From the Corporate World to the B Corp Community
Fernweh Partners with Purpose-Minded Clients in Pursuit of Better Business and a More Inclusive Economy
Hi, my name is Lisa Hennessy, and I am the founder and creative director of Fernweh.
Before I started my own creative studio, I worked in big, international advertising agencies in Europe and the United States for over 15 years with brands like VW, Apple, Sony, and many more. I flew around the world, worked on weekends and nights, missed friends’ birthdays and weddings, got sick and kept going, burnt out and kept going, endured the chauvinistic treatment that you think you have to deal with in your 20s, ignored harassment and inappropriate advances, stayed silent when clients were treated poorly, when women were kept down, when campaigns were racist, when resources were wasted. I did my best to ignore the fact that we were deceptively encouraging people to buy more things in a world that clearly doesn’t need more things until, one day, I could not do it anymore. That was when I knew I had to stop and either leave this industry for good to become an unemployed artist or change pretty much everything about it that felt wrong to me for so many years.
That’s when I started Fernweh: A creative studio that cultivates ethical and sustainable brands with love.
Building Authentic Brands with Purpose
From the beginning, we promised to only work with people who shared our values, to always put people and planet as well as our own well-being over profits, to only amplify the voices that intended to leave their place in the world better than they had found it, and to do everything we do with the utmost care.
We partner with early-stage startups to bring their ideas to life and find a way to connect with their desired audience on an emotional level, creating authentic brands with purpose through value-based strategy, brand identity, digital and print design, photography, and video production. And we collaborate with midsize companies that want to infuse more love and care into their brands through rebrands, campaigns, or more meaningful content.
Now, I get to use what I learned working with big corporations and tell truths and stories that matter deeply. Love is the seed from which we create, play, and collaborate with our clients now. We aim to inspire them to stop yelling at people to buy from them and instead see marketing as an act of service, a way to love on their audience, an open-armed invitation. I believe that this kind of love and dedication to what you do will inspire others to do the same and create emotional equity between brands and their customers. This is how you build communities. This is how you grow your exposure. And this is how you make more profit. By building trust and exhibiting care. By staying aligned with your values. By nurturing your people.
Collaborating with Clients for a Better Future
Five years in, we just got our B Corp Certification, proving to ourselves and our clients that we are serious about our promises to do better. Instead of specializing in industries where corruption and deception are common, we love that our niche is the founders themselves who are ready to break with those old ways and create something for a better future. Finding new ways of manufacturing, innovation in materials, or regenerative ways of working with people to shift what has been done for too long to something better.
During that time, my husband and business partner and I moved our studio from Los Angeles to Kauai, where we support local Hawaiian nonprofits and feel directly connected with the beauty of this Earth on a daily basis. Kauai is showing us how meaningful it is to stop the extractive practices we have gotten used to and instead find regenerative ways to do business and inspire our clients to do the same. We love being a part of this incredible community and are excited to keep learning and improving, to be able to support more people and businesses worldwide. We would love to connect with you.
B The Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.
