Heath Ceramics
Capturing an Iconic Brand Online
“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” Antoine de Saint Exupéry
When Heath Ceramics approached Blue River about a full site redesign, we jumped at the opportunity. Creating a new website for this mid-century design leader would give us a chance to immerse ourselves in one of the finest aesthetics in modern craftsmanship.
Understanding the Client
Based in Sausalito, Calif., Heath Ceramics was founded by Edith Heath in the 1940s. Today, Heath Ceramics is internationally known for its signature hand-crafted tableware and tiles. The Northern California studio has been featured in magazines from Dwell to Sunset, with many of Edith Heath’s acclaimed pieces showcased in museums worldwide, including New York City’s Museum of Modern Art.
Given the strength of the Heath Ceramics brand, we knew that the nexus of our work with Heath would be capturing the studio’s artisan appeal in today’s online environment.
An Immersion
To get started, our team dove deep into the culture of Heath Ceramics. We toured the factory, studied Heath’s design principles and talked extensively with the studio’s owners, Robin Petravic and Cathy Bailey, listening closely for the organization’s driving vision.
By looking into Heath’s history, the full product line and the production process itself, we saw that the very qualities inherent in a Heath Ceramics bowl were also mirrored throughout the studio. Honesty, fine craftsmanship, unadorned beauty and straightforward functionality -- these qualities would drive the technical and design foundation for the new Heath Ceramics website.
Where Design and Technology Intersect
Projects like the Heath Ceramics website point to the multidisciplinary nature of strong web-based endeavors. As a web development agency, our work necessitates a deep respect for graphic design and branding as well as bottom line business strategy and technology.
With Heath, our team of graphic designers, strategists, programmers and information architects worked together to develop a consistent user experience that showcased the studio’s values, from look and feel to e-commerce functionality. Our aim was to let the beauty of Heath’s products speak for themselves, while driving users toward purchases and registry sign-ups.
From product details to the shopping cart functionality, we worked to create reliable, simple technology that wouldn’t draw attention to itself. Expanding on Heath’s commitment to simplicity and usefulness, we built the site within Blue River’s Sava content management system to allow Heath employees to update and manage the new site with ease. Product updates, forms management and blog entries would all be possible through an interface as simple as a word processing program.
For design, we used large, rich product photographs as the site’s foundation, giving Internet audiences an almost sensory level understanding of each product’s texture, color and form.
A Fine Reception
The new site has been a big hit since launching in February. Already mentioned on blogs like Apartment Therapy, features like the site’s online Factory Tour are attracting mid-century ceramics enthusiasts from across the nation. The site’s new design recently won a big nod of approval as the Communication Arts website “site of the week.” Meanwhile, the number of online sales are already up signifcantly from last year’s figures.