In the spring of 2022, we started a conversation with the client when they were looking for a partner to rebrand the brand. We were honoured to be chosen to redesign the logo, the brand and the entire website. The work went very smoothly, the client did not only inspire us, but also helped us a lot in our joint thinking, always providing us with precise and relevant briefs.
Femcafe is one of Hungary's leading women's online magazines. With a permanent presence, it serves the needs of female readers with a wide range of products. In addition to traditional gossip and celebrity articles, there are several initiatives that go beyond the traditional written press.
The brand's main target group is high status, high earning, metropolitan women. 1.5 million visitors per month. Of this audience, 37% are in their core group. Most of its main competitors have recently undergone a renewal process, which could put Femcafe at a market disadvantage over time. The brand's current problem is that its visual identity is outdated, difficult to use and no longer serves the needs of its main target group.
Continuity is important in all walks of life, so we kept this philosophy in mind when we designed the new logo concept. We had to adapt to the expectations of the target group and the time period, but we treated the renewal as a process. We kept what worked and what was good, but fundamentally reworked the image. That said, Femcafe is not a brand set in stone, so we had much more room for renewal. Our research led us to the conclusion that a chic, on-trend look was important to our core target audience, yet somehow the new image needed to be timeless without suggesting coldness or unattainable luxury. It was important to keep it consumable for a younger target audience and to keep the characteristics of the original logo.We kept the original logo's features and colours, but designed a font with a footprint to suit the target audience.
We have kept the most distinctive solution of the old logo, the superimposition of m+c, but we changed the letters according to the reading order. This solution makes the brand name easier to read. The femininity in the logo is represented by the slanted line in the letter F, which refers to the colour symbol Venus. At the design level, we unified the brand's look: we designed a new iconography that followed the more "girly" more graphic/engraving line. Each column was given its own colour and icon.The pastel colour combinations made the overall look more feminine. All in all, the client received a complete design package with offline and online solutions.
The old website had served its time, but it was no longer up to the expectations of the times. The main problems were with navigation, readability and responsiveness. The new design was already prepared for these problems, so the biggest challenge in the UX design was to keep the existing ad zones in place. The navigation was redesigned, with a much cleaner and clearer distribution of the top bar. News boxes were resized to mutable sizes, and unique column icons and colour-coding were added to make it easier to identify an article. The client kept the development in-house, which we also supported, as it required full knowledge of the internal system to migrate existing articles and data.
The change of image was a big change in the life of the magazine, and the managers were afraid of it, which is why the decision was delayed for a long time. But after the relaunch, they received positive feedback from all quarters. The new image has given the brand more flexibility and unity, which makes them more willing to use it and will help them grow in the future. The website has become much more usable for editors and user feedback has been positive.