Copenhagen is Scandinavian design applied to Shopify. Light backgrounds, clean lines, small caps, and product cards that feel like they belong in a design textbook. Copenhagen’s collection grid is always clean and balanced, which makes swatch alignment particularly important.
— /wp:paragraph –>Recommended preset: Rounded Square at 22px. Copenhagen’s design language uses soft rounded corners on buttons and cards. Rounded square swatches echo that language. Keep the border at 1px light grey for the inactive state, and your brand color for the active state.
Copenhagen is a natural fit for international SEO with combined listings because Scandinavian brands often sell across multiple European markets. Separate products per color, each with localized titles and descriptions, grouped by RCL for a clean browsing experience.
San Francisco
San Francisco is the tech-forward Apparent Collective theme. Clean, functional, optimized for speed. Product cards are straightforward with good information density. If Berlin is minimal for aesthetic reasons, San Francisco is minimal for performance reasons.
Best preset: Compact Circle. San Francisco merchants care about speed and efficiency, so compact swatches that load fast and take minimal vertical space are the right call. RCL is metafield-based with no external API calls, so it adds zero additional network requests to San Francisco’s already-fast collection pages.
Monaco
Monaco is the luxury pick. Think high-end jewelry, premium accessories, designer goods. Monaco’s product cards are spacious with elegant transitions and often use portrait-orientation product images.
— /wp:paragraph –>Recommended preset: Image Swatch or Minimal Circle. For luxury products where materials and finishes matter (gold, silver, rose gold), image swatches showing actual product crops communicate more than hex color circles. For standard color grouping, Minimal Circle keeps the luxury feel clean.
Monaco stores typically have smaller catalogs with high average order values. The Free plan’s 5 groups might cover a Monaco store’s entire product line. That is the nice thing about flat pricing: you pay for what you use.
Comparison table
| Theme | Vibe | Best RCL preset | Card spacing | Ideal for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Madrid | Editorial, warm | Minimal Circle | Generous | Fashion, editorial brands |
| Sydney | Lifestyle, photo-heavy | Image Swatch | Wide | Home, wellness, lifestyle |
| Berlin | Minimal, functional | Outlined Circle | Tight | Small catalogs, minimal brands |
| Barcelona | Bold, colorful | Filled Circle (28px) | Spacious | Streetwear, art, accessories |
| Copenhagen | Scandi, clean | Rounded Square | Balanced | International, Scandi brands |
| San Francisco | Tech, fast | Compact Circle | Efficient | Tech products, speed-focused |
| Monaco | Luxury, elegant | Image Swatch | Spacious | Jewelry, premium goods |
Setup walkthrough
Every Apparent Collective theme uses the same RCL installation method. Here is the quick version:
- Install Rubik Combined Listings. Start free with 5 groups.
- Enable the app embed in your Apparent Collective theme’s customizer under App embeds.
- Create your first group. Pick 3-5 products that belong together (same style, different colors or materials).
- Choose a preset from the table above. Adjust swatch size, border, and spacing in the visual editor. Use the AI Visual Assistant if you want to describe changes in plain English (“make swatches bigger” or “use square shapes”).
- Check your collection page. Swatches should appear under grouped product cards. Click one to see the card update to the selected product.
For stores with big catalogs, skip manual grouping and use bulk grouping. Title pattern detection is the fastest method: it scans all your product titles, finds shared prefixes (like “Wool Coat”), and creates groups automatically.
Pair RCL with Rubik Variant Images if you want the product page gallery to filter per variant too. RCL covers collection swatches and grouped product navigation. RVI covers product page image filtering. Different jobs, same data layer, zero conflicts.
“I was struggling with separate product pages for different colors/flavors (e.g., aftershave red, green, blue as individual products for better SEO and unique URLs), but I wanted customers to see swatches and switch between them easily, like real variants – on BOTH the product page and collection pages (under each card). This app does it perfectly […]”
Ostwint, Romania, March 2026 – Rubik Combined Listings on the Shopify App Store
Pricing
Flat pricing, not tied to your Shopify plan. All features on every tier:
| Plan | Monthly | Groups | AI credits/mo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 5 | 100 |
| Starter | $10 | 100 | 1,000 |
| Advanced | $30 | 500 | 5,000 |
| Premium | $50 | 5,000 | 50,000 |
Annual billing saves 17%.
See the live demo store, watch the tutorial video, or read the getting started docs.
FAQ
Does RCL work with all 7 Apparent Collective themes? Yes. Madrid, Sydney, Berlin, Barcelona, Copenhagen, San Francisco, and Monaco are all verified and supported via the app embed system.
The city-named themes look very different from each other. Does swatch setup differ? The installation is identical. The visual settings (preset, size, spacing) should differ per theme to match the design language. Use the recommendations from this guide.
Can I use image swatches on all Apparent Collective themes? Yes. Image swatches are supported on every theme. They look particularly good on Sydney and Monaco where product aesthetics drive the purchase decision.
