Share this article:

Le coq sportif boosts user experience with website overhaul with Monotype Imaging

Posted by: Monotype Imaging

Date added: Wed 21 Mar 2012

Global fashion retailer undertakes major website revamp using Monotype Imaging’s Web Fonts

Zoom

Le coq sportif was founded in 1882 in Romilly-sur-Seine, a French region synonymous with hosiery craftsmanship. The company has gone on to become one of the world's most recognised fashion brands, renowned for its clothing, footwear and sporting equipment.

In 2010, Le coq sportif 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 ecommerce usage and be merged into one website with versions for different countries. The new site also had to be SEO compliant.

“This was a major project for us to undertake,” said the manager of the digital team 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 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.

Le coq sportif contacted Monotype Imaging to source an appropriate web font version of Univers.

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.

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.

“We are delighted with the look and feel of the new website,” concluded the team. “This was a major undertaking for us and it would not have been possible without Monotype Imaging’s Web Fonts.”

Other articles by Monotype Imaging:

Erik Faulhaber’s Xenois Typeface

“Drawing letters is my passion,” says Erik Faulhaber, the designer of the Xenois typeface family. Pronounced “zeeno-is,” the design distills character shapes into what Faulhaber believes are their purest forms. “I studied many typefaces, carefully examining their structure, before I began drawing Xenois. Then I actually wrote out a detailed design brief establishing the goals for my design.”

Fri 15 Mar 2013

Monotype Announces Typecast Browser Application Launch

Monotype announces the commercial launch of its Typecast™ application, a browser-based tool for designing Web pages with Web fonts.

Wed 30 Jan 2013

Monotype releases Avenir Next Rounded

Legible, versatile and personable

Fri 11 Jan 2013