Company
Oakhouse

Principal
Guilherme & Gustavo Carvalho

Location
São Paulo, Brazil

Category
Arts & Culture

(overview)

The digital dawn reshaped the artistic horizon, meaning that now traditional brushes meet pixel perfection. Adam Smith might’ve marvelled at how, instead of diluting creativity, accessibility has supercharged it, bringing global galleries to everyone’s fingertips.

For Gui and Gus, this meant their art could dazzle travellers far and wide without ever losing its meaning. Upon launching their business, they began serving up premium art prints that travelled beyond borders, delighting art lovers right from their living rooms.

One fine spring morning, before our day trip to the Kinderdijk, these stubborn brothers invited us to revisit their visual identity and website. Our collective goal was to make every Oakhouse piece not just seen, but felt, through an online persona as polished as their art.

(1.1.4 business positioning)

Oakhouse is a haven for digital art lovers, ranging from 35 to 65, who adore a blend of travel, tech-savvy creations, and exclusive prints. These travellers, thriving in their lush digital ecosystems, find Oakhouse’s allure irresistible on platforms where visuals reign supreme.

Despite the crowded digital gallery space, Oakhouse carves out its niche by spinning the unique tales behind each piece. It’s not just art—it’s a personal journey, making every print a page of someone's story—a strategy that not only sets Oakhouse apart but makes it sought-after.

With our guidance, Oakhouse’s personal narrative wove through digital screens, captivating audiences with stories of creativity and emotion. Think email sneak peeks and VIP offers that turn first-time viewers into loyal fans, all while boosting those engagement stats.

(2.1.4 visual identity)

We were out with the old blues and in with a vibrant green, reflecting Oakhouse’s fresh and human ethos. We stirred up the colour palette to stand out in a sea of sameness, ensuring Oakhouse shone brightly in the art sector.

The new logo is a majestic oak tree, framed beautifully like their prints, rooted in the founders’ heritage as the brothers' surname, Carvalho, means oak in English. Our chosen fonts balanced creative flair with commercial savvy.

We tailored Oakhouse’s visual style to echo sophistication with a modern twist. The bespoke touches in typography brought warmth and character, making every interaction with Oakhouse a personal encounter with art.

(2.2.4 digital development)

We placed each photography strategically, making sure that from the moment you step in, the journey is as intuitive as it is inspiring. Challenges like integrating travel guides flowed seamlessly into the layout, enriching the story without overshadowing the work.

Built on Shopify’s robust platform, Oakhouse’s online gallery mirrored the finesse of an in-person viewing experience, with fonts and layouts that whispered elegance and whispered modernity. The subtle backdrop for each piece is setting the stage for the artwork to do the talking.

The revamp was a game-changer as engagement soared by 410%, turning casual browsers into art collectors. This wasn’t just a facelift, it was a strategy that transformed clicks into lasting connections and spiked conversion rates by a stunning 300%.

(2.3.4 brand guidelines)

Consistency is key in the art of branding. Our brand guidelines document served as the blueprint for all of Oakhouse’s creative expressions, ensuring a uniform voice and vision across all platforms, from simple marketplace assets to complex elegant packaging.

We opted for a palette that avoided clichés by mixing it with lavish greys to keep things fresh and engaging. The font play—bold serifs for headlines and smooth sans-serifs for body text—made sure Oakhouse spoke in a tone that was both authoritative and inviting.

By embedding Oakhouse’s values of elegance and quality into every visual and textual choice, we crafted guidelines that not only enhanced the visual appeal but also deepened the viewer's engagement, ensuring every touchpoint with the brand was an experience in itself.

(testimonial)
"Firstly, we want to express our deep gratitude and admiration for the work done in implementing our brand on Shopify and developing the definitive brand manual. We are absolutely delighted with the results! The switch to Miller font and other design choices not only met but exceeded our expectations, giving our brand a cohesive visual identity aligned with our values. The application on the website was flawless."

— Guilherme & Gustavo Carvalho, Co-Founders

(complementary reading)
Françoise Benhamou et al. (2007) Chapter 8 copies of artworks: The case of paintings and Prints, Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture.