Burl & Detent is a one bench shop behind a tire yard on the north side of Missoula, Montana, run by Dale Kovacic, who built cabinets for twenty years and kept every walnut burl offcut too pretty to throw away. He turns each shift knob on a small lathe, sets a brass insert cut to the thread of the buyer's car, and rubs in four coats of tung oil over a week so the grain stays warm under a cold hand in January.
Who this theme is for
A small maker selling one handmade part for a car or truck: shift knobs, wooden steering wheel rims, brake handles, dash trim, leather boot covers. The shoppers already know their car's thread pitch or can look it up, and they buy on grain and fit, so the page opens on the knob sitting among its own shavings, comes in close on the brass insert that has to match their shifter, then shows hands sanding the blank on the lathe. The Adventure layout leads with a large italic serif heading over the photo and keeps the selling quiet, which suits a part that gets bought by people who spend weekends under a hood.
What was decided in the brief
The style is Adventure on its second variant. The primary is an olive green close to the painted lathe bed and the accent is a mustard yellow that sits near the brass collar, so the buy button reads as part of the workshop rather than a sticker on top of it. The brand facts lead with where the wood comes from, because burl is the reason a buyer stops scrolling, then the thread, because fit is the first worry with any aftermarket knob, then the oil, because it explains the ten day wait.