Bureau Borsche crafts a quietly confident identity for global fashion platform FARFETCH

FARFETCH is a global e-commerce platform for luxury fashion boutiques, that since launching in 2008, has grown to operate in over 190 countries and offer more than 1,200 brands. Founded by Portuguese entrepreneur José Neves simply for his ’love of fashion’, FARFETCH takes an unusual approach for a company of its type and stature – holding no inventory and, instead, acting as a marketplace for brands, boutiques and department stores to sell their wares. In addition to its own online retail entity, FARFETCH provides e-commerce and technology capabilities to other fashion companies such as Browns and Stadium Goods; creates their own luxury products; and helps fledgeling brands to develop through its New Guards platform.

With over a decade of success behind them, FARFETCH set out on a quest to bring a streamlined sense of modern simplicity to their visual identity. Partnering with Munich-based graphic design studio Bureau Borsche to make it happen, they together defined a need for a cohesive system with form and function working on an equal footing.

The resulting identity aims to acknowledge FARFECTH’s previous visual direction while taking a distinctly more curated approach smitten with negative space. At its core are FARFETCH Basis, a bespoke sans serif typeface created in close collaboration with Colophon Foundry; and Nimbus Roman, a traditionally editorial serif rife with function. Together they offer a rigid structure, hierarchy and considered balance between conventional e-commerce and editorial visual language.

A curved double ‘F’ monogram accompanies the typography, aiming to metaphorically connect the traditional fashion world with the needs of a dynamic digital company where ‘the home screen is home’. Playfully named the ‘FARFETCH Fuse’ to reflect its purpose, the monogram has strength both on its own and together with the brand’s bold sans serif wordmark.

In taking the new identity online, Bureau Borsche decided on a pared-back, confident approach that focuses on the platform’s grand selection of products while conveying a strict commitment to visual consistency. Without doubt the centrepiece of the brand, FARFECTH’s website epitomises Bureau Mirko Borsche’s decision to focus on both form and function through quiet confidence, order and modularity.

Bureau Borsche

FARFETCH