Heartwood Collection

Full of life

What we did

SAINT has worked with Richard Ferrier and Mark Derry across multiple brands and projects for over ten years. When the opportunity came to rebrand the group ready for growth, we jumped in head, shoulders, knees and toes first.

It’s rare to meet a team with such genuine care, love and dedication to what they do. We wanted a new brand identity that captured exactly why they exist. The work went on to win Best Brand and Concept at the Publican Awards 2025.

The result

An award winning rebrand spanning a 30 strong multi-site pub and inns estate. 

What we did

Brand Strategy
Brand Identity
Film & Photography
Campaign Creative
Art Direction
Illustration
Web & Digital
Motion Design
Print Design
Packaging
Interior Art
Animation
Copy-writing
Signage

Guest journey touch-points…

were designed to genuinely connect: hand written welcome notes, local newspaper style what’s-ons, arrival nibbles, kids books and activity packs, and vintage radios waiting in every room.

A warm, playful, conversational tone of voice sets the mood throughout, encouraging guests to get stuck in – extended into a full guest loyalty app.

Brand ambassadors

The brand’s pillars are brought to life through illustrated and animated ambassador characters, each lending their voice to the Heartwood Inns story as we brought “full of life” to this child and dog friendly pub and inns group.

Illustration of a leaping fox, dog, bird, squirrel, bee, and butterfly among flowering branches

Kraft paper card for the Heartwood Collection, with a butterfly illustration and text reading 'We are just a small seed... about to burst into you

Bedroom with green paneled walls, floral prints, patterned headboard, yellow quilt, and a wooden nightstand with a lamp and red radio

Black-and-white line art pattern of foxes, birds, bees, butterflies, and flowering branches repeated across the background

Close-up of a cream bathrobe embroidered with a playful dinosaur-like creature sitting in a bubble-filled claw-foot bathtub

Line drawing of a dog in a playful bow stance, sniffing a steaming dish under a cloche lid

Pink macarons, chocolate caramels, and nougat arranged on a wooden board with coffee mug

Illustration of a dog peeking out of a gravy boat overflowing with gravy, captioned 'It's all gravy, baby!

Close-up of a beer and cider menu on a wooden table, with the heading 'Is it time for beers?' and a beer glass illustration

Glass bottles labeled Fresh whole milk and Fresh semi skimmed milk from A Heartwood Inn, with mugs and tomatoes on a wooden table

Illustration of a bird saying '2 for 1 you say? Oh go on then!' in a curved speech line above it

Bedside table with glass lamp and radio beside a patterned red headboard and pink paneled wall

Wine menu with fox illustration beside a wine glass and text reading, A bottle on a Wednesday? Wine not

Child coloring in a Kids Fun Pack activity booklet with crayons and pencils on the floor

We don’t just work for you. We work with you.

Talk to us

Other really nice things

Saint feel less like an external agency and more like an extension of our team.

Richard Ferrier
CEO, Heartwood Collection

They’ve taken the time to genuinely embed themselves in our business, understand what matters to us, and translate that into consistently strong creative work. Their commitment, care, and ability to deliver - every time - sets them apart. I couldn’t recommend them more highly.

...they fully understood and embraced our objectives, executing them with clarity and precision.

Caz Taylor, Former Head of Digital Marketing & Activation Heartwood Collection

SAINT were instrumental in shaping and delivering the vision for the Brasserie Blanc brand refresh back in the Summer '25. Having worked closely with Paul and the entire team for many years, they fully understood and embraced our objectives, executing them with clarity and precision. The project was multifaceted, encompassing a wide range of deliverables, all of which were delivered to an exceptionally high standard. This included planning and delivering an on-location shoot in France to capture the French lifestyle we wanted to evoke across various touch points and our marketing; creating bespoke illustrations to bring some humour to the brand; along with producing a broad, and at times complex, suite of online and offline POS and on-site merchandise. SAINT also delivered a fully responsive, headless CMS that integrated seamlessly with key third-party platforms, including our EPOS, online gift shop, and more recently, our loyalty platform and app. From a loyalty perspective, they designed a clean, on-brand app experience that further brought our brand story to life and drove strong engagement from launch. In addition, SAINT produced high-quality video content for the web and social channels, along with delivering comprehensive brand guidelines that continue to support the development of new assets. These foundations have enabled us to confidently roll out further enhancements, including additional touches planned for the New Year across our sites and other customer touchpoints.

Heartwood Collection

Full of life

What we did

The result

What we did

Guest journey touch-points…

Brand ambassadors

We don’t just work for you. We work with you.

Other really nice things

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Saint feel less like an external agency and more like an extension of our team.

...they fully understood and embraced our objectives, executing them with clarity and precision.