HEARTWORK — love good color

From start-up to leading with color in commercial storage.

Karen John- Founder & CEO, HEARTWORK

Karen John is the founder & CEO of HEARTWORK. It is not surprising that the company name and product offer are meaningful and profound. She approaches life and work from the heart, but never underestimate the power of her mind. With a unique background in business, technology, and retail, she leads and innovates Heartwork with pioneering design. Her Made-in-America products are relevant in how they answer the changing needs of the market as well as how they utilize the power of color.

THE STORY:
As a young brand, being taken seriously and getting noticed by customers is always a challenge, especially for a brand trying to enter the complex furniture market. HEARTWORK identified early on that to be innovative in that space, they needed to craft a compelling value proposition anchored around one overlooked design aspect: color. While color was extensively leveraged by other brands in that space to get customers’ attention, color often ended up selling mostly white- and charcoal-colored products. This was true until HEARTWORK put color impact at the center of their strategy and used color to sell colors.

THE APPROACH:
HEARTWORK knew that to differentiate their product offering, they needed to develop a color point of view that resonates with customers in both the residential and commercial markets. To position themselves as a leader in offering good color, they partnered with LOVE GOOD COLOR leading color intelligence experts. To ensure alignment with brand values and aspirations, LOVE GOOD COLOR started with an assessment and analysis of the brand vision and purpose, growth objectives, market, and consumer research, and use case scenarios. Such insight informed the development of the LOVE GOOD COLOR strategy for HEARTWORK, which moved color away from a basic color approach to a holistic palette that was integrated, easy to use with furniture, and spoke to consumers at a deep level.

LOVE GOOD COLOR IMPACT:
The response to the HEARTWORK color palette was immediate and positively strong. The design community embraced their offering as it was providing a new, impactful way to add intelligent color into their design environments. It immediately put Heartwork on the map, and inspired others in the industry to follow their lead.