Hitting their Target

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Jenny Faw and Jeff Stock share a sense of style that can be described as playfully artsy, but not too out-there. Their home on the East Side of Providence is bursting with items – the clock in the kitchen made from melded antique cutlery, the wall mirror adorned with hand-painted wood blocks cut in the shapes of stars and kittens – that are whimsical and fun, but not too edgy or never-before-seen. And it doesn’t look like anyone broke the bank to buy the stuff.

In short, Stock and Faw are the kind of people for whom a store like Target was made. And some of the items happily strewn about the couple’s home can actually be found at Target, the uber-hip retail chain that sells all forms of cool, upscale-looking stuff for cheap.

But Faw and Stock didn’t buy their stuff at Target.

They put it there.

Since starting their own product design firm, Jenny and Jeff Designs Inc., in 1997, Faw and Stock have designed and licensed children’s apparel and home décor collections for JC Penney, Bed Bath & Beyond, Babies ‘R’ Us, Sears and Kohl’s.

Then, just about a year ago, they took on perhaps the most daunting task in their industry: trying to place a whole product line at Target. Target is the most glamorous mass-market retailer in the industry, a growing company with great numbers on Wall Street and a knack for carrying products that walk a line between artsy and cozy in a way that Americans can’t get enough of.

By designing a collection for Target, Stock and Faw would assure themselves of royalties from the sale of their items at all of Target’s 1,145 stores, in 47 states. And by covering their mass-market niche at Target – rather than, say, Kmart – Faw and Stock would avoid the risk of lowering their brand name to the extent that higher-end retailers would pass on the Jenny and Jeff label in the future.

Ultimately, if Jenny and Jeff Designs placed a collection at Target that flew off the shelves, Faw and Stock would begin moving into Target’s realm of feted celebrity name brands like Amy Coe and Avent.

Jenny and Jeff Designs’ owners gave Providence Business News an up-close look at their attempt to hit the bull’s-eye of the design industry.

Pursuing the pied piper

Just before Faw and Stock moved their business from a New York City loft to their home and studio on Phillips Street last April, Target presented a challenge to every manufacturer in the industry to develop a new infant lifestyle collection for them.

After teaming up with a manufacturer with whom Target does a lot of business, Faw and Stock began working on a series of drawings and tear sheets pairing colors and shapes – brainstorming for a line of baby clothing and bedroom items that they hoped would work for Target.

Stock, 43, is an illustrator whose drawings have appeared on products as diverse as Parker Brothers board games and Harley Davidson motorcycle gear. His textbookish drawings of giraffes and gorillas staring blankly out of the page are executed with the attention to detail of a preteen fascinated by wild animals, and the precision of an artist who spent his childhood perfecting his anatomical sketches.

Faw, 40, started her career designing Hallmark cards, and she is the more uninhibited drawer of the two, both agree.

“We both start sketching, playing around with different motifs, shaping a look. We start with the bedding, because that’s what drives the design. Once we get a look for a comforter, we design a main piece and then coordinating prints,” said Faw.

While letting their ideas flow freely, Stock and Faw were also consciously experimenting with designs that they knew were selling well. Children’s apparel is a trend-driven industry, and the winners are the designers who are most able to come up with a fresh take on what’s already jumping off of the shelves.

It’s not a science – when Faw and Stock talk about designing products popular with consumers, they both talk like people who are equally stymied and enamoured of a magical phenomenon.

“Once something hits, it’s kind of like the pied piper – everybody wants in on it,” said Stock.

“Yeah, licensing is one big bandwagon. There’s really no way to know what’s going to be big. Usually the ones you work on forever and that you really feel represent your aesthetic don’t do as well as the ones you come up with in five minutes,” said Faw. “But it’s up to us to study Target’s markets, study its consumer and sort of refine it and channel it and come up with a program that meets with all of its needs and fits into its parameters. Probably 50 percent of design is about artistic talent, and the other 50 percent is marketing and research.”

Stock smiled and nodded vigorously.

“You can show up with the best art in the world, but if you can’t spit out numbers you’re never going to be taken seriously,” he said.

Over the course of several weeks last March and April and during six meetings with the manufacturer, Stock and Faw honed their idea for a high-end infant décor collection that featured intricate patch working and embroidering.

