How I redesigned the identity and website of Change in Avignon, from A to Z

Hello everyone! Today I wanted to show you a project very different from the articles where I take you to a hotel, an exhibition or a restaurant. This time, I show you what happens behind the screen, with the work done for Le Change, a café, bistro and social club in Avignon.

For Le Change, I took over the entire presence of the place from A to Z. First, I had to retrieve the Google listing, which had been attached to the former owner for five years; then I had to reconstruct a clear and consistent base. The identity was completely redesigned: the logo, the photographs, the website, and all the materials used on a daily basis. It was not a matter of inventing a restaurant from scratch or adding an universe that did not fit it. All the work consisted of looking at what was already there, putting it in its proper order, and building an identity that could work both on a screen and on a card placed on a table.

Start with the place

Before thinking about the site’s pages, it was necessary to understand what people came to the Change to find. You can stop there for a coffee, lunch, dinner, a drink, or to follow what is organized on site. The site had to bring together all this information without turning the café into a complicated concept. Customers should be able to consult the map, find the schedules, and send a reservation request from their phone without having to spend ten minutes searching for the right button.

So I worked around a short navigation, large photographs and a typography that is very present. On the home page, the images show the place as it really is: the tables, the walls, the dishes, the glasses and the people who make it come alive. It was important to me that the site should make you want to go there without telling you anything else than what you’ll find by walking through the door.

An identity that continues on the tables

The project didn’t stop at the site. I also created the logo, the photographs, the maps and menus, the business cards, the posters, the panels and brochures. The blue of Change, the pink used on some materials and the typography were meant to remain recognizable without reproducing exactly the same composition everywhere. A restaurant map doesn’t have the same use as a mobile page, but one must immediately understand that they belong to the same place.

That’s exactly what I love about this type of project: going from the web to print, then returning to the photographs and checking that everything fits together. I’ve extended this reflection in an article dedicated to William Morris, from the decor of the premises to the pages of Kelmscott Press, At Minuit d’Orsay. The logo is not just placed at the top of a site. It then lives on a menu that is manipulated, under a glass, on a poster or on a card that someone takes with them.

The site as a working tool

The site includes useful information, maps, a presentation by Gregory Flayol, a booking form and a section dedicated to coffee news. This section allows you to talk about breakfast, events or changes to the menu, but it also serves local SEO. A restaurant cannot rely solely on a beautiful homepage: people looking for an address in Avignon need to understand what it offers before they even know its name.

The mobile version was therefore designed from the outset. It is often from their phone that customers search for a schedule, open the map or book a table. Aesthetics are of course important, but they must be relevant in real life, with a person walking down the street, a mediocre connection and little time at their disposal.

The Le Change chez Minuit project at Orsay

I have put together the website, the visual identity, the photographs and the printed materials in the complete project sheet of Change sur Minuit d’Orsay. You will be able to see more pages from the site and variations made for coffee.

This project sums up quite well the way I like to work: starting from a real place, looking at its uses and building an identity around it that doesn’t stop at a logo. I am a web designer and the founder of Minuit d’Orsay in Paris, and I support restaurants, hotels, brands and independent venues that need to bring coherence between their image, their media and their website. To talk to me about yours, you can contact me directly via the studio's contact form.