- design the shop’s graphic identity on all print and web communication tools;
- design a website to showcase the shop, its universe and collections

Starting from the specific visual universe of the shop and the selection of brands it stocks, we designed CCC’s graphic identity as a reflection of its particular aesthetics, a blend of modern feminity and kawai chic that tiptoes around established conventions.

We therefore decided to opt for a series of simple vector illustrations which would embody these values and easily maintain their graphic continuity while allowing for much variety and change. Around a core centre of natural elements, cuddly animals and Brigitte Bardot-esque seashells and crustaceans (from the song " A Madrague") , gravitates a myriad of motifs reminiscent of the shop’s interior display, all painted in soft pastel colours (Parma, pink, grey, black and the must-have chocolate shopping bag) . Cosy armchairs, feminine silhouettes, hands, shoes, perfumes and items of jewelry populate the company’s letterheads, personalized business cards, invitations, press releases and front-window stickers. The black-capped chickadee was kept by the client as the flagship element for its visual communication.

CCC’s logo was in itself an interesting challenge. While bound to reflect the same aesthetics of curviness and kawai chic, we also felt it had to meet a particular set of requirements. The shop’s name being relatively easy to stumble upon, both phonetically and in spelling, the challenge was also to try and facilitate this through the design of an efficient logo. Our solution consisted in an internal breakdown of the word into its three distinct phonetic segments, all identified by an initial capital C, so that the name be easier to mentally photograph and memorize.

Naturally, we apply these graphic elements to the shop’s newsletter, sent each season with the arrival of the new collections and new brands and designers on display, for the sales period and all special events.

CCC’s website was another challenge of a kind considering that the brief consisted in delivering from scratch a complete website for the shop with not so much content. We were also very keen to avoid the usual pitfalls of shop websites, usually a couple of pictures with some contact details and set ourselves as a goal to make it as dynamic as possible. Our solution was double-fold, extending, on the one hand, the graphic identity we had conceived for the shop to the whole website design, and using the same idea, on the other hand, to deliver an interface that would guide the visitor throughout the site and throughout the shop as if he were in it.

Using vector illustrations offered the ideal basis for a Flash-animated website as they are light and easy to lay out. We therefore integrated the whole panoply of motifs to the site’s pages and functionalities, in connection with the shop’s intimist aesthetics. The illustrations have then taken place at the very heart of the shop’s web communication. An "horoscope" section, for instance, assigns each sign with a small drawn version of its symbol. But beyond, the whole Flash interface is based on animated illustrations, keeping it both fluid and playful.

Greeted by the shop’s emblematic bird, when the visitors choose to access different sections from the menu, they are taken round the site by the flight of a lady bird nested on a sea shell. As a doe presents the form to fill out to subscribe to the newsletter, a pin-up girl silhouette holds in her hands a star which, once clicked upon, delivers a map of the boutique’s location while, on the side, the contact form is stamped with high heels… In the press section, greetings, instructions, and quotes from newspapers and magazines are delivered in a bubble by a little flying bee nested on a boudoir armchair. Everything on the site is in flash but the bee is here to make sure it remains fun and easy access for all, internet-savvy or not, by providing advice on surfing options.

The display of the collections follows a similar pattern with an additional twist. The visitor is indeed guided throughout the boutique where he is allowed to preview some of the items on sale in different sections as clad women and accessories pop-up in each picture as one moves the cursor on it. Clients may therefore not only see in advance some of the items they may procure themselves at the shop but also imagine how they might look wearing it. Each room indicates the type of garments and accessories it is dedicated to and by clicking on the tag, one gets a complete list of the designers they will be able to choose from. This way, visitors are allowed through a virtual tour of the shop and its collections, cuddling two birds in a one stone, and can almost prepare their visit online. More importantly, they can immerse themselves in the universe and product range of the shop without having even stepped foot in it. Every 6 months, illustrations and listings are changed to display the new collections and designers which reach the shores of CCC.

Two additional features of use are in the press and contact section, in which visitors may subscribe to the newsletter to be informed in advanced of the sales period and other events. In the Press area, alongside a slideshow of images drawn and scanned from magazines and newspapers, the shop’s press release is accessible as a specially designed pdf.

==> CoChineChine can certainly pride themselves with possessing one of the hippest shop websites in the country and for GetConfused, the site, which got a tremendous reception from the press, acts a very good showcase of our activities. Not only was CCC the very first shop for which we designed a site, it is also a very graphic illustration of how corporate aesthetics doesn’t always have to display itself in terms of dull minimalism, also demonstrating how much importance we attach to the idea that good and efficient design should build a very close connection between a client’s aesthetics and its company’s graphic identity and web interface.

www.cochinechine.com