Coco’s Charmed is a bakery that specializes in whimsical sweets and handcrafted baked goods
Branding and Website Design
Coco’s Charmed is a woman owned bakery in Arvene, NY that specializes in whimsical sweets and handcrafted baked goods. Founder and Head Pastry Chef, Coco, was ready for her brand to reflect the sophistication and personality of her baked goods. We were tasked with re-vamping the brand strategy and brand identity, and developing a website that would optimize her ordering process and showcase their sweet treats.
Without a brand style to guide the personality and visual identity of the content, the public facing image of Coco's Charmed did not reflect their products or values.
The methods in place that were available to customers for submitting order inquiries was text or email. When a small business owner wears many hats, this can present challenges with communication and impact the customer experience.
Establishing a brand strategy and identity that reflects the charming, inviting, and playful nature of Coco's Charmed sweets was key to crafting a consistent presence.
Directing customers to a new website, where they could find available treats, place orders, and submit inquiries would centralize communication for Coco and elevate the bakery as a professional business.
Before diving into design, we asked Coco a few questions that would help us visualize the look and feel of her desired brand. The keywords that Coco started with were playful, chic, and inviting.
After researching a few competitors and industry leaders, we knew what it would take to set Coco’s Charmed apart from other bakeries, while still drawing inspiration from the traditional industry legends that have laid the foundation for bakery design.
The traditional European bakeries that Coco loved all had very traditional serif logos and either boldly dark or light pastel colors. We chose a modern and curved typeface that was more playful than traditional brands. Though we started with a pastel color palette, we deepened the colors to make them versatile enough to fit the custom colorful cakes that Coco creates (Try saying that three times, fast!).
To set Coco’s Charmed apart, we emphasized the “charm” of her brand. Coco’s Charmed is inspired by the magical childhood moments that Coco had while baking with her mother. We illustrated a few custom baking tools and baked goods and paired them with “magical” hand gestures to add a “charmed” element to the brand.
While our main goal was to streamline the customer’s journey to place an order, it was equally important that customers recognizes Coco’s Charmed signature look and feel as they navigated the website. We achieved this by:
As a small business owner, Coco wears many hats, including baking, customer service, operations, and much more. It was crucial that she had a user-friendly platform that would not be difficult to use in the future.
