent, Search Console - Austria-first go-to-market, Instagram strategy and visual system, KPI framework, B2B acquisition system, US market-readiness plan - QA, launch, 30-day stabilisation, training, handover, project management Give: 1) one total and a low-high range; 2) hours and cost per area with the Austrian agency rates used; 3) separately, 12 months of post-launch growth services (social media, SEO, content, ads management, maintenance), excluding ad spend; 4) dated Austrian sources. Do not price it as a template or prototype. No invented quotes or compliance guarantees.
An AI answer is extra orientation, not an independent assessment and not a binding market quote. Check the sources, date, scope of work and double counting. Compare it with the agency calculation above.
07 / Proposal
Payment today. Share later.
€18,000 once covers everything up to and including launch. After launch, social media, SEO, content, AI production, US extension, B2B strategy and maintenance are paid only from a share of online sales. A continuous slider moves from full planning certainty toward a larger share of later revenue. All values are a basis for negotiation, not an assumption made by a click.
More one-time paymentMore revenue share for Rustam
On the left, €18,000 applies with the base rates 18% / 14% / 10% / 7%. Toward the right, the one-time payment falls to €10,000. The first share band then rises from 18% to 30%; every further band rises in the same proportion. At €15,000, the first band is still 22.5%.
One-time payment€18,000
Share on the first €100,00018%
Four years, current inputs€32,400
Annual eligible online revenue
The bands start again in every contract year. Please enter only the net basis to be defined in the contract; VAT, returns, discounts, shipping and other deductions must be settled in the contract.
Annual bands
Displayed percentages are rounded to two decimals. The calculation uses the unrounded rates.
| Range | Base rate | Your selection |
|---|---|---|
| Up to €100,000 | 18% | 18% |
| Over €100,000 up to €250,000 | 14% | 14% |
| Over €250,000 up to €600,000 | 10% | 10% |
| Over €600,000 | 7% | 7% |
Four years · assumes continuation, not a guaranteed contract
Cumulative payments compared
Base rate Your selection
Base rate: both lines coincide at four times €20,000 annual revenue; the total is €32,400.
- Base rate: start €18,000; after year 1 €21,600; after year 2 €25,200; after year 3 €28,800; after year 4 €32,400.
- Your selection: identical to the base rate.
Low and zero revenue visible
Same eligible revenue per year
| Annual revenue | Base rate total | Your selection total | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| €0 | €18,000 | €18,000 | €0 |
| €10,000 | €25,200 | €25,200 | €0 |
| €20,000 | €32,400 | €32,400 | €0 |
| €50,000 | €54,000 | €54,000 | €0 |
| €100,000 | €90,000 | €90,000 | €0 |
| €250,000 | €174,000 | €174,000 | €0 |
| €700,000 | €342,000 | €342,000 | €0 |
My proposal is to pay the one-time work fairly and to tie further development to our shared success. At €18,000, your ongoing revenue share stays lower. If more liquidity at the start matters more to you, a correspondingly higher share can reduce this one-time payment. What matters is that scope, basis of calculation and expectations are clear for both sides. There is no monthly minimum; the ongoing scope of work is tied quarterly, together, to capacity and budget.
The calculation measures payments and remaining revenue before other costs — neither personal net income nor company profit. No discounting, inflation, financing or taxes are taken into account.
What the share means
A collaboration needs
more than a percentage.
The lower first payment shifts part of my compensation onto uncertain future revenue. In return, my share rises. This is a concrete negotiation proposal, not a guarantee of any particular result.
The basis of calculation
The online channels agreed in writing are included. VAT, returns and discounts are netted out; the treatment of shipping and other deductions is set out explicitly. Other company revenue or B2B business is not automatically included.
Falling marginal bands
Each rate applies only to its own revenue segment. Crossing a threshold does not retroactively re-rate the whole revenue. In this model the bands start again in every contract year.
Capacity and ongoing work
Each quarter we agree priorities and available scope: further development, content, creative production, testing and evaluation. Low revenue cannot fund unlimited production. New projects and external costs need their own sign-off.
Accounting and continuation
Measurement sources, billing rhythm, access, audit evidence, term and termination are agreed in writing. The four-year calculation assumes continuation; twelve-month renewals are not a guaranteed four-year commitment.
What we want to win together
A presence you can follow, a working purchase path and a learning process built on real numbers. If the collaboration convinces, an honest reference and an approved case study can come out of it. Publication, usage rights and referrals are agreed separately.
The one-time price covers all agreed work up to and including launch. Advertising, promotion pricing, shipping, creator fees, subscriptions and later operations are not silently included. No monthly minimum is introduced by this slider.
08 / Next step
Follow all of it.
Decide together.
The Control Room contains the public work register, sources and the existing negotiation view.
Open the Control Room