Caffé Stella Polare

In the final semester of my graphic design studies, we completed several small projects that each had to be developed within just a few weeks. One of these was the redesign of a website for the Caffè Stella Polare in Trieste, a traditional Italian coffee house with strong Austro-Hungarian influences. My task was to translate this distinctive character into a fitting web design.

Most of my previous projects had targeted younger, tech-savvy audiences, often resulting in modern and trend-driven aesthetics. This assignment challenged me to design for a completely different group, with different expectations and visual preferences. I began by researching historic cafés and analysing their websites, focusing especially on Viennese institutions such as Café Sacher and Café Landtmann. This helped me understand common design patterns and structural conventions.

The café’s name, referring to the North Star, inspired a colour palette of blue and gold which was elegant and subtly reminiscent of the night sky. One of the first design tasks was a logo refinement, based on the lettering displayed on the building itself. For digital use, I simplified the typography, ensuring legibility at smaller sizes, and developed a diamond-shaped apostrophe symbol inspired by a stylised star. This motif later became a guiding visual element throughout the design.

With quick paper scribbles, I explored layout ideas and experimented with integrating the diamond symbol into the visual structure. These sketches eventually evolved into digital mockups featuring newspaper-inspired typography and decorative separators.

This project offered a refreshing change of direction and encouraged me to step outside my comfort zone. It helped me refine my web design skills, deepen my understanding of information structure, and create mockups that I can imagine functioning as the café’s real website.