Project · 2025
1001 COLORS
- Client
- 1001colors.org
- Year
- 2025
- Role
- Naming · Identity · Product strategy
Brief
THIRTY YEARS IN, ARTWORKS NEEDED A NEW NAME FOR ITS NEXT CHAPTER.
The organization was previously called Artworks. After three decades of building public art and apprenticeships in Cincinnati, the board wanted to rebrand for what comes next — a wider mission, a younger audience, and a self-sustaining model. We led the renaming, the new identity, and the Canvas-led product world that funds the work.
The Canvas Philosophy
A CANVAS
CAN HOLD
ANYTHING.
We worked with the founders to reframe their brand as a canvas — a neutral, generous surface that other things could live on. A watch face. A candle vessel. A folded shirt.
The strategy made monetization feel like an extension of the mission, not a departure from it. Every product became a small gallery for color.
Three pilot products launched in the first year. Each one funds a hundred hours of workshops.
Artifact 01 — Naming
1001. THE ADDRESS OF THE BUILDING WE WORK IN — A QUIET HOMAGE TO THE WALLS THAT HOLD THE STUDIO.
Candidate 01
CHROMA HOUSE
Candidate 02
FIELD INDEX
Candidate 03
THE PIGMENT PRESS
Candidate 04
1001 COLORS
Artifact 02 — Product world
THREE OBJECTS. ONE CANVAS EACH.
DIAL · ORIGIN
01
THE HOUR CANVAS
Wristwatch · 30th Anniversary · ed. 1001, numbered 1–1001
Thirty years on the wrist. The next chapter in motion — hover the dial to walk the spectrum.
→ View product
02
THE VESSEL SERIES
Soy candle · 8oz
What if you could smell a color? One question, one pigment, one scent per vessel.
→ View product
03
THE SOFT CANVAS
Heavyweight tee · featured artist
Cincinnati murals on the front. The artist credited on the back.
→ View product
Outcomes
3
Products launched in year one
100h
Workshops funded per product
1,001
Colors catalogued and counting