About the client
Johanna Forsberg is one of Sweden’s most talked-about contemporary sculptors. Her industrial wire-mesh works in brass, steel and copper are found in hotels, spas, places of worship and private homes across the country.
Her artistic voice is clear. The work moves between the monumental and the intimate, the industrial and the organic. These are pieces that take command of a room in a way that changes the entire character of the space.
Despite the strength of the artistry, the business was held back by a fragmented digital presence. The shop was built on a basic e-commerce platform that neither reflected her market position nor scaled with the business. Johanna’s ambition was clear: to move from selling individual works to establishing herself as a turnkey provider of sculptural installations.
Our job was to build the commercial, technical and communications foundation for that shift.
What we built
Frontend
Next.js 15
Ecommerce
Shopify Headless
Languages
SV + EN
CRM
Built-in
Resend
Design
Tailwind 4
Focus
Service design
The challenge
Through a series of workshops and business advisory sessions, we identified three underlying obstacles to growth. The issue wasn’t a lack of talent or demand. It was structural — in how the business was packaged and communicated.
The positioning was unclear. The market saw Johanna as a supplier of individual products rather than as the lead on larger commissions. That capped both average order value and the type of customer she could reach.
The technical platform limited the business. The existing solution turned inventory management, price updates and product launches into manual chores. Communication with existing customers happened in an unstructured way, with no system for segmentation or follow-up.
The storytelling didn’t come through. The narrative that motivates a buyer to invest in a sculptural piece — the process, the choice of materials, the craft — wasn’t communicated in a way that raised perceived value. The customer saw a product but missed the work behind it.
Taken together, this was a business with enormous potential value held back by infrastructure that didn’t match the level of ambition.
The solution
The work was structured into four parallel tracks: positioning, service design, technical platform and communications infrastructure. Each track addressed one of the obstacles we had identified, and together they built a business that can scale.
In the positioning work, we reframed Johanna’s offering from product sales to full-service delivery. That means architects, interior designers, hotel chains and public bodies can now commission the entire process — from concept sketch to finished installation.
The commercial impact is measurable. Average order value rises significantly, competition in that segment is lower, and every completed project becomes a reference case that generates the next deal.
In the service design, we mapped the four primary customer journeys and built the site around them. An architect looking for art for a commercial project enters through a different door than a private buyer looking to purchase a lamp. Each audience gets its own language, its own CTA and its own conversion point.
The result is a platform that guides the right customer to the right contact surface, instead of forcing everyone through the same funnel.
The technical platform is a headless e-commerce solution built from the ground up on the Shopify Storefront API. The frontend is Next.js 15 with React 19, styling is handled in Tailwind CSS 4, and content is available in Swedish and English via next-intl.
Collection sliders showcase each product category individually, and the entire experience is mobile-optimized for purchase decisions that often happen on the go. The store now reflects the quality of the artistry. Every product, project and story is presented with the same care as the art itself.
For communications infrastructure, we built an intranet with an integrated CRM directly into the platform. Johanna manages her own contacts, lists, campaigns and sends — without external tools or per-user license fees.
The CRM gives her a contact database with segmentation, lists and history. It’s the foundation for long-term customer care, where every past buyer can be re-engaged when a new project comes up.
The newsletter tool has its own drag-and-drop template editor, product blocks pulled directly from Shopify, and full ownership of customer data. No platform lock-in, no per-subscriber pricing.
Automated sends run through Resend with scheduled delivery, open tracking and engagement measurement. A subscription popup converts visitors into contacts who can be activated over time.
The result is an email channel that drives recurring sales and builds relationships between launches, not just at them.
The results
Johanna now has infrastructure that matches her artistic level and her commercial ambition. The digital platform is no longer a bottleneck — it’s an engine.
The positioning has shifted from product supplier to full-service provider. That opens up larger commissions, higher margins and a customer category that wasn’t previously within reach. Every completed project also becomes a reference case that makes the next deal easier.
The technical platform scales without requiring more resources. Inventory management, price updates and product launches happen without manual workarounds. New functionality can be added without breaking what already works.
Communication with existing customers is systematic and measurable. Own data, own system, own control. That allows Johanna to build long-term customer care and drive recurring sales — instead of relying on the right person seeing the right post at the right moment.
The deeper value lies in how the business now connects together. Most creators get stuck in the role of craftsperson. They make, they sell, they hope the next commission shows up. With the right positioning, service design, technical platform and communications infrastructure, an artist can become a brand with a scalable business.
Johanna is a full-service provider selling a complete creative expression, not individual objects. That’s where long-term value gets built.
Visit the website
johannaforsberg.se