CATAWIKI

The Situation

Catawiki is Europe's leading curated online marketplace for special objects, operating across 80+ countries and dozens of categories. When I joined, the challenge was no longer to define the brand, but to make it work consistently at scale.

The visual identity couldn't scale. What worked in one market didn't always translate cleanly to another. There was no coherent system connecting the work, leaving different teams to interpret and adapt the brand independently. Consistency across markets and touchpoints was uneven.

There was also a disconnect between the product experience and the way the brand communicated. The platform and the brand were not speaking the same visual language. For a marketplace operating across dozens of countries, that was more than a consistency issue. It limited the brand's ability to feel coherent, distinctive, and trustworthy at scale.

The Approach

I led the development of the design system as an evolution of Catawiki's new brand identity. The foundation was already strong. The opportunity was to build the infrastructure, principles, and tools that would allow teams to apply it consistently and confidently at scale.

We built a flexible system around colour-coded object categories that could translate from print to digital without losing recognition. The window shape became the most recognisable element of the identity, an invitation to step inside the platform and discover something. We paired sans serif and serif typography to balance two sides of the brand: knowledge and passion with openness and trustworthiness.

The photography direction put Catawiki's in-house experts front and centre, positioning them as the authority behind each category. Giving the brand a human face strengthened the connection between expertise, curation, and trust, which are fundamental to the marketplace proposition.

For the TVC brand campaign, I acted as the creative bridge between Catawiki and Achtung Amsterdam, translating the brand strategy into a campaign that could work at a broader European level. My role was to protect the integrity of the brand while giving the agency the space to develop the creative idea. The concept brought objects to life through 3D stories, taking viewers into each object's history before returning to the platform. The campaign launched across France, Italy, and the Netherlands.

The Impact

The design system gave Catawiki a shared visual language that could scale across 80+ markets without requiring teams to reinvent the brand for each context. Instead of relying on individual interpretation, teams had a clear framework for applying the identity consistently across markets and touchpoints.

The system strengthened consistency across markets and touchpoints, while giving Catawiki's teams a more scalable foundation for future brand work. The TVC campaign launched across France, Italy, and the Netherlands, extending the brand system into a high-profile European campaign.