Turning 500 acres into a place people could imagine belonging.
Heartwood Preserve needed to introduce an ambitious mixed-use development as more than a real estate project. Madplum helped shape a lifestyle-first brand identity rooted in place, culture, community, and the future of how people would live, work, gather, and connect in Omaha.
Heartwood was a landmark development. The brand needed to make its scale feel human.
A 500-acre mixed-use destination can be difficult to understand before people can fully experience it. The challenge was to translate a complex vision—commercial districts, residences, recreation, public space, nature, and community life—into a brand that felt clear, desirable, and emotionally grounded. Heartwood needed to feel less like a master plan and more like a place people could picture themselves becoming part of.
Madplum built the brand around lifestyle, belonging, and a deeper sense of place.
The work included brand platform development, visual identity, and social media strategy for a mixed-use “surban” community designed to become a regional destination. Madplum collaborated alongside architects, designers, stakeholders, and a global investment company to help express the larger vision for the development. Consumer insights and market trends informed a strategy that could speak to residential, commercial, recreational, and community audiences without fragmenting the brand. Rather than positioning Heartwood only around acreage or amenities, the brand focused on the feeling of the place: connected, active, naturally grounded, and culturally alive.
The brand helped establish Heartwood Preserve as a destination with a story larger than development.
The work gave Heartwood a clearer foundation for communicating its vision across audiences, partners, and public touchpoints. As the development has continued to take shape, Heartwood’s public story has centered on mixed-use living, pedestrian-friendly design, green space, trails, and community gathering—reinforcing the original opportunity to position the project as a lifestyle destination, not simply a real estate development.
“Heartwood needed a brand foundation that could make a 500-acre master plan feel human—a place to live, work, gather, and belong. Madplum was a great partner in helping us shape that story from the beginning.”