Do I need to touch any Liquid code? No. RCL installs via app embed, which is completely separate from theme files. Theme updates do not break the integration.
Is Plus required? No. RCL works on every Shopify plan.
Copenhagen is my theme and I sell in 4 EU countries. Does RCL support multilingual swatches? Yes. RCL integrates with Shopify Translate and Adapt. You can translate group labels and option names per language. Read the international SEO guide.
How do I tell if my swatch colors match my products? Use AI Magic Fill. It scans product images and auto-detects primary and secondary colors for each swatch. Works on all Apparent Collective themes.
Related Reading
- Shopify combined listings explained
- Customize combined listing swatches
- Combined listings for international SEO
- Swatch design guide
- Variant images complete guide on Craftshift
Apparent Collective names their themes after cities, and each theme carries some of that city’s personality. Madrid is warm and editorial. Berlin is minimal and functional. Copenhagen is Scandinavian clean. Seven themes total, all built on Online Store 2.0, all supporting the Shopify app embed system that Rubik Combined Listings uses to inject collection page swatches without code changes.
Here is what is interesting about Apparent Collective from a combined listings perspective: their themes have some of the widest variation in product card design of any single studio. Madrid’s cards look completely different from Berlin’s, which look nothing like Monaco’s. That means a one-size-fits-all swatch recommendation would be lazy and wrong. So we tested each theme individually and have specific preset recommendations for every one.
If you are running an Apparent Collective theme and want to link separate products into groups with color or material swatches on collection pages, this is your guide. And if you need product page variant image filtering too, we cover pairing RCL with Rubik Variant Images at the end.
In this guide
- Madrid
- Sydney
- Berlin
- Barcelona
- Copenhagen
- San Francisco
- Monaco
- Comparison table
- Setup walkthrough
- FAQ
Madrid
Madrid is editorial. Warm tones, serif headings, generous whitespace around product cards. The card layout prioritizes the product image with title and price below. That open space between the image and price is exactly where RCL inserts swatches, and it looks natural because Madrid already has breathing room there.
Recommended preset: Minimal Circle. Madrid’s editorial feel calls for subtlety. 24px circles with a thin 1px border and your brand accent as the active color. The result looks like swatches were part of the theme from day one.
Madrid also supports multiple collection layouts (grid and list view). RCL swatches appear in both. List view cards are wider, so swatches have more horizontal room, you can comfortably fit 8-10 color swatches inline without overflow.
Sydney
Sydney is the lifestyle theme. Photography-heavy, full-bleed sections, and a product card that goes wide. Stores selling home goods, candles, wellness products, basically anything with an “aspirational living” angle pick Sydney because the imagery does the selling.
Best preset: Image Swatch. On a lifestyle theme where every product is about the aesthetic, abstract color circles feel disconnected. Image swatches that show a tiny crop of each product’s hero photo give shoppers a real preview of each option right on the collection card. We built image swatches specifically for themes like this.
Sydney’s mobile layout is a single column, so each card is wide and swatches have plenty of room. No sizing adjustments needed for mobile on this one.
Berlin
Berlin is minimal. Aggressively minimal. Sans-serif everything, tight spacing, no decorative elements. Product cards strip down to image, title, price. Nothing else. And that is actually brilliant for swatches because there is no visual competition.
Recommended preset: Outlined Circle with 2px border. On Berlin’s bare canvas, even subtle swatches are immediately visible. The outlined style (empty center with a colored border) matches Berlin’s wire-frame aesthetic. Why does Berlin not use filled circles? Because the solid fill of a filled swatch feels “heavy” against Berlin’s intentional minimalism. Just our opinion, but we have tested both and the outlined version looks better.
Berlin stores tend to be small-to-medium catalogs. The Free plan (5 groups) or Starter ($10 for 100 groups) covers most Berlin stores comfortably.
Barcelona
Barcelona is the bold one. Strong colors, large typography, and product cards that are not afraid to take up space. Barcelona stores sell streetwear, art prints, bold accessories, anything with personality.
Best preset: Filled Circle at 28px or larger. Barcelona is not a theme where subtlety serves you. Big swatches with strong active borders fit the energy. If your groups use materials instead of colors, go with Pill Button in a bold font weight. Barcelona’s typography supports it.
One thing we noticed: Barcelona’s hover effects on product cards are more animated than most themes. RCL swatches sit in their own Shadow DOM container, so they do not interfere with the card’s hover animations or vice versa.
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is Scandinavian design applied to Shopify. Light backgrounds, clean lines, small caps, and product cards that feel like they belong in a design textbook. Copenhagen’s collection grid is always clean and balanced, which makes swatch alignment particularly important.
— /wp:paragraph –>Recommended preset: Rounded Square at 22px. Copenhagen’s design language uses soft rounded corners on buttons and cards. Rounded square swatches echo that language. Keep the border at 1px light grey for the inactive state, and your brand color for the active state.
Copenhagen is a natural fit for international SEO with combined listings because Scandinavian brands often sell across multiple European markets. Separate products per color, each with localized titles and descriptions, grouped by RCL for a clean browsing experience.
San Francisco
San Francisco is the tech-forward Apparent Collective theme. Clean, functional, optimized for speed. Product cards are straightforward with good information density. If Berlin is minimal for aesthetic reasons, San Francisco is minimal for performance reasons.
Best preset: Compact Circle. San Francisco merchants care about speed and efficiency, so compact swatches that load fast and take minimal vertical space are the right call. RCL is metafield-based with no external API calls, so it adds zero additional network requests to San Francisco’s already-fast collection pages.
Monaco
Monaco is the luxury pick. Think high-end jewelry, premium accessories, designer goods. Monaco’s product cards are spacious with elegant transitions and often use portrait-orientation product images.
— /wp:paragraph –>Recommended preset: Image Swatch or Minimal Circle. For luxury products where materials and finishes matter (gold, silver, rose gold), image swatches showing actual product crops communicate more than hex color circles. For standard color grouping, Minimal Circle keeps the luxury feel clean.
Monaco stores typically have smaller catalogs with high average order values. The Free plan’s 5 groups might cover a Monaco store’s entire product line. That is the nice thing about flat pricing: you pay for what you use.
Comparison table
| Theme | Vibe | Best RCL preset | Card spacing | Ideal for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Madrid | Editorial, warm | Minimal Circle | Generous | Fashion, editorial brands |
| Sydney | Lifestyle, photo-heavy | Image Swatch | Wide | Home, wellness, lifestyle |
| Berlin | Minimal, functional | Outlined Circle | Tight | Small catalogs, minimal brands |
| Barcelona | Bold, colorful | Filled Circle (28px) | Spacious | Streetwear, art, accessories |
| Copenhagen | Scandi, clean | Rounded Square | Balanced | International, Scandi brands |
| San Francisco | Tech, fast | Compact Circle | Efficient | Tech products, speed-focused |
| Monaco | Luxury, elegant | Image Swatch | Spacious | Jewelry, premium goods |
Setup walkthrough
Every Apparent Collective theme uses the same RCL installation method. Here is the quick version:
- Install Rubik Combined Listings. Start free with 5 groups.
- Enable the app embed in your Apparent Collective theme’s customizer under App embeds.
- Create your first group. Pick 3-5 products that belong together (same style, different colors or materials).
- Choose a preset from the table above. Adjust swatch size, border, and spacing in the visual editor. Use the AI Visual Assistant if you want to describe changes in plain English (“make swatches bigger” or “use square shapes”).
- Check your collection page. Swatches should appear under grouped product cards. Click one to see the card update to the selected product.
For stores with big catalogs, skip manual grouping and use bulk grouping. Title pattern detection is the fastest method: it scans all your product titles, finds shared prefixes (like “Wool Coat”), and creates groups automatically.
Pair RCL with Rubik Variant Images if you want the product page gallery to filter per variant too. RCL covers collection swatches and grouped product navigation. RVI covers product page image filtering. Different jobs, same data layer, zero conflicts.
“I was struggling with separate product pages for different colors/flavors (e.g., aftershave red, green, blue as individual products for better SEO and unique URLs), but I wanted customers to see swatches and switch between them easily, like real variants – on BOTH the product page and collection pages (under each card). This app does it perfectly […]”
Ostwint, Romania, March 2026 – Rubik Combined Listings on the Shopify App Store
Pricing
Flat pricing, not tied to your Shopify plan. All features on every tier:
| Plan | Monthly | Groups | AI credits/mo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 5 | 100 |
| Starter | $10 | 100 | 1,000 |
| Advanced | $30 | 500 | 5,000 |
| Premium | $50 | 5,000 | 50,000 |
Annual billing saves 17%.
See the live demo store, watch the tutorial video, or read the getting started docs.
FAQ
Does RCL work with all 7 Apparent Collective themes? Yes. Madrid, Sydney, Berlin, Barcelona, Copenhagen, San Francisco, and Monaco are all verified and supported via the app embed system.
The city-named themes look very different from each other. Does swatch setup differ? The installation is identical. The visual settings (preset, size, spacing) should differ per theme to match the design language. Use the recommendations from this guide.
Can I use image swatches on all Apparent Collective themes? Yes. Image swatches are supported on every theme. They look particularly good on Sydney and Monaco where product aesthetics drive the purchase decision.
Do I need to touch any Liquid code? No. RCL installs via app embed, which is completely separate from theme files. Theme updates do not break the integration.
Is Plus required? No. RCL works on every Shopify plan.
Copenhagen is my theme and I sell in 4 EU countries. Does RCL support multilingual swatches? Yes. RCL integrates with Shopify Translate and Adapt. You can translate group labels and option names per language. Read the international SEO guide.
How do I tell if my swatch colors match my products? Use AI Magic Fill. It scans product images and auto-detects primary and secondary colors for each swatch. Works on all Apparent Collective themes.
