West Elm
NOE
Noe is my intern project from my summer spent at West Elm. The home accessories capsule emerged from an in-depth research project focused on sustainable luxury, timeless design, and effortless shopping, based in a West Elm context. By exploring the unique properties of green marble—its durability, rich hues, and natural variations—the project aimed to blend functionality and market research with aesthetic appeal. The collection sku types are meant to be bundled after doing research and analysis within West Elm, and I aimed to create a collection to be seamlessly shopped together. After studying market trends and trends within the West Elm assortment, I set out to create Noe. The collection features a range of meticulously crafted items, including sleek vases, elegant candlelight objects, and refined tabletop pieces.
The first step in my research project was to look at forecasted trends for 2025. Post covid, as we all know, there is a huge emphasis on creating homes and spaces that look well lived in and well loved. People want playful and whimsical shapes, and a twist on traditional, but are also looking for a sense of calm and stability in the home. This is only more emphasized by the materials and colors that are trending, as people want a reconnection with nature and also vintage aesthetics.
I wanted to design into HO25 (Holiday 2025), as that is what I was working on with my team. Our winter capsules encompass three different aesthetics that are representative of the different West Elm customers: snow globe for the pure customer, winter fest for the modern customer, and mistletoe for the decorator customer
In the Mistletoe capsule, I saw a trendy space and market opportunity. The Mistletoe capsule aims to capture the ‘decorator’ of West Elm, one of their user personas. The decorator of West Elm lives in that world of trendy maximalism while embracing decadent and glamorous shapes and earthy calming colors.
I then proceeded to pull tears, and identified the types of silhouettes and materials that I was drawn to. I looked within my identified trends and in Mistletoe and was drawn to the rounded layered forms I found but also to the green marble material where I saw a market opportunity.
I pulled swipe, where I narrowed down the type of emerald marble as well as found the forms I wanted to base my collection on. I wanted to focus on vintage maximalism and twist on traditional trends, while emphasizing sleek and curved tiers.
I identified a green stone by a West Elm vendor who currently does most of the marble in the decorative accessories assortment.
I mocked up where Noe would live on the West Elm website. I spoke with decorative accessories site merch about the PIP template that would make the most sense for my collection, and they directed me to the planter multi buy template also used in West Elm vases. This template has basket building features that are necessary for a multi sku type collection. This PIP has seen positive results in planters and table top in increasing revenue and UPT, and I‘m sure will continue to drive results in the decorative accessories category as well.
I did sketches for my collection, based on my inspiration and the trends that I had identified. My first two rounds of sketching didn’t feel like they sat together well as a cohesive collection. I did another round of sketching, chose my favorite forms and continued to design with those same aesthetics in mind. Then I did CAD modeling and rendering and finalized Noe!
