In the paint business, the way clients pick paint colour hasn’t evolved in decades. They are stuck in a rut of colour swatches and pompous sounding names. With our audience telling us they do not have “confidence in their choices” or that they are dropping out of the planning stage because it “doesn’t excite them”.

One of the biggest emotional impacts clients can make in their home had become functional.

Colour holds deep and evocative powers, so our task was to find a new dimension in unleashing the visceral emotion it delivers — at the very moment the trade’s clients are making a decision.

Heritage Editions is a collaborative collection with new cover designs created with Dulux Heritage paint to reflect the emotions and the stories within. The books’ narratives have been analysed and then matched to Dulux Heritage’s hues that evoke the same mood and feelings.

We crafted each cover by hand, showing a genuine application of paint, using liquid specialists and artists, including Dulux’s own Creative Director.

It creates a whole new way to choose colour - empowering consumers to let the feelings of their favourite books become a reality on the walls of their homes - transforming the way the trade has always treated the decision making of choosing colour.

The way we choose paint hasn’t evolved in decades. We're stuck in a rut of unimaginative colour swatches and pretentious names. Our audience told us they do not have “confidence in their choices” and are dropping out of the planning stage because it “doesn’t excite them”.

We created a completely new way to pick colour and position Dulux Heritage as a more inspiring and approachable premium paint.

We found that our audience loves classic works of art and more people in the UK want books at home. We saw a 5000% increase in searches for ‘at-home libraries’ in 2023, 33% of adults are reading more now than in recent years and 27% of Brits are turning to classic literature3 as a way to escape the challenges of modern life.

We connected with our audience’s passion for literature to show how our paint can evoke the feelings of the greatest stories.

We paired 12 literary masterpieces to the premium Heritage hues associated with the feelings they evoke, working with Dulux colour experts and our behavioural science team.

We indulged and revelled in the craft. Heritage paint was brushed, flicked, rolled, splattered, dropped, and sprayed to capture a serendipitous moment that illustrated a theme from the book, all captured by a specialist liquid photographer. The Dulux Creative Director herself executed the final illustrations.

The inside covers and spines act as colour swatches and each chapter starts with our iconic Dulux dog icon.

Each book concludes with a "Marianne says..." page, where the Dulux Creative Director expands on the many aspects the novel informed its paired hue, as well as the history behind each colour.

These painted front covers became tools to seduce tradesmen and paint stores alike through OOH take-overs, social, interior design magazines and the books were offered as promotional items.

The campaign was designed to put passion back into the process of picking paint. We wanted to get paint buyers to see our brand differently and be inspired by how they could use Heritage to bring emotion to life in their home.

Influencer Sara Cox's transformation of her “book-nook” inspired by “The Hound of the Baskervilles”, has captured the attention of our audience. Helping earned reach rise to 24.6m within just the first few days of launch, with an invitation for an interview within The Sunday Times’ Time & Space section.

Heritage wanted to position itself as an inspiring and approachable luxury paint. Therefore, engagement with our audience is a key factor. The brand saw a surge in engagement online: the creative has led to x10 increase in comments and conversation on Dulux Heritage owned channels –with consumers volunteering favourite books and debating the matching colours in the Heritage range.