Introducing Lark — Elevating Everyday Spaces with High-End Lighting Through Strategic UX Design
Lark is a fresh lighting brand under Hinkley, Inc., focusing on high-end, accessible lighting for modern homes. With a goal to blend style with practicality, Lark appeals to interior designers, price-conscious buyers, and builders. The brand’s distinct identity sets it apart from its parent company while still drawing from Hinkley’s long-standing legacy of craftsmanship and quality.
Visit Lark’s Website:
Project Timeline
2021
My Role
Senior UX Designer + User Researcher
Target Audience
Interior Designers, Price-Conscious Buyers + Builders
Industry
E-Commerce, Lighting + Home Decor
Project Overview
Lark, a brand under Hinkley, Inc., sought to carve a distinct niche in the competitive lighting market with a fresh, modern brand identity. The project aimed to create an accessible yet premium experience for interior designers, builders, and discerning homeowners by designing a user-friendly website and establishing a unique brand identity, all while maintaining a connection to the parent company’s legacy of craftsmanship and quality.
Solving Real Challenges
The Lark project presented several challenges that required strategic design and development solutions. These challenges revolved around establishing a distinct brand identity, targeting a broad yet specific audience, differentiating the new brand from its parent company, and building a scalable website for future growth. Below are the key challenges faced during this project and how they were addressed.
Challenge #1 — Standing Out Among the Competition
The Challenge
In a crowded lighting industry, Lark needed a clear strategy to stand out while emphasizing its blend of high-end design and attainable pricing. The brand also had to appeal to both interior designers and builders without excluding other potential buyers.
The Solutions
Conducted competitive analysis to identify gaps in the market and understand competitors’ positioning.
Used user personas to ensure the website design appealed to all target audiences without feeling exclusive.
Collaborated with stakeholders to prioritize Lark’s unique selling points (style, accessibility, and premium quality).
Challenge #2 — Differentiating Lark from Hinkley
The Challenge
As a sub-brand of Hinkley, Lark needed to maintain its own identity while still reflecting Hinkley’s reputation for quality and craftsmanship. The challenge was to establish a modern, youthful brand without disconnecting from its parent company’s legacy.
The Solution
Developed a unique brand identity, including a new logo, color palette, and typography, differentiating Lark while respecting Hinkley’s influence.
Conducted stakeholder interviews to ensure alignment with Hinkley’s brand values, establishing consistency where necessary.
Created a design system that ensured visual distinction while maintaining a sense of reliability and craftsmanship.
Challenge #3 — Targeting a Specific Audience Without Alienating Others
The Challenge
Lark’s website had to appeal to interior designers, builders, and price-conscious homeowners without alienating other customer segments. The design had to strike a balance between accessibility and sophistication.
The Solution
Used user research (interviews and surveys) to understand needs and preferences of each target audience.
Created a responsive, intuitive navigation structure that allowed for easy exploration of the catalog for both design professionals and casual shoppers.
Focused on clear messaging and product categorization to ensure users could easily find relevant products while maintaining a premium feel.
Challenge #4 — Building for a Multi-Phase Rollout
The Challenge
Lark’s initial website needed to function as an informational hub while laying the groundwork for future e-commerce capabilities. This required a flexible, scalable design and architecture.
The Solution
Built the website using Drupal, ensuring a scalable architecture for future e-commerce features without a major redesign.
Designed the website to focus on product discovery, with clear calls-to-action directing users to distributors or retailers.
Developed a content strategy that could easily be expanded as the brand moved toward direct-to-consumer sales.
Tools + Technologies Used
Adobe XD
Wireframes, Prototypes + User Flows
Figma
UI Design
SurveyMonkey
User Research (Surveys)
Google Docs
User Research
Google Sheets
User Research + Information Architecture
Basecamp
Project Management
Drupal
Content Management System (CMS)
Slack
Communications
Final Thoughts
The launch of Lark as a standalone brand successfully differentiated it from its parent company, Hinkley, while preserving its core values of craftsmanship and quality. Through a strategic approach to branding, user research, and competitive analysis, the project delivered a user-centric website that met the needs of various audiences. The flexible, Drupal-based architecture sets Lark up for future growth as it looks to expand into e-commerce. By maintaining brand consistency across digital and print collateral, Lark has established itself as a modern and approachable lighting brand in a competitive market.
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