Should you be so lucky to land an invitation to share a meal with Heather Arak-Kanofsky, Susan Turnock and their combined households, make sure to show up for the occasion prepared—not with a bottle of wine or a side dish in hand, but with a few creative ideas up your sleeve. “It's impossible to have a family dinner without brainstorming something,” says Heather. She's one-half of the sister act (and older sister to the other 50 percent of that equation—Susan) that shepherds Gifts for the Good Life, a Lehigh Valley-based creative consortium that specializes in crafting unique gifts and swag for special events, product launches, conferences and corporations. Actually, perhaps one-third would be the more appropriate fraction in describing the division of the workload; Heather's husband, Nathan Kanofsky, is another main player in the company.
It's really no surprise that Susan, 44, and Heather, 47, landed in this particular line of work. They describe themselves as creative soul mates who just happen to be sisters. In fact, design and ingenuity seem to be woven into the family's DNA. Their father was an interior designer, and their mother was an artist specializing in display art at retail locations. “My mom was a genius with the way she could bring people into a store,” says Heather. Both parents nudged their young daughters along in their creative endeavors. “Our dad encouraged us to have our own businesses early on,” recalls Heather. “We'd make something and show it to him, and he'd say, ‘OK, why don't you go sell that now?' We come from a long line of entrepreneurs and artists.”
Reared in Miami, the young women eventually made their way north. Susan graduated from Florida State University and later settled in Annapolis, Maryland with her husband, Kevin Turnock. She created What Fun!, a bath-product company with goods that were featured on QVC and sold in thousands of stores worldwide.
Heather met her future husband while they were both students at Syracuse University in New York. After they tied the knot, they created Arak Kanofsky Studios, which specialized in hand-crafted invitations and other elaborate stationery products. In the late 1990s, they settled in the Lehigh Valley, where Nathan was born and raised. All the while, the sisters toyed with the idea of working together. “We're pretty much on the phone 24/7,” says Susan. “We figured we might as well do something productive.”
Opportunity came knocking around 2007, when a friend asked Susan if she could come up with a line of corporate gifts. Susan had just given birth to her first son and didn't feel up to the task of taking on the project herself, so she enlisted the help of her sister. “It was a moment of discovery,” says Heather. “We had hit a nerve.” Susan adds, “We saw there was a hole in the marketplace. Gift-giving was kind of rote.”
And so, Gifts for the Good Life was born. It was decided that the business would initially be located in Roseto. As for the logistics, Heather and Nathan would keep things humming on the Lehigh Valley home front, while Susan would make the trek from Maryland when possible, and work remotely otherwise. The company's mission was to turn the world of corporate swag and party favors on its head. “We realized we could make something that could really speak to people,” says Heather. There would be no “one size, or one style, fits all” products rolling off the assembly line at their studio; this is not the token fruit basket or monogrammed stationery you get from your boss every holiday season. Instead, each gift is more like an experience to be discovered, an unexpected delight that's custom designed and built to embody the unique character of each and every client and event.
For an Andy Warhol-themed party, the team cooked up a Pop Art-inspired Brillo-pad box stuffed with, among other items, disco lemonade (inside a gleaming disco ball, natch), and a can of silver hairspray that could turn any head of hair into the wild locks that were Warhol's trademark. A project for NASCAR (one of several the GGL group has eagerly directed for the brand), deemed a “Checkered Flag Welcome,” featured a “jumpstart cocktail,” “start your engine snacks” and a leather-scented candle. A Croatian cruise kit boasted Turkish towels, a candy bento box (Swedish fish, anyone?) and custom leather luggage tags.
The NASCAR series is one example of how the trio had to toe the line between comfort zone and conceptual innovation. “It's so outside my personal world,” says Susan. She freely admits you won't find her counting down the days until the checkered flag falls at Daytona. “The only thing we knew about NASCAR is from the movie Cars,” she says with a laugh. And yet, she now counts the finished products among her favorites. Other notable clients include Facebook, Sandals, Disney Fairy Tale Weddings, Kimpton, Atlantis, Beaches, The Birthday Party Project and Engage! summits.
According to Susan, every new endeavor is launched with the same question: “How can we put things together that artfully make a statement?” And Heather adds, “We're looking at several touch points. We're thinking of things [the client] is not thinking of. We're always thinking of how we can make someone feel taken care of. It comes from a place of hospitality.” After an initial consultation with the client, the GGL crew starts cooking up its vision. “Our method of brainstorming is very free-flowing,” says Susan. “We put no parameters on ideas. Heather thinks very outside the box. I'm the person who makes it doable.” And once the sisters nail down the specifics of that idea, it's Nathan who makes it happen. “He brings everything to fruition,” his wife says. “He builds it out of paper, leather, wood, whatever.” A support staff of about a dozen employees in the production studio helps to bring the project to the finish line.
It's not unusual for the team to be juggling several assignments at once. They moved to a bigger warehouse in Pen Argyl in 2015: 6,000 square feet of creative space for the group to dream, design, build and execute. “In one week, we might turn out six projects,” says Heather. “It's definitely an intense business. We like it that way.” And on the off chance that restlessness or a designer's version of writer's block should set in, it's time for a road trip. “We're constantly going to museums and stores and experiencing different things to stay fresh,” says Heather.
Just as the sisters took creative cues from their visionary parents, it appears that the next generation on the family tree is sprouting in the same direction. Susan and Heather each have two children, and say they're a frequent presence at the GGL headquarters. “They're all super creative,” Heather says. “They all help in different ways.” For now, they're too young to assume very much of the heavy lifting that accompanies growing the Gifts for the Good Life brand, but should that change as they reach adulthood, it's safe to assume a sweet gig would be made even sweeter for their parents. As it stands now, the sisters like the place they've carved out for themselves. “I'm so lucky to be able to work with my two favorite people in the world in the place that I love,” says Heather. But there's always room for a few extra seats at that brainstorming table.
