In Spring 2019, Sotheby’s wanted to reinvigorate its furniture and decorative arts categories. It is fair to say the department was in decline from its heyday in the early 2000s, lacking the star appeal of a Basquiat, the glitz of a $30 million diamond or even the modern cool of 20th century design pieces.

With a small marketing budget we set out to reinvigorate the department. This was done in two stages. The first was to update the product shots. Previously comprising of a mishmash of angles, harsh spot lighting with an out-dated museum black to white gradient background. For furniture, this was a recipe for high shine, ugly reflections and an old-fashioned feel.

I worked with the division to create a style guide of angles and lighting. I moved the team to a softer, more natural lighting set-up that was designed to both bring out the warmth in the wood and also to reflect the natural domestic setting of the pieces.

The second stage was to improve the marketing campaign. The budget was very limited so building on the domestic natural lighting of the cataloguing we put together simple combinations of objects against strong Farrow & Ball paint colours. Using the colours consistently throughout created a considered campaign, that brought new life to the beautiful objects.

The campaign achieved the best sell-through figures for this department in five years, reversing the decline in the category.