> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://brick-society.ghost.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Brick Society 40: The Soap Can Be Late - URL: https://brick-society.ghost.io/brick-society-40-the-soap-can-be-late/ - Published: 2026-10-19T17:11:24.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-19T21:37:38.000Z - Author: Nick Anderson - Tags: Newsletter My soap delivery will be late this fall. Pippin the poodle has passed away. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ef/eb/efebc875-7734-49d8-8018-90381b3bccad/content/images/2026/10/CleanShot-2026-10-14-at-2.23.40-PM@2x.png) Anyone who’s talked with me at length has heard about Colorado Real Soap Company, a small shop I buy my soap from to avoid funding Amazon and other big box stores. They’ve heard the story because their website is [**my go-to example of terrible small business websites**](https://coloradorealsoap.com/boutique?ref=brick-society.ghost.io). When people tell me that the only work in design and development is for evil corporations, I send them this. It’s not a job posting, but I believe it can still be read as a cry for help. To place an online order you’ll need to click “Shop Online” at least four times, opening a new tab with each request, along with several paragraphs prefacing what would need to take place to make this thing work. Please connect to wifi. Please understand it will take 7-10 days to ship. You will not see all merchandise from the store here, but if you send an email, it can be still be purchased. When I taught design, I tried to explain eCommerce stores as a conversation between the store and a customer - but that unlike a physical retail store, no salesperson was there to explain what they saw around them. The site needed to anticipate the questions and needs a user might have, and find ways to answer them. A novice designers makes a “loud” site, that shouts at you like an infomercial: “THESE ITEMS ARE ON SELL. WE RECOMMEND THIS PROJECT. YOU CAN FIND MORE BY CLICKING SHOP BY CATEGORY”. But even students with more experience struggled how to express the uniqueness of their shop, without standing in the way of predictable and familiar patterns. Instruction and information architecture in retail is war of attrition - for instance, I never, under any circumstances, would like to be approached by a salesperson in a store. I also do not want to bother them by asking where something is. What I desire is *to already know*, to glide through the space with my earbuds in, simply accumulating the things I want. I have never wished to know more about someone behind the counter, or discuss the parking outside, or see the quiet disappointment in their eyes when I walk out empty handed. This is probably why I don’t remember anything about Valerie, the woman who runs Colorado Real Soap Company. I don’t remember if there was a dog in the shop when I visited. Everything I know about her I know from her website, including her name, and what she looks like. There’s a picture of husband Jeff as well; one of her mom when she was younger, a detailed story of her dissatisfaction with South Florida that lead her move to the mountains. But equally interesting are the scattered bits of instructional text - hung above a product listing, announced in a lightbox, tucked into little accordion menus in the footer. The equivalent of post-it notes pasted into a CMS field somewhere - and to me, they read like poetry (with some light editing and linebreaks added for effect): > \*Everyone will experience > irritation or > sensitivities > at some point. We also can react to things that never caused problems in the past\* or, > *The foundation from which* > *I draw inspiration* > *comes from the past* > *carefully collecting small amounts of* > *medicinal plants from the forest,* > *and those I grow in my own garden* > *Leaves, blossoms, buds, petals, bark* > *roots of wild plants all* > *find their way into my creations* Or the message that popped up when I visited today: > *At noon on the equinox* > *we bid farewell* > *She passed peacefully* > *on a gorgeous fall day* > *under the changing aspens at our home* > *her sister by her side* > *We left the gate open* > *so she could race up into the mountains* This storefront would not have received a passing grade from me. It prioritizes absolutely nothing important and is the UI equivalent of a corn maze. Yet here I am again, order 5 bars of soap that should last me through the winter - and I don’t care if it’s a bit late. I am not worried that Pippin’s passing will impact her production and shipping pace; she does not need to be sorry for any inconvenience or delays. I am happy to give my patience and understanding. I still agree, the stores we make should not be loud. But I am glad that, in at least a few cases, not all are silent. --- # **Just so you know:** ## Knocking the Lamp (@4:51) 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit was a technological miracle, as the video above can explain at great length. The part I want to focus on is the scene that created it’s own term, **Bumping the Lamp**. Roger Rabbit’s on screen presence required at least 5 different animation layers, all reacting to the movement and lighting of the world around him. During one take, Eddie Valiant accidentally bumps his head on a lamp entering the scene, causing light and shadow to scatter wildly throughout the room. They could have used a different take - and even if not, the audience would be unlikely to notice that Roger Rabbit’s shadow failed to line up with the now-moving light source for a couple of minutes. Instead, the animators worked frame by frame to match the lamp, creating some of the most detailed and spectacular animation ever filmed - even if no one really noticed. Since then, the term “Bumping the Lamp” has come to mean taking taking the act of creation beyond the spec of what an audience or stakeholder requires, because *you* take such pride in your work, that you wouldn’t have it any other way. This is the quality of work put into the sculptures lining the parthenon, which are intricately carved all the way around, even though they would only be seen from the front, and from a pretty far distance as well. Why not just leave them blank? Because the artist would know, and to them, their work would be incomplete. --- > ​​"The explorer who will not come back or send back his ships to tell his tale is not an explorer, only an adventurer." ​​​​​​​​— Ursula K. LeGuin --- ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Existence is like a disco, a dance of light and shadow, \- Nick Anderson [BrickSociety.org](https://bricksociety.org/?utm%5Fsource=luma) [**@brick.society**](https://www.instagram.com/brick.society/?utm%5Fsource=luma) [Join the Collective](https://bricksociety.mn.co/landing/?utm%5Fsource=luma)