Global fashion retailer undertakes major website revamp using Monotype Imaging’s web fonts

Global fashion retailer undertakes major website revamp using Monotype Imaging’s web fonts

Le coq sportif, the global fashion brand known for its clothing, footwear and sporting equipment, last year took the decision to completely refresh its digital experience.

As an internationally recognised brand, which trades in multiple geographies, the revamped website had to cater for e-commerce use and be merged into one website with versions for different countries. It also had to maintain its brand consistency and be search engine optimisation (SEO) compliant.

“This was a major project for us to undertake,” said the digital project manager at Le coq sportif. “Consistency is naturally vital when mastering digital environments, but being a well-established, global brand means we have strict branding guidelines to adhere to, so there was no room for error. The look had to remain consistent in all aspects including design, tone, content and behaviour. Add to this the way consumer behaviour has changed – the advent of smartphones and tablets means that consumers want to see us on the move. Our new website had to therefore cater for this shift.”

However, during the development, the design team quickly realised that the Univers font they required for the titles and subtitles of the site, which was set out in the brand guidelines and used extensively throughout the history of the brand, was not web standard and therefore couldn’t be used in the desired standard format. This presented a serious consistency problem for the team who were forced to seek out an alternative solution.

Developing brand consistency

Le coq sportif contacted Monotype Imaging to source an appropriate web font version of Univers. The Monotype Imaging web fonts team was able to quickly identify and provide the correct web font, sourced from its collection. All titles and subtitles were updated using the Monotype Univers web font, which is specifically created for usage on digital devices.

The Le coq sportif digital team representative explained: “We opted to work with Monotype Imaging because they not only offered open, flexible and scalable solutions, but clear advice gained through their decades of experience in the industry.”

Using web fonts, the digital team at Le coq sportif now has support for over 40 major languages, which has saved a significant amount of time when creating the website for different countries. They were also able to make all text changes within the code of the website, instead of disrupting the design workflow by creating and editing graphics. On the developer side, the team has been able to deliver the desired style without having to embed text in graphics or other technologies, which has allowed the type to retain the qualities of text. Replacing graphics with text improved SEO and improved the performance of the site and has enabled text to scale to retain quality when viewers increase the display size of the website.

Enhanced user experience

The updated website has also created a much greater user experience. Now more user friendly and runs across devices, including iPhones and iPads, having had the Flash element removed and replaced with full HTML5. The look and feel is slicker, flexible and accessible to customers who are increasingly time poor and want to easily search and purchase products on different devices. The branding and design has adhered to the strict guidelines, maintaining the consistency of a brand that has been established for over 130 years.

“We are delighted with the look and feel of the new website,” concluded the team spokesperson. “This was a major undertaking for us and it would not have been possible without Monotype Imaging’s web fonts. All the feedback we have had from customers about has been positive and we have tackled all of our original challenges head on. We are now able to continue to expand our mobile commerce practice and the flexibility we now experience means we can branch out into other regions more readily in the future.”