1,000+ products, one wood & garden retailer, one voice.
A freelance job that grew alongside the client's catalogue — years of product copy that turned specs into stories.
Product copy for doers.
Brought on as a freelance copywriter to write product descriptions, in a technical, formal register, for a retailer of wood, garden and construction materials. The audience: DIY-ers and private buyers shopping for facade cladding and garden materials.
What started as a small batch of listings turned into a standing job that ran for years, in step with the client's own growth. By the end, the catalogue had passed 1,000 products — decorative cladding, dozens of wood types, shingles, garden materials, and more — all written in both Dutch and English.
Specs don't sell wood.
After half a day of writing dry, spec-first descriptions, it was clear the approach undersold the product — and the reader. I pitched a different angle to my manager: lead with less specification, more story and origin.
That angle became the standard for everything that followed. Measurements and technical detail stayed in the copy — buyers still needed them — but every product also had to say something about how the material actually felt: rough or smooth, weathered or fresh-sawn, warm underfoot or cold to the touch. The goal was to inform without ever reducing a product to its numbers.
From copy to naming system.
Rewrote the product copy from a storytelling angle, renamed products using geographic and conceptual names, and built the brand voice that became the foundation for the full site. Several sub-sites eventually merged into what is now the retailer's main site.
From there, the job kept going: new wood types, new decorative lines, new garden and shingle ranges, each written and renamed the same way, in NL and EN, as the catalogue kept expanding. Of everything written, one line stuck the most — barnwood.
From "Barnwood Dark Red" to "Barnwood Toronto."
Barnwood was one line among more than a thousand products written over the years — but the most memorable. It set the pattern the rest of the catalogue followed.
Barnwood Toronto
Neem bijvoorbeeld een van de generieke referenties: "Barnwood donkerrood" werd "Barnwood Toronto" — als knipoog naar de schuren in Canada waar het hout vandaan komt. De beschrijving vertrekt niet vanuit het materiaal, maar vanuit het verhaal: planken die al een leven achter de rug hebben, die gehard zijn door weer en tijd, en die dat karakter meebrengen naar jouw gevel of interieur.
"Klanten belden om te vragen naar 'het hout uit Toronto' en de 'planken uit Innsbruck.'"
A voice that's still live.
The brand voice that came out of it — direct, authentic, respectful of the material and the person behind it — is still active across the full site today, including the current tagline, written for a marketing campaign video.
Live site and campaign video available on request. Brand name withheld for privacy.
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