A fresh approach to grandma’s quilt

At the end of last summer, Faw, Stock and a vendor for their manufacturer presented their proposal to Target. Target’s buyer gave the thumbs up, telling the design team that Target wanted to license three infant bedding collections from Faw and Stock, to occupy four feet of retail space in each of Target’s stores.

There was a big twist, however. Target wanted the line to be a part of its Circo label – its own store brand of infant décor. The Circo collection is priced the cheapest of all of Target’s infant collections, and sells the highest volume, said Faw.

The Jenny and Jeff Designs brand name would appear as only a small label on the packaging. But because the line was being created for Target’s own brand name, it stood the greatest chance of experiencing high sales and eventual growth.

But because the Circo brand is cheaper than the collection Faw and Stock had pitched, it was back to the drawing board. They had to completely rethink the collection to reduce costs associated with manufacturing to keep the retail price within Target’s guidelines.

“Once we realized we were going into the Circo brand and we knew the price point, we knew there wasn’t a lot of bells and whistles you could put on this product. So we went back to the drawing board and put as much detail and charm and sweetness and texture as we could into the artwork as we could, because we knew that that was what was going to sell the product,” said Faw.

Working with only four feet of shelf space presented another set of challenges. Beyond worrying about designing products that would be appealing to consumers at a cheap price, Stock and Faw had to plan how they wanted the collection to be packaged and displayed on the shelves to catch the attention of shoppers. At the same time, they were also trying to design bedding and clothing that could be easily expanded on and accessorized in the event that the collection sold well

“It’s like working a crossword puzzle,” said Faw. “You’re trying to come up with a design that people want but your also working with visual impact on the shelf. Basically, if you don’t catch the consumer’s eye within three seconds, forget it.”

The couple toiled through 20 design revisions before arriving at a new look for the collection that Faw described as a “fresh, middle America-friendly design.”

“These are fresh approaches to real traditional pallets,” she said. “For example, it doesn’t really explain it to say, well our girls’ collection is pink, blue, sage and yellow, and our boys’ collection is all primary colors. The tricky thing is the endearing quality of the design style without being intimidating. You look at these and they look like a fresh approach to grandma’s quilt.”

Hardcore business people

With the designing done, Faw and Stock started working with three different manufacturers. Because the manufacturing industry is so specialized, a single collection designed by Jenny and Jeff Designs is manufactured in factories all over the world, in places like China, New York, India, Chicago and Portugal.

But Stock and Faw knew that Target likes to work with as few manufacturers as possible to keep costs down, so they funneled all of the products being made for the new Target collection through one manufacturer. Triboro Co., based in White Plains, N.Y., would be responsible for warehousing and shipping the entire line to Target’s stores throughout the country.

“Triboro manufactures the bedding, and even though Triboro doesn’t know anything about making photo albums or wooden décor products, they will become the distributor of these products so that the distribution is seamless. As far as Target’s concerned, they’ve got one vendor. That’s what makes you attractive to Target,” said Faw.

Target typically hands off all extra responsibilities to the manufacturer. In fact, the one-year contract that Stock and Faw signed to produce Target’s new Circo infant collection is actually a contract with the manufacturer, not Target. Jenny and Jeff Designs will receive royalties based on a percentage of net sales for the various products in the collection. The royalty rate agreed upon varies by several percentage points, depending on product, said Faw. Faw wouldn’t give specific numbers regarding the contract.

In September, Stock and Faw started getting samples back from factories throughout the world.

They are infamous for being tough on approvals, and Faw said the two of them typically spend more time signing off on products coming back from the factories than they do designing the products in the first place.

“We’re probably pickier than the buyers are. To work at this level, we have to become really hardcore art directors and business people,” said Faw.

But this time they had to scramble to get it all done before the Chinese New Year, when “the whole country takes off,” said Faw.

At the end of January, the complete collection of bedding, coverlets, sheet sets, little decorative pillows, night lights, quilts and wall borders started going onto the shelves at Target stores throughout the country. As of last week, Target reported that the new infant collection is selling 25 percent over forecast.

Faw said that Target is increasing the order and planning to expand the collection. She and Stock are currently developing concepts for the next phase of the collection, which will have double the shelf space.

“Jeff and I are unique in that we get a lot more involved in the whole process
with manufacturers and buyers – more than most designers,” she said. “It’s amazing
how small the design part actually is, but it is still key.”