Hetty McKinnon
When your work has become part of millions of people's kitchens, your website should feel just as thoughtful as your recipes. Hetty Lui McKinnon partnered with us at Wonderly to create a digital home that prioritizes generosity over algorithms, transforming years of recipes into an intuitive, beautifully organized resource designed to help people cook. We designed and developed a custom WordPress experience, refined her visual language through an expanded color palette and custom illustrations, optimized the site for advertising, and built an experience that makes discovering, cooking, and returning to recipes feel effortless.
Services
Branding • Website Design & Development • Email Marketing Design
Context
Hetty's audience had grown far beyond what her previous website could support. Recipes were difficult to browse, discovery relied heavily on search or social media, and the experience didn't reflect the warmth and intentionality of her brand. She wanted to invest in an owned platform that would outlast changing algorithms while remaining true to her philosophy of making vegetable-forward cooking approachable for everyone.
Solution
Rather than designing around content management, we designed around how people actually cook.
Every decision centered on making recipes easier to find, easier to follow, and more enjoyable to return to. We developed an intuitive recipe taxonomy that lets visitors browse by ingredient, season, meal type, or mood, created a visual system inspired by Hetty's editorial style, and introduced playful custom illustrations that brought personality throughout the experience without distracting from the food.
Behind the scenes, we also built the technical foundation for long-term growth, optimizing the WordPress site for the Raptive advertising network while preserving a reading experience that feels calm, intentional, and welcoming.
This is where pasta becomes a love language.
Illustration
To make the website feel unmistakably Hetty, we created a collection of 100% human-made illustrations inspired by the ingredients that define her cooking. Each vegetable was thoughtfully illustrated across all four seasons, allowing readers to browse recipes visually while celebrating the natural rhythms of seasonal cooking.
Beyond improving navigation, the illustrations bring warmth, personality, and delight throughout the experience. They transform a functional recipe index into something expressive, reinforcing Hetty's belief that cooking begins long before a recipe is chosen.
Website
We designed a website people actually want to cook from.
Instead of overwhelming visitors with endless categories and clutter, the experience invites exploration. Readers can browse by ingredient, season, dish type, or mood, discover new favorites, and move seamlessly into distraction-free recipes designed for real kitchens. Every detail, from the custom illustrations to the generous whitespace to Cook Mode, was crafted to feel calm, functional, and unmistakably Hetty.
Vegetable-forward recipes that are comforting, vibrant, and made to be shared.
In the Words of Our Clients
“It's amazing to work with creatives who understand you and your brand better than you do. That is the power of human thinking.”
Hetty Lui McKinnon